Chasidut על יבמות 67:17

Another way of understanding the words ‎ונתתם חמשית לפרעה‎, ‎‎“if you give one fifth to Pharaoh,” is based on the well known ‎interpretation of psalms 145,19 by my sainted teacher Rabbi Dov ‎Baer. On the words: ‎רצון יראיו יעשה‎, “He fulfills the wishes of those ‎who fear Him,” my teacher explained that the subject here is first ‎and foremost G’d. He does things for the tzaddikim that ‎they appreciate, (‎רצון‎) so that they in turn are encouraged to ‎request further favours from Him. When G’d feels that the time is ‎appropriate for Him to shower His people with His largesse, He ‎first gives some indication to those who fear Him that He is well ‎disposed to His people at that time. This will trigger the ‎appropriate prayers requesting G’d’s largesse. Bearing this in ‎mind, we are dealing here with two separate aspects, ‎בחינות‎, of ‎how G’d deals with His creatures. 1) An initiative by G’d; 2) a ‎response by G’d to an initiative by His people. This is hinted at by ‎the Talmud in Yevamot 34 where it is stated that a woman ‎does not become pregnant from the first time she has marital ‎relations with her husband as the Hebrew word ‎ביאה‎ for such ‎relations is derived from ‎התחברות‎, a mutual joining together. The ‎Jewish people, by definition are similar to the wife, i.e. they are at ‎the receiving end, do not initiate. In their relations to G’d, the ‎Jewish people is similarly always perceived as female, i.e. as a ‎כלה‎, ‎bride, or similarly in the parlance of our prophets, a “wife”. G’d’s ‎שפע‎, “largesse,” is similarly perceived as female, seeing that it is a ‎gift, something received. When G’d is desirous of canceling an ‎unwelcome decree, He must be placed in the position of ‎responding to an appropriate request originating from the ‎victims. He cannot do more than allude to this by a hint, else He ‎will be perceived as initiating rather than responding. As an ‎example of G’d “hinting” that He wished a tzaddik to ‎intervene on behalf of the Jewish people by prayer, the author ‎quotes Exodus 32,10 when immediately after informing Moses ‎that the people had made a golden calf and had worshipped it, G’d ‎says to Moses: ‎ועתה הניחה לי ויחר אפי בהם ואכלם ואעשה אותך לגוי גדול‎ ‎‎“and now, Leave Me be, so that I can get angry and destroy them ‎and make you into a great nation.” According to Rashi this ‎whole line was a broad hint to Moses to intervene on behalf of the ‎people by praying for their survival. We find this same ‎interpretation of that verse (earlier) in Midrash Tanchuma as ‎well as in Targum Yonatan ben Uzziel.‎
The two ‎בחינות‎ of the G’d-Israel, or Israel-G’d relationship we ‎have mentioned on page 239, are known respectively as the ‎יראה‎ ‎or ‎אהבה‎ relationship. Each of these relationships consists of two ‎elements. We have explained earlier that the largesse when it ‎comes also comes in two different ways, depending on whether ‎the recipients are the gentiles or the Jewish people. When it is ‎granted to the gentiles it is immediately recognizable as such, ‎whereas when it is bestowed on the Jewish people it is not always ‎recognisable as such immediately. When Joseph speaks of ‎ארבע ‏הידות‎ [instead of ‎ידות‎ without the letter ‎ה‎ alluding to G’d. Ed.] he ‎alludes to these four different manifestations of G’d’s largesse. ‎The word ‎לאכלכם‎ in the same verse (page 239,23) is an alternate ‎for the word ‎לטובה‎, i.e. beneficially. ‎