Hashem echad

 Parshas Vaera begins וידבר אלקים אל משה ויאמר אליו אני ה׳ . The Shach al HaTorah explains that אלקים has a gematria of 86 and the final two words of the pasuk אני הוי״ה have a gematria of 87, the difference between them being the number one. The name אלקים represents strict justice, which can be a cause of the harshness people may endure in life, and the name הוי״ה represents mercy. We all want to sweeten our sufferings and those of other people. We can do that by seeing that all comes from the One Hashem. That is to say, adding an awareness of Hashem echad to the din brings us to an awareness that all is from His chesed.

Tehillim 62 begins, “לַֽמְנַצֵּ֥חַ עַל־יְדוּת֗וּן מִזְמ֥וֹר לְדָוִֽד.” “To Him who grants victory, upon the providences of God’s hand, a psalm of Dovid.” Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch explains, “God is all the more near us in His mercy when we are made to feel His stern decree as manifested in the suffering we may experience in life. As a matter of fact, this sternness itself is actually loving-kindness in which God metes out to us our portion according to the way of life we have pursued. At the same time, if, in the time of trouble, we turn to Him and to Him alone, He will again prove His mercy as the true מְנַצֵּ֥חַ, by bestowing us the consolation, fortitude and exultation that vanquishes all pain, and thus endows us with the strength to attain ultimate victory.”

Posuk 8 of the Psalm says, עַל־אֱ֖לֹהִים יִשְׁעִ֣י וּכְבוֹדִ֑י צוּר־עֻזִּ֥י מַ֜חְסִ֗י בֵּֽאלֹהִֽים “With God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my fortitude, and my refuge, is in God.” Rav Hirsch comments:

All these expressions denote mounting exaltation toward God which David attains on the wings of the inspiration of song… “It is with God that all my hopes still rest, although He has decreed that such misfortunes should befall me now. My fortunes may seem low at present, and my good name maligned, but I shall find my  happiness again ‘with Him,’ knowing and sensing that I am very near to Him even now. It is from Him that I shall derive יִשְׁעִ֣י, the feeling that I still live on, strong and unbowed, and כְבוֹדִ֑י, the awareness of my own inalienable spiritual and moral worth.”