e party of the pious, the _Hasidim_, however,--according to the
liturgy, the apocryphal and the rabbinical literature,--appealed to the
mercy of God in song and prayer, acknowledging their failings in humility,
and made kindness and love their special objects in life. Therefore with
their ascendancy the divine attributes of mercy and compassion were
accentuated. God himself, we are told, was heard praying: "Oh that My
attribute of mercy may prevail over My attribute of justice, so that grace
alone may be bestowed upon My children on earth."(336) And the second word
of the Decalogue was so interpreted that God's mercy--which is said to
extend "to the thousandth generation"--is five hundred times as powerful as
His punitive justice,--which is applied "to the third and fourth
generation."(337)

3. Divine mercy shows itself in the law, where compassion is enjoined on
all suffering creatures. Profound sympathy with the oppressed is echoed in
the ancient law of the poor who had to give up his garment as a pledge:
"When he crieth unto Me, I shall hear, for I am gracious."(338) In the old
Babylonian code, might was the arbiter of right,(339) but the unique
genius of the Jew is shown in adapting this same legal material to its
impulse of compassion. The cry of the innocent sufferer, of the forsaken
and fatherless, rises up to God's throne and secures there his right
against the oppressor. Thus in the Mosaic law and throughout Jewish
literature God calls himself "the Judge of the widow," "the Father of the
fatherless,"(340) "a Stronghold to the needy."(341) He calls the poor, "My
people,"(342) and, as the rabbis say, He loves the persecuted, not the
persecutors.(343)

4. Even to dumb beasts God extends His mercy. This Jewish tenderness is an
inheritance from the shepherd life of the patriarchs, who were eager to
quench the thirst of the animals in their care before they thought of
their own comfort.(344) This sense of sympathy appears in the Biblical
precepts as to the overburdened beast,(345) the ox treading the corn,(346)
and the mother-beast or mother-bird with her young,(347) as well as the
Talmudic rule first to feed the domestic animals and then sit down to the
meal.(348) This has remained a characteristic trait of Judaism. Thus, in
connection with the verse of the Psalm, "His tender mercies are over all
His works,"(349) it is related of Rabbi Judah the Saint, the redactor of
the Mishnah, that he was afflicted with pain for