10p 1. – Ánochi

I יהוה am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage:

Those who believe that God is One, and that He has many attributes, declare the unity with their lips, and assume plurality in their thoughts. This is like the doctrine of the Christians, who say that He is one and He is three, and that the three are one. Of the same character is the doctrine of those who say that God is One, but that He has many attributes; and that He with His attributes is One, although they deny corporeality and affirm His most absolute freedom from matter; as if our object were to seek forms of expression, not subjects of belief. For belief is only possible after the apprehension of a thing; it consists in the conviction that the thing apprehended has its existence beyond the mind [in reality] exactly as it is conceived in the mind. If in addition to this we are convinced that the thing cannot be different in any way from what we believe it to be, and that no reasonable argument can be found for the rejection of the belief or for the admission of any deviation from it, then the belief is true.

I AM THE ETERNAL THY G-D. This Divine utterance constitutes a positive commandment. He said, I am the Eternal, thus teaching and commanding them that they should know and believe that the Eternal exists and that He is G-d to them. That is to say, there exists an Eternal Being through Whom everything has come into existence by His will and power, and He is G-d to them, who are obligated to worship Him. He said, Who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, because His taking them out from there was the evidence establishing the existence and will of G-d, for it was with His knowledge and providence that we came out from there. The exodus is also evidence for the creation of the world, for assuming the eternity of the universe, [which precludes a Master of the universe Who is in control of it], it would follow that nothing could be changed from its nature. And it is also evidence for G-d’s infinite power, and His infinite power is an indication of the Unity, as He said, that thou [i.e., Pharaoh] mayest know that there is none like Me in all the earth. This is the intent of the expression, Who brought thee out, since they are the ones who know and are witnesses to all these things.

Rabbi Judah Ha-Levi, who rests in glory, once asked me why God said, I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt rather than, I am the Lord thy God who made heaven and earth and created you? I answered the following. Know that people who believe in God the glorious are not on the same level of faith. Many believe what they have heard; that is, they believe because their masters have told them so. Above them are those who believe because of what they have read in the Torah, which God gave to Moses. Now they would place their hands upon their mouths if a heretic were to come along and argue that God does not exist, for they do not possess the means to answer. Now a person whose heart has moved him to study the sciences, which are the steps that lead to the place of his desire, will see God’s work in the metals, in the plants and living creatures, and in the human body itself. He will know the makeup of each organ according to the scientific explanations of how each organ functions. He will similarly know the reason for each organ’s form. His heart will then aspire to learn the science of the spheres that are the Lord’s works in the middle world, which is everlasting. He will learn when the sun or moon is eclipsed. He will know how the moon causes the sun to be eclipsed. He will know why the moon is eclipsed and what causes its eclipses. He will know these things and be able to prove them beyond a shadow of a doubt. The intelligent person will come to know God by learning the ways of God. Moses similarly stated, show me now Thy ways, that I may know Thee (Ex. 33:13). Now God the revered proclaimed, I am the Lord thy God in His first statement. Only one who is of great intellect can understand this. I have already explained in the Torah portion, Ve-Eleh Shemot that God alone is everlasting without any change and that there is none aside from Him that exists forever, and none aside from Him is enthroned of old, Selah, (Ps. 55:20). God alone maintains the uppermost world by His power. The middle world is maintained by God’s power and by His holy angels, who are of the uppermost world. Ours, the lowest of the worlds, is maintained by God’s power plus the power of the two higher worlds. Now the statement I am the Lord is sufficient for the intelligent of any nation. But only Israel believes that the sky and earth were made close to five thousand years ago. The nations of the world do not deny that God alone made sky and earth. They differ only in that they maintain that God continuously creates without beginning or end. Now the Lord performed signs and wonders in Egypt until Moses brought them out of there so that He would be their God. Moses similarly said, Or hath God assayed to go and take Him a nation from the midst of another nation (Deut. 4:34). The meaning of the latter is that God did for Israel what He did not do for any other nation. God created the middle world. He rules over the lowest of the worlds. Good or bad befalls every nation according to the arrangement of its star, for this is what God has apportioned to them. Now Israel was destined to continue in slavery according to the stars of its constellation. However, because of God’s love of the patriarchs, the Lord used His power to bring forth signs in the lowest world which were not decreed by the powers of the middle world. God removed Israel from the rule of the constellations and made them the people of His very own inheritance. It is because of this that the ancients say, “Israel has no star.” I will yet explain this via parables in the Torah portion Ki Tissa. It was because of the signs that God performed in Egypt that Moses said, Unto thee it was shown, that thou mightest know that the Lord, He is God; there is none else beside Him (Deut. 4:35). Everyone, learnèd and nonlearnèd, adults and children, witnessed this. When recounting the events at the assembly at Sinai, Moses added that Israel heard God’s voice. Thus, following the latter, Moses said, Out of heaven He made thee to hear His voice, that He might instruct thee (Deut. 4:36). At the very end Moses said that ultimate knowledge consists in the development of one’s mind to the point where one is able to prove to himself that the Lord alone is God. Scripture therefore states, know this day, and lay it to thy heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and upon the earth beneath; there is none else (Deut. 4:39). David similarly said, And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve Him (I Chron. 28:9). Knowledge is in the heart. It does not refer to confession with one’s lips. Now it is for the intelligent that God said, I am the Lord. He added, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt (v. 2) so that the intelligent and the non-intelligent would understand. God added, thy God, meaning, you are obligated to serve me, that is, to be My servant and to be My people, and I will be your God, because I…brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage (Ibid.). The aforementioned was explained by Moses in the chapter that opens with the words When thy son asketh (Deut. 6:20. The meaning of the question is: why are we, more than any other nation, obligated to observe God’s commandments? Have we not all one creator? Moses gave three answers. The first one is, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt (Deut. 6:21) and God did all these good things for us. We are therefore obligated, even if we do not know the reason for His commandments, to observe everything that God commands us to do. The second one is, God did not decree the commandments to us because of His own needs but rather for our good always (Deut. 6:24). The third is, And it shall be righteousness unto us; that is, we will be righteous people and thus merit the world to come if we observe to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as He hath commanded us (Deut. 6:25). The philosophers have discovered that there are ten aspects relating to that which is corporeal. They are primary categories. There is nothing above them. The first pertains to a thing’s essence. It is everlasting. The other nine are accidents. They depend on the first, are joined to it, and result from it. The first is like the number one in the number ten, for the entire sum came out of number one and all sums are found in it. One is the foundation. Now the first statement uttered by God the glorious includes all precepts directed at the heart, tongue, and human deeds. For one who does not believe in his heart that God exists has no commandments upon him. A person is obligated to mention God’s name every moment, to honor Him. Everything a person does, he must do only for the glory of God. A person should not keep from violating a negative precept except out of regard for God’s glory. For example, a man who gives charity to the poor should not give it out of respect for the collector, nor so that people should praise him. For if this is the case, then a human being’s status is more important in his eyes than the glory of God, who gave him wealth and abundance of money from which he can give charity and receive a reward from God. The same applies to one who trespasses in secret so that his sin will not become known to the king, or people see him and come to consider him a shameful person. One who thinks thus is insane, for it is written, He that planted the ear, shall He not hear (Ps. 94:9). Now God sees the hidden things. He sees what people cannot openly see. God knows each one’s thoughts and his secrets. Now a person is afraid of the king who will die on the next day and not punish him, and does not fear the True King in whose hands is his soul in this world and in the next world.