Commentaire de citation sur Les Psaumes 138:2

שֵם, verwandt mit שם von , שום, der geistige Ort, die Kategorie, wohin ein Gegenstand zu registrieren ist. Jede Nennung eines Namens ist die Ortsanweisung eines Gegenstandes in dem Reiche unserer Erkenntnisse, sagt uns, wohin der Gegenstand begrifflich gehört. Oder auch von שמה, wie בֵן von בנה, verwandt mit שמע geistigen צמא , dem geistigen Durst; wie ראה , verwandt mit רעה, die Stillung des geistigen Hungers. Das Auge bringt das Konsistente, das Körperliche der Dinge dem Bewusstsein. Mit dem Ohr vernehmen wir die inneren Verhältnisse, das Innere der Erscheinungen. Wir hören nichts als שמות, die inneren Wahrheiten der Dinge. Unser ganzes Gottbewusstsein besteht aus שמותיו של הב׳׳ה. Alles, was wir von Gott wissen sollen, alles, was uns Gott von sich offenbart hat, ist nicht für unser Auge, sondern für unser Ohr. Und je nachdem wir ihn nennen, je nachdem haben wir eine Vorstellung von seinem Verhalten zu uns und von unserem Verhältnis zu ihm. Daher das bedeutsame: ויבטחו בך יודעי שמך ,אשגבהו כי ידע שמי ,דעת שם ד׳. Demgemäß heißt כי הגדלת על כל שמך אמרתך (Ps. 138, 2): was du für die Zukunft verheißen, über ragt noch weit das, was wir bereits von dir wissen. "Gottes Namen zu wissen" brauchen wir eben nur dann, wenn wir aktiv zu ihm in Beziehung treten sollen. Sollen wir nur passiv uns von ihm retten und segnen lassen, so bedarf es dazu ebensowenig Gottesbewusstsein, wie zu unserer Geburt. Erst wenn wir aktiv, als עבדי ד׳ in den Dienst Gottes treten sollen, ist uns "ein entsprechendes Wissen seines Namens" not, haben wir mit Erkenntnis seines Namens uns dessen bewusst zu werden, welchen Begriff er wolle, der uns bei unserem Verhalten zu ihm leiten solle, und von welchem Gedanken aus wir all unser Tun und Lassen ihm entsprechend gestalten sollen. Mosche Frage nach dem Namen, den er für seine Sendung an Israel diesem bringen solle, ist gleichbedeutend mit der Frage: welchen Begriff er den Söhnen Israels bringen solle, der ihr Inneres umwandeln und von dem aus sie zu dem freien Entschluss kommen sollen, aus dem Dienst Pharaos in den Dienst Gottes einzutreten.

Nachmanides writes as follows concerning all this: “I do not believe that the elders of the Jewish people at the time had the slightest doubt about the continued existence of the G’d of their forefathers as suggested by Maimonides. Moses was also sufficiently knowledgeable as befits someone appointed as a prophet to be aware of the intellectual and theological level of the elders of the Jewish people (compare Sifri Deut. 1). He simply exploited this opportunity to present G’d with a theoretical situation which might face him when trying to legitimize himself in the eyes of these elders, in order for him personally to obtain additional insights from G’d as to whether G’d would bring the redemption in His capacity as the attribute of Mercy or in His capacity as the attribute of Justice. During the lives of the patriarchs G’d manifested Himself by means of נסים נסתרים, miracles which did not openly contradict the laws of nature. Moses assumed that the elders might ask him if G’d were now going to perform נסים גלויים, visible miracles, i.e. phenomena which demonstrate His mastery over the laws of nature. The former type of miracles are usually performed by the attribute of Justice whereas the latter type are the domain of the attribute of Mercy. When Moses asked G’d what “name” he should tell the people about, he meant under what heading the forthcoming redemption would take place. G’d's reply that He is אהיה אשר אהיה meant that He would act through the attribute of Din operating within the attribute of Rachamim (Justice within Mercy), indicating that both hidden and revealed miracles would be used to bring about the release of the Israelites.
G’d made this plain when He told Moses that he should tell the people אהיה שלחני אליכם, “the One who is called אהיה has sent me to you.” Had G’d wanted to inform the people that He intended to employ both the attribute of Justice and the attribute of Mercy, He would have instructed Moses to present himself as the messenger from the One Who calls Himself אהיה אשר אהיה, and would have had to answer the inquiry by the elders with the words אהיה אשר אהיה שלחני אליכם. When, in verse 15, G’d gives additional instructions to Moses how to speak to the people by telling him to refer also to the fact that He had been both Hashem and elohim for the patriarchs, this is to teach the people that though the element of Mercy, i.e. י-ה-ו-ה had played a role in His dealing with the patriarchs, this element had not been manifest to them. It was important that now the people understand that even though this element might manifest itself in front of their very eyes it was but another facet of the unique and indivisible G’d. He wanted Moses and the people to understand that even the letters in the name אהיה which we have explained as pointing at the attribute of Justice are (basically) the same as the letters in the Ineffable Name, the only difference being that the letter א at the beginning sums up the idea that G’d is both ”first” and ”last,” as we explained earlier. G’d informed Moses and had him inform the people that the attributes represented by both names would accompany him and enable him to discharge his mission successfully.
The letters א and י respectively reflect the wisdom of Solomon and the wisdom of G’d respectively. The prophet in Kings I 5,26 wrote וי-הוה נתן חכמה לשלמה “and the Lord (tetragrammaton without the letter א in front) had granted wisdom to Solomon.” The verse commences with the conjunctive letter ו to show that this wisdom of Solomon was “secondary” to that represented by the name אהיה with the letter א in front. At this point the author digresses and explains the significance of the letters א-י at the beginning and end of the name of G’d which we use most of the time and which is spelled א-ד-נ-י. That name is also a combination of the attribute of Mercy and the attribute of Justice, seeing that when you subtract the letters א-י which represent the “Mercy” aspect you are left with the letter דן, “judged.” [I believe that Solomon’s wisdom consisted primarily in knowing how to judge truly when the evidence available to him was not adequate according to most yardsticks. This may be why our author uses this whole verse to mention Solomon. The author continues in this vein for some considerable length pointing out that such expressions by David (Psalms 138,2) as כי הגדלת על כל שמך אמרתך, “because You have exalted Your name, Your word above all,” can all be understood in terms of what G’d revealed in our verse. I have decided to condense the remainder of his comments on the mysticism involved here. Ed.]
When the Torah emphasizes G’d saying to Moses כה תאמר אל בני ישראל a second time in verse 15, the words אל-בני, etc., which are quite unnecessary, may be an allusion to לבנים “the bricks” i.e. the same letters as אל-בני. The people making the bricks under intolerable conditions qualified for the attribute of Mercy. Actually, we find that the message of the Torah here is divided into four parts. Section one was addressed to Moses alone. Section two was addressed to the people making the bricks. Section three was addressed to the Israelites who were neither bricklayers nor elders. Section four was addressed to the elders. They were mentioned last as G’d revealed to them elements of the emanations which by definition grants the student of this discipline an insight into the relationship between the beginning and the end.