וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה עַתָּ֣ה תִרְאֶ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר אֶֽעֱשֶׂ֖ה לְפַרְעֹ֑ה כִּ֣י בְיָ֤ד חֲזָקָה֙ יְשַׁלְּחֵ֔ם וּבְיָ֣ד חֲזָקָ֔ה יְגָרְשֵׁ֖ם מֵאַרְצֽוֹ׃ (ס)
Lalu Yang Mahakekal berfirman kepada Musa, “Sekarang engkau akan melihat apa yang akan Kuperbuat terhadap Firaun: karena tangan yang kuat ia akan membiarkan mereka pergi, dan karena tangan yang kuat ia akan mengusir mereka dari negerinya.”
Kedushat Levi
Exodus 18,11. “now I know that Hashem is greater than any deity, by reason of His making the punishment fit the crime.” We have to try and understand what precisely Yitro meant with these words. When war is fought and one party is victorious, the victory may become manifest in a number of ways. In one type of war the victorious side merely killed a great number of the troops of the opposing armies without there being any changes in the boundaries between the two kingdoms that fought one another. In the eyes of the world the victor has not become mightier by reason of his victory. Both Kings remain on their respective thrones. In a second scenario, the victor may capture the opposing king and his armies, and annex the lands of his former opponent. This type of victory is, of course, more imposing and enhances the stature of the victor considerably.
When G’d wished to save the Israelites from the yoke of the Egyptians, He chose to defeat them by means of water, as Rashi explained in Sh’mot, G’d could have used fire in order to dry out the water. Had He done so He would not have demonstrated His superiority over water, [only fire’s superiority over water] as it would not have demonstrated how the waters first obeyed the command to split and provide passage for the Israelites, and, subsequently, how they reverted to their normal condition and in the process drowned the Egyptians. Not only did G’d thereby impress all those who saw it or heard about it, but He also made the point that the Egyptians who had considered the waters, i.e. the river Nile, as a kind of deity, and their special god as it provided them with their economic well being, that water had now become their undoing, much more so than when the waters turned into blood for a week.
When Yitro correctly realized that Hashem is more powerful than any other force in nature that has been deified, the word מכל is of special significance, i.e. that it is appended to the word כל instead of Yitro saying: מן כל. Had he said: מן כל האלוקים, “more than any other deity,” we would have understood this quantitatively, i.e. other deities are able to lift weights of 500kg, whereas G’d is able to lift weights of a ton. By saying: מכל האלוקים, Yitro made clear that he referred to G’d’s qualitative superiority, His being in a class by Himself. Being able to turn what the Egyptians had believed to be the source of their blessings, water, into the source of their destruction, demonstrated to one and all the nature of Hashem’s power.
When G’d wished to save the Israelites from the yoke of the Egyptians, He chose to defeat them by means of water, as Rashi explained in Sh’mot, G’d could have used fire in order to dry out the water. Had He done so He would not have demonstrated His superiority over water, [only fire’s superiority over water] as it would not have demonstrated how the waters first obeyed the command to split and provide passage for the Israelites, and, subsequently, how they reverted to their normal condition and in the process drowned the Egyptians. Not only did G’d thereby impress all those who saw it or heard about it, but He also made the point that the Egyptians who had considered the waters, i.e. the river Nile, as a kind of deity, and their special god as it provided them with their economic well being, that water had now become their undoing, much more so than when the waters turned into blood for a week.
When Yitro correctly realized that Hashem is more powerful than any other force in nature that has been deified, the word מכל is of special significance, i.e. that it is appended to the word כל instead of Yitro saying: מן כל. Had he said: מן כל האלוקים, “more than any other deity,” we would have understood this quantitatively, i.e. other deities are able to lift weights of 500kg, whereas G’d is able to lift weights of a ton. By saying: מכל האלוקים, Yitro made clear that he referred to G’d’s qualitative superiority, His being in a class by Himself. Being able to turn what the Egyptians had believed to be the source of their blessings, water, into the source of their destruction, demonstrated to one and all the nature of Hashem’s power.
Mevo HaShearim
In Maor vaShemesh, Parshat Shemot, it says that this [sanctification] was acquired by traveling to [be under] the shade487See Psalms 84:11. of the rebbe. He says that “the essence of all avodah is to understand that there is a God, Who rules and guides all the worlds with individualized providence, and that there is no place devoid of Him. However, this requires great effort. To truly understand this, one must meditate alone and examine oneself in all matters, to oversee oneself in each and every movement; and one’s heart must be aflame like a burning fire in enthusiasm and yearning for the Creator. Through this he may come to truly know of His divinity. This is the essence of everything...and this is the essence of travel to the rebbe, to stand in the generation’s tzaddik’s shade in order to come through this to know that He is the essence and root of all worlds.”
Kedushat Levi
This is also what he alludes to in psalm 118,19 when he exclaims: פתחו לי שערי צדק אבוא בם אודה י-ה, “open the gates of the attribute of loving kindness for me, so that when entering there I can thank G’d.” David always views himself as facing more closed doors, and he begs to be admitted to gaze upon what is behind these doors. The very fact that he faces closed doors is the most potent reminder to him that he has not yet attained the end of his quest of being as near to the Lord as it is possible for mortal human beings to be. This is why in the verse immediately following he says: זה השער לה' צדיקים יבואו בו, “this is the gateway to the Lord, the righteous are permitted to enter it.” His words are not addressed to G’d, but are a message to his fellow Jews that he who remains aware that there are always further gates on the way to the Lord, gates that will open when they steadfastly pursue their goal, they will find that these gates will open themselves to their quest. By speaking of צדיקים in both verses, he defines who such “righteous” are, i.e. the ones who do not rest on their spiritual laurels, but remain aware of their continuing relative inadequacies. [The words שערי צדק in verse 18 must therefore be translated as “the gates for the righteous” when using this interpretation. Ed.]
Keeping this interpretation in mind, we can better understand what G’d meant when He told Moses to introduce himself to his people –after a 60 year absence- as coming at the behest of the G’d who is defined by the constant future, i.e. אהיה אשר אהיה. G’d tries to explain to Moses here by a hint, what He will explain to him in chapter 6 verse 1, when He tells him that עתה תראה “you will see ‘now’” i.e. only the immediate developments, implying that Moses will not live to see the fulfillment of the אהיה part, the future developments which will retroactively justify the past that he had been unable to understand. [I have paraphrased some of the author’s words. Ed.]
Keeping this interpretation in mind, we can better understand what G’d meant when He told Moses to introduce himself to his people –after a 60 year absence- as coming at the behest of the G’d who is defined by the constant future, i.e. אהיה אשר אהיה. G’d tries to explain to Moses here by a hint, what He will explain to him in chapter 6 verse 1, when He tells him that עתה תראה “you will see ‘now’” i.e. only the immediate developments, implying that Moses will not live to see the fulfillment of the אהיה part, the future developments which will retroactively justify the past that he had been unable to understand. [I have paraphrased some of the author’s words. Ed.]