Musar su Levitico 26:12

Now that it has been made clear that the world was not created for any need of God, we can say that the world was created for a great reason and that that reason is the service of the Creator, blessed be He. For just as a king is not called king until he has a people, as it is said (Proverbs 14:28), “In the multitude of people is the king’s glory”, so similarly the name “Creator” cannot be applied to one unless there is something that He has created. He is not called “God’ until He has a people, as it is said (Leviticus 26:12), “And I will be your God and ye shall be My people.” Even though the Divine name does not lack anything⁸See Psalms 10:16, "The Lord is King for ever and ever; the nations are perished out of His land." M. L. Malbim in his commentary on the Psalms Kitbe Kodesh Psalms, (Vilna: Romm. 1911), p. 21 observed "although the nations are absent from His land, God is God with or without people." because of the lack of men nor does It gain by them , nevertheless, in the creation of the world, it was fitting that the name of the Creator should be “God.” For example, the smiter can smite, but he is not called “the smiter” until he has smitten something. Even if there is no smitten object, there may be nothing lacking in the strength of the smiter, yet only when there is a smitten object is it proper to call the smiter by that name. Thus with the Creator, nothing was lacking in His power before the world was created, but in the creation of the world His perfection increased. This is the cause for which the world was created. Thus we know and understand that the Creation of the world was the perfection of God’s name.

Rabbi Yochanan concentrates on the other -Noach-like- aspect of serving G–d, i.e. waiting till one is inspired by G–d. He uses a metaphor describing input from above, i.e. the gaze of a shepherd on his flock. This always originates from a higher vantage point but is benevolent at the same time, much as when G–d said in Exodus 33,19: "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." This means that the recipients did not have a claim on G–d's grace. The very fact that Rabbi Yochanan uses dumb animals as the subjects in his metaphor shows that he speaks of a lower class of spiritual motivation.

Some Kabbalists explain Exodus 18,1, in which we are told what Yitro "had heard," as a description of Moses' spiritual ascent. According to that view, the words אשר עשה אלוקים למשה, mean that G–d in His capacity as י-ה-ו-ה, made an Elo-him of Moses. Yitro had heard that G–d said about Moses: ראה נתתיך אלוהים לפרעה, "See here, I have made you a deity over Pharaoh," while at the same time He had made the people His עם, nation. It was Yitro's understanding that becoming G–d's people meant becoming His "army." This would have been the realisation of G–d's wish ever since the Creation to have a residence in the material world. The reason that G–d, i.e. His manifest Presence, שכינה, withdrew from earth was only because man had seriously damaged that part of G–d's creation by his sins. Now G–d had refined the Jewish people in the "crucible" of the Egyptian bondage experience to the point where He chose them to be His "army" in lieu of His Celestial Army. This is the meaning of the words in 6,26: הוציאו את בני ישראל מארץ מצרים על צבאותם, "Take the children of Israel out of Egypt in their armies." Rashi comments that the words: צבאותם mean "every army according to their tribes." Had not these people participated in the sin of the golden calf afterwards, they would have remained on that lofty level indefinitely, just as they will be in the Messianic future of which the Torah says in Leviticus 26,12,: והתהלכתי בתוככם, "I shall be walking amongst you."