Proteus wrote:
Uri, thank you for that detailed response.  I'm sure I'll have more questions once I've got this much digested.  Could you say more about the Thirteen Attributes; as, if I'm not mistaken, I've been told that G-d has no attributes.

Proteus, OK, I'll reproduce for you here the relevant portions of the text from Soncino Press' "The Pentateuch and Haftorahs" regarding this subject.  For this post, I will use the English translation from that Pentateuch (which differs slightly from the JPT translation) and add the introductory verse that was left out in that part of my previous post -
Exodus 34:5-7(Soncino) - (5) And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. (6) And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed: 'The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth; (7) keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.'
5-7.  The Revelation of God's Nature in the Thirteen Attributes

     God's 'ways' are now proclaimed unto Moses in the thirteen characteristic qualities of the Divine Nature, enumerated in v.6 and 7.  Judaism has been very chary of definitions of God.  He is the En sof, the Infinite, the Undefinable.  However, the Thirteen Atteibutes give us a definition of God in ethical terms.  All schools of Jewish thought agree that these momentous and sublime attributes enshrine some of the most distinctive doctrines of Judaism.  The Rabbis made v. 6 and 7, containing the Thirteen Attributes of Divine Mercy, the dominant refrain in all prayers of repentance.

     5stood.  The subject is 'the Lord' (Ibn Ezra, Nachmanides).

     6. proclaimed.   God reveals the 'name of the Lord', i.e. His characteristic qualities, to Moses.  The Rabbis held that there are thirteen distinct attributes in these two verses; thigh there are differences as to their precise enumeration.  The enumeration in the following comments in in accordance with the views of Rabbeinu Tam, Ibn Ezra, Mendelsohn and Reggio.
     the Lord, the Lord.  Heb. Adonay, Adonay (i and ii).  Adonay denotes God in His attribute of mercy; and the repetition is explained in the Talmud as meaning, 'I am the merciful God before a man commits a sin, and I am the same merciful and forgiving God after a man has sinned.  Whatever change has to be wrought, must be in the heart of the sinner; not in the nature of the Deity.  He is the same after a man has sinned, as He was before a man has sinned.'
     God.  Heb. el (iii).  The all-mighty Lord of the Universe, Ruler of Nature and mankind.
     merciful.  Heb. rachum (iv); full of affectionate sympathy for the sufferings and miseries of human frailty.
     and gracious.  Heb. ve'channun (v); assisting and helping; consoling the afflicted and raising up the oppressed. 'In man these two qualities manifest themselves fitfully and temporarily; מרחם וחונן.  It is otherwise with God: in Him, compassion and grace are permanent, inherent and necessary emanations of His nature.  Hence, He alone can be spoken of as rachum ve-channun' (Mendelsohn).
     long-suffering.  Or, 'slow to anger.'  Heb. erech appayim (vi); not hastening to punish the sinner, but affording him opportunities to retrace his evel courses.
     abundant in goodness.  Or plenteous in mercy.  Heb. rav chesed (vii); granting His gifts and blessings beyond the deserts of man.
     and truth.  Heb. ve'emet (viii); eternally true to Himself, pursuing His inscrutable plans for the salvation of mankind, and rewarding those who are obedient to His will.  Note that 'chesed', lovingkindness, precedes 'emet,' truth, both here and generally throughout Scripture; as if to say, 'Speak the truth by all means; but be quite sure that you speak the truth in love.'

     7keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation.  Heb. notzer chesed la'alafim (ix).  Remembering the good deeds of the ancestors to the thousandth generation, and reserving reward and recompense to the remotest descendants.
     forgiving iniquity.  Heb. noseh avon (x); bearing with indulgence the failings of man, and by forgiveness restoring him to the original purity of his soul.  The Heb. for 'iniquity' is avon; sins committed from evil disposition.
     transgression.  Heb. pesha (xi); evil deeds springing from malice and rebellion against the Divine.
     sin.  Heb. chattaah (xii); shortcomings due to heedlessness and error.
     will by no means clear the guilty.  i.e. He will not allow the guilty to pass unpunished.  Heb. venakkeh lo yenakkeh (xiii).  The Rabbis explain: venakkeh 'acquitting--the penitent; lo yenakkeh, but not acquitting--the impenitent.'  He is merciful and gracious and forgiving; but He will never obliterate the eternal and unbridgeable distinction between light and darkness, between good and evil.  God cannot leave repeated wickedness and obstinate persistence in evil entirely unpunished.  His goodness cannot destroy His justice.  The unfailing and impartial consequences of sin help man to perceive that there is no 'chance' in morals.  The punishments of sin are thus no vindictive, but remedial.
     visiting ... upon the children.  See xx, 5.  This law relates only to consequences of sin.  Pardon is not the remission of the penalty, but the forgiveness of the guilt and the removal of the sinfulness.  The misdeeds of those who are God's enemies are visited only to the third and fourth generation, whereas His mercy to those who love Him is unto a thousand generations.
In the above text I have indicated in yellow font the corresponding words & phrases in the biblical text and the commentary.  The enumeration of the Thirteen Attributes of God's Nature follows each of the Attributes, and is shown in lower-case Roman numerals enclosed in parentheses.  The last paragraph of the commentary is simply an explanation of the closing phrase in v. 7.  [I have copied the transliterations as they appear in the Soncino book; I use somewhat different transliterations in my own work.].

I would also like to reiterate what others and I have stated before, and which is also indicated in the introductory remarks of the commentary.  Ascribing human qualities/attribute to God is impossible, though we use our vocabulary in an effort to explain God's Nature in terms that human beings are able to comprehend.

UriYosef

Our raison d'être:

WHOSOEVER DESTROYS A SINGLE SOUL OF ISRAEL, SCRIPTURE IMPUTES [GUILT] TO HIM AS THOUGH HE HAD DESTROYED A COMPLETE WORLD; AND WHOSOEVER PRESERVES A SINGLE SOUL OF ISRAEL, SCRIPTURE ASCRIBES [MERIT] TO HIM AS THOUGH HE HAD PRESERVED A COMPLETE WORLD. (Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sanhedrin, 37a)

The fruits of our effort:

The battle against spiritual terrorism is being won, one soul at a time!!!