לֹ֣א יִהְיֶ֥ה־לְךָ֛֩ אֱלֹהִ֥֨ים אֲחֵרִ֖֜ים עַל־פָּנָֽ֗יַ׃
(II). Tu n’auras point d’autre Dieu que moi.
Noam Elimelekh
And this is what Israel said: "This day we have seen that God speaks et ha-adam" — with the human being, as two speaking with one another: the Blessed God speaks and decrees, and the tzaddik decrees and annuls; even if death, God forbid, has been decreed upon a person, the tzaddik can draw aliveness to them. And if you say, as above — how can a human being, whose aliveness is not their own essence, give aliveness? — to this it said va-chai: through the devekut the tzaddik has in the Blessed God, in the eternal Life, that aliveness too is found essential. And they said "if we continue" — that is: what we heard from the mouth of the Gevurah, Anochi and Lo yihyeh lecha (Deut. 5:7; Ex. 20:3), the positive and negative commandments in Divinity — that is devekut, and we were well able to hear it, and live. But if we continue to hear the rest of the mitzvot from the Blessed God directly — this is impossible, that God speak with a human being and they live, except for the need of some matter: as God spoke with Moshe panim be-fanim, face to face, in order to speak to Israel. And were it not for this — "who of all flesh…" (Exodus 16:3) Therefore: "you draw near, and hear."
Kedushat Levi
Deuteronomy 5,7. “You shall not have any other deities beside Me.” Regarding the expression: על פני, it is important to read Rashi’s comment on these words in Exodus 20,3. He understands these words literally, i.e. “as long as I (G’d) exist.” Rashi considers it necessary to explain his own words (based on the Mechilta) by saying that the Jewish people should not say that idolatry is forbidden only for the generation whom G’d addressed at that time. Anyone reading these words of Rashi surely must ask what could possibly have made Rashi think that we could misinterpret this commandment and pervert it in such a fashion? The answer is that when the Israelites heard this commandment from G’d’s own mouth at Mount Sinai, they were (temporarily) in a super terrestrial domain, something that could not be said of future generations, nor of the gentiles of the same generation. This is also why according to halachah, gentiles are not forbidden to also worship some kind of “junior partner” in addition to Hashem. [Catholics are not considered idolaters. Ed.] The Torah, according to Rashi based on the Mechilta, therefore warns future Jewish generations not to use the same excuse for worshipping “junior partners” of G’d based on this argument. The meaning of the words: על פני in the sense of “as long as I exist,” therefore is that this law is applicable for Jews eternally.
The positive part of the verse’s message is that seeing that G’d is eternal, deserving people have access to the Torah on the same plane as had the generation during which the Torah was first revealed at Mount Sinai. The most important step in this direction is to serve G’d exclusively as the only deity. The divine souls of all the Israelites, due to their status, are potentially able to attain the same spiritual plateau that the Israelites at the revelation at Mount Sinai had attained in their time. When Rashi said that the meaning of the words על פני is: “as long as I am alive,” he meant that G’d assures us in this verse that what could happen at Mount Sinai, i.e. that He could speak directly to man, basically can happen again provided that we are worthy and worship only Him with all our heart.
The positive part of the verse’s message is that seeing that G’d is eternal, deserving people have access to the Torah on the same plane as had the generation during which the Torah was first revealed at Mount Sinai. The most important step in this direction is to serve G’d exclusively as the only deity. The divine souls of all the Israelites, due to their status, are potentially able to attain the same spiritual plateau that the Israelites at the revelation at Mount Sinai had attained in their time. When Rashi said that the meaning of the words על פני is: “as long as I am alive,” he meant that G’d assures us in this verse that what could happen at Mount Sinai, i.e. that He could speak directly to man, basically can happen again provided that we are worthy and worship only Him with all our heart.