The short paragraph read before the Barchu of Maariv is easy to underestimate. It reads, “Yet He, being merciful, grants atonement and does not destroy. Time and again He restrains wrath, refusing to let rage be all-consuming. Lord save us, oh King answer us on the day we call.”
To our modern ears unaccustomed to repetition, it all sounds like “G-d forgives yada yada…” But a closer reading reveals all sorts of complexities.
To begin with, what is the meaning of “Yet,” in the phrase “Yet He, being merciful…”? The odd phrasing hints at the fact that this phrase is a verse, taken out of context. Indeed, it comes from Psalm 78, which includes a very long list of our ancestors’ sins. The preceding verse reads, “…their hearts were inconstant toward Him, they were untrue to His covenant. Yet He, being merciful….”. This is a heck of a way to start a prayer service, but it has profound significance. If someone is sincere in their desire to pray, and honest in their self-evaluation, a paradox arises. Honesty leads us to the conclusion that we, as sinners, don’t deserve to stand in G-d’s presence. But our desire to pray is an indication of our desire to do exactly that. This verse “gives us permission,” by virtue of G-d’s mercy, to do what we otherwise would not be allowed to do.
But the paragraph goes further still. Not only is G-d merciful enough to let us “sneak by” and avoid destruction for our sins. We are told that we can even expect G-d to actually save us, to respond positively to our call: “Lord save us, oh King answer us on the day we call.” This is a theme echoed in the Ashrei prayer: “G-d is close to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” This, too, is a verse, taken from Ps. 20:10, where it is preceded by the assertion, “Now I know that the Lord will give victory to His anointed, will answer him from His heavenly sanctuary.”
The amount of chutzpah in this theology is breathtaking. We go from hopeless sinners to G-d’s victorious anointed in a single sentence. That being said, there is an intimate link between the two concepts. There is probably nothing more dangerous than an unthinking zealot for G-d, convinced that they are right and all others are wrong. Such fanaticism is undercut, though, by the previous verse which underscores that in spite of G-d’s (self)righteousness, it is restraint, not wildness, forgiveness, not vengeance, that characterizes G-d’s behavior—and should ideally characterize ours.
And that’s something to pray for.