Likutay Moharan - Volume 2 - Torah-teaching 62

“These are the journeys of the children of Yisrael” (Numbers 33:1) [see Likutay Moharan 1, Torah 40, in the name of Sefer HaMidot].

That the journeys of the children of Yisrael, namely, the travels that the children of Yisrael travel from place to place, they atone for “These are your gods, Yisrael” (Exodus 32:4), namely, for the flaw of idolatry [avodah zarah – foreign worship]. For even when they do not worship idolatry, there is a flaw of idolatry, because the spoiling of faith [emunah – belief in G-d] is also an aspect of idolatry. And as it is brought (in the name of the Baal Shem Tov) on the verse (Deuteronomy 11:16): “And you turn aside and serve other gods,” that immediately when one turns aside from Hashem, blessed be He, it is an aspect of idolatry. And through the travels of Yisrael, it is atoned.

And as long as there is idolatry in the world, there is wrath in the world (Sifri, Parashat Re’eh, brought in Rashi there). It is found that when the flaw of idolatry is atoned as mentioned above, the wrath is sweetened, and mercy [rachamim – compassion] is drawn. And the essence of mercy is in the aspect of (Genesis 43:14): “And may G-d Almighty give you mercy,” “to you” precisely, namely, that Hashem, blessed be He, gives us the mercy, that He hands over the mercy into our hands. For with Him, blessed be He, it can be that even the harsh illness and all the afflictions are His mercy, because certainly all that Hashem, blessed be He, does to man, even harsh afflictions, all is only mercy. But we request that He give and hand over into our hands the mercy, because we do not understand His mercy, and also we cannot receive that mercy of His as mentioned above. Only that Hashem, blessed be He, gives into our hands the mercy that we ourselves have mercy on ourselves. And with us, mercy in its simplicity is to be healed from the illness and the like.

Yisrael is an acronym: Yitten Lachem Rachamim [“May (G-d Almighty) give to you mercy”], as mentioned above. For the mercy is made through the journeys of the children of Yisrael, as mentioned above.