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<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Anu ma'amirekha ve'Atah ma'amireinu</span>. Artscroll renders this line from the <span style="font-style: italic;">machzor</span> as referring to we as Hashem's designated, and Him as our designator.<br /><br />I would like to suggest a different translation. The <span style="font-style: italic;">mishnah</span> says that Hashem created the world with "<span style="font-style: italic;">eser ma'maros</span> -- ten utterances". <span style="font-style: italic;">Ma'amar</span> means utterances, and in particular, Chazal associate it with the ten statements through which Hashem created the world. Existence is words. The Ba'al Shem Tov stresses that the idea is speech, not writing. Texts are written, and then continue to exist afterward. Spoken words exist as long as they are being spoken. For light to exist now, it means that Hashem is still saying the words "<span style="font-style: italic;">yehi or</span>" even today. The words themselves <span style="font-weight: bold;">are</span> the phenomenon we call light.<br /><br />I therefore believe the relationship described is "We are your statement, and You are the One Who speaks us."<br /></div> <br /><br />--<br><font color="gray" size="2">Posted by micha to <a href="http://www.aishdas.org/asp/2006/10/anu-maamirekha-veatah-maamireinu.shtml">Aspaqlaria</a> at 10/02/2006 09:58:00 PM</font></body></html>