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The following is from the new translation of the commentary of RSRH to
Chumash Shemos:<br><br>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4><b>3: 14
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>Thereupon God said to
Moshe: Ehyeh</i></b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
<b><i> ahsher
E</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>hyeh</i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>[I shall be that which I
wish to be]! He said: This is what you shall say to the Children of
Israel: ehyeh</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>has sent me to
you.<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>14
</b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>If I am to give an idea
of Myself that will effect, in the person who has<br>
understood it and become absorbed by it, decisive change, raising
him<br>
above and beyond all the other creatures and bringing him into
direct,<br>
intimate relationship to Me, then I will state My Name and say of
Myself:<br>
“I shall be what I </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>will
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>wish to be.”<br><br>
All other beings are what they
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>have
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>to be; their existence is
bound<br>
up with the Will of the One Who alone can say “I am” and also “I
shall<br>
be what I will wish to be.” This Name expresses the
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>personal</i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>,
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>absolute</i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>,<br>
and </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>free
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>nature of God. Inasmuch
as God does not say here “I am” but<br>
“I shall be,” He stresses that the future is completely dependent on
His<br>
Will and is free of any other dependence. This Name gives expression<br>
to the characteristic Jewish conception of God, an entirely new
conception,<br>
which is to be made known to mankind through Israel’s deliverance<br>
from Egypt, and which eventually will bring about the redemption<br>
of the whole world.<br><br>
Non-Jewish thought conceives of God as, at most, the Cause of the<br>
physical existence of the world, ever since it came into existence.
Even<br>
when this thought rises above viewing God as part of the world
(immanence)<br>
— a view that is tantamount to denial — and recognizes His<br>
existence beyond the world (transcendence), it still limits God’s
work<br>
to the past. At one single moment God was in touch with the world,<br>
the moment in which the world was brought from the potential —<br>
God’s Power or Will — into the realm of the actual, i.e., actual
existence.<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>From that moment
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>— according to this view
— God’s work, the world,<br>
was completed. Everything, even the most distant future, is simply
the<br>
necessary result of the general order that was imprinted on the
world<br>
when it was founded.<br><br>
According to this worldview, everything follows unchanging, fixed<br>
laws, which, at most, once originated from the immense power of a<br>
higher Source. Hence, only man, with his — apparently — free powers<br>
of action can fashion an — apparently — new future. But how can it<br>
be that God and the world are bound, and man is free?! To save the<br>
honor of unfree, bound God, this view is forced to deny the freedom<br>
of man. This freedom, this definite reality in the consciousness of
every<br>
human being, which contradicts the pagan view of the world and of<br>
God, is therefore passed off as a delusion. Man is not free. What he<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>imagines
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>to be his own free
decisions are but the unconscious effects<br>
of influences rooted in and arising from his past. And so, in heaven<br>
and on earth, in the whole expanse of the universe, there is no one<br>
who can say “I shall be!” for no one can say “I
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>will
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>wish to be!”<br><br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b><i>Ehyeh</i></b></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <b><i> ahsher
E</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>hyeh</i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=4>
</b></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>rises up against this
delusion, the denial of the freedom<br>
of God and of man, tears it down, and upholds the truth instead:<br>
God, Who </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>freely
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>determines the
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>future</i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>; and with Him,
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>free
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>man, whose<br>
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>future
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>is in his own
hands.<br><br>
<snip> <br><br>
These words —
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><b><i>Ehyeh</i></b></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3> <b><i> ahsher
E</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>hyeh</i></b></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>— break man’s chains, the chains
of<br>
any other power, and set man upright and free in the service of God,<br>
to build the future in partnership with God. Free man, obeying the
free<br>
God, rules the world for the sake of a future delineated by the free
Will<br>
of God. With every impression of godliness that man impresses on his<br>
own inner world, with every such impression that he stamps on the<br>
external world about him, man helps to build this future.<br><br>
The guarantee that this future will ultimately be completely
realized<br>
lies in the fact that God, in His
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>freedom</i></font>
<font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>, created the world
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>for the sake<br>
of </i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>this future. Hence,
even seemingly antithetical conditions and events<br>
must be leading to this one, sure and exalted goal. We express this<br>
confidence in the recurring Kaddish avowal, which is woven into the<br>
order of our prayers: </font><i>Yisgadal v'yiskadash sh'mei rabbaw</i>
<i>B'allmaw dee v'raw chir'usei</i><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>,
<br>
“God’s </font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>great Name
</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>will be recognized in all
its greatness and holiness in the<br>
world which He Himself has created
</font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3><i>according to His free
Will</i></font><font face="Arial, Helvetica" size=3>.”</font></body>
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