“Therefore, say to the Children of Israel, I am Hashem, and I shall take you out from under the burdens of Egypt; I shall rescue you from their service; I shall redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.”
The word “therefore” follows from three initial statements – three causes that climax with the dramatic announcement. One (the third) is Hashem’s hearing “the groan of the Children of Israel.” Another (the second) is remembering the covenant: “I established My covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan.” These two reasons are relatively easy to understand. The first reason, however, and the only one appearing after the word “therefore,” requires unpacking.
“God spoke to Moshe and said to him, “I am Hashem. I appeared to Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yaakov as E-l Sha-ddai, but with My Name, Hashem, I did not make myself known to them.” The first reason for Hashem’s redemption of His people is because He is Hashem. How should this be understood? Why does the Name of Hashem imply our redemption from Egypt?
The reason, it seems, is that the Name of Hashem is antithetical to Egypt – to its idolatry and its slavery.
It is not by chance that Egypt, the center of ancient idolatry, was also a “house of bondage” – a place defined by slavery. Idolatry, the Ramchal explains at length, is about give-and-take. It defines a transactional relationship between humanity and the gods in which people give the gods their dues – each god according to his needs and wants – and the gods, in return, grant their favors. As the great mythologies describe, people control gods, gods control people, and the game goes on.
The parallel in human relations to Egypt’s idolatrous theology is slavery. The same transactional and control-focused connection between man and the gods is reflected in the slavery institution. One person controls another, and life is reduced to a set of transactions that undermine everything that falls under the title “relationship.”
Life under Hashem defines the exact opposite. In Devarim, the Torah teaches that Hashes desires us because of His love, and not for anything else, for “He is the God of the powers […] Who does not show favor and Who does not accept a bribe” (10:17). Hashem has no weakness, no deficiency or need; He cannot be bribed. His connection with humanity is not of transaction but of relationship. He loves us, and He expects us to love Him.
Chazal inform us that the entire Torah is directed at negating idolatry. Meaning, the entire Torah is about leaving Egypt – leaving a transactional theology that constitutes slavery and entering the domain of Hashem and establishing a society centered on “love your fellow as yourself – for I am Hashem” (Vayikra 19:18).
All of this is latent in the Name. As the Vilna Gaon explains, the Name of Hashem means existence and presence: all existence derives from Him, and all life is sourced in Him. Therefore, His connection with humanity is only about being in relationship; in terms of middos it defines Rachamim, compassion. His revelation thus breaks the Egyptian model of bondage and slavery and frees the Children of Israel – the people in whom His connection to the world inheres.
The second and third reasons – the Land covenant and hearing our agony – follow from this first imperative of the Name. Its revelation gave us our freedom and continues to define the liberty concept central to western societies. We must always recall that Hashem – the Name at the opening of our Parasha – is the primary source of our freedom and relationships. Forgetting it, chalilah, threatens to undermine them both.
