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אני ה' אלהיכם I AM THE LORD YOUR GOD — I am He Who spoke on Mount Sinai “I am the Lord thy God" and Whose kingship you then accepted; now, therefore, accept My decrees! Rabbi Judah han-Nasi said: It was manifest and known to Him that in the days of Ezra they would ultimately revolt against restricting sexual relations, He therefore came to them with a decree emphasized by the words: "I am The Lord your God" — understand well Who it is that imposes this decree upon you, — the Judge (אלהיכם) Whose function it is to punish but Who is certain also to give a reward ('‎ה‎) (cf. Sifra, Acharei Mot, Section 8 1).

SPEAK UNTO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. Since this chapter deals with [the laws of] prohibited sexual intercourse which apply equally to all Israel, therefore He said only, Speak unto the children of Israel, and did not specify the priests but included them together. Therefore He said at first, I am the Eternal your G-d, just as He did in the Ten Commandments [which He began with the words, I am the Eternal thy G-d].²¹⁴Exodus 20:2. And the meaning of the verse, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them: I am the Eternal your G-d, is as if He said, “Say unto them in My Name, ‘I am the Eternal your G-d.’” Similarly, Speak unto all the congregation of the children of Israel, and say unto them: Ye shall be holy, for I the Eternal your G-d am holy,²¹⁵Further, 19:2. [means: “say unto them in My Name, ‘Ye shall be holy'”].
It is possible that the reason [why the verse does not say: “this is what G-d commanded,” is not because it means: “say unto them in My Name” as explained above, but] is rather as follows: When Moses came out from before the Eternal without the veil²¹⁶Exodus 34:33-35. [on his face], and he came out, and spoke unto the children of Israel that which he was commanded,²¹⁷Ibid., Verse 34. he did not need to say to them: “Thus said the Eternal,” for it was known to them that it was His spirit that spoke through him [Moses] and His word was upon his tongue,²¹⁸See II Samuel 23:2. Hence it is no longer necessary to explain the meaning of the verse to be [as we said above]: “Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them in My Name, I am the Eternal your G-d,” since it was known to them that Moses did not speak in his own name. and that he did not speak in his own name. Similarly, in many places in the Book of Deuteronomy it is stated in the same way, such as: And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments, which I command you this day … that I will give the rain of your Land … And I will give grass in thy fields,²¹⁹Deuteronomy 11:13-15. and [it is known that] Moses is not the one who giveth rain upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields,²²⁰Job 5:10. and makes the grass grow in the fields, but it is G-d, blessed be He [that does these things]. Similarly it is said, But the Eternal hath not given you a heart to know … And I have led you forty years in the desert … Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink; that ye might know that I am the Eternal your G-d.²²¹Deuteronomy 29:3-5. The opening verse [But the Eternal …] clearly indicates that the expression in the following verse, And I have led you etc. is also a reference to the Eternal, and not to Moses. The meaning of the expression to love the Eternal your G-d²²²Ibid., 11:13. [which is stated in the third person, when that same verse begins in the first person, And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto My commandments], has already been explained.²²³Exodus 24:1 (towards end — Vol. II, p. 422-3).

,דבד…. ואמדת כמעשה ארץ מצדים, "speak ….and say:…according to the doings in the land of Egypt, etc." We need to know why our verse repeated the instruction to Moses by writing both דבר and ואמרת. Besides, what news does our verse convey by having G'd describe Himself as "I am the Lord your G'd?" Was there anyone who did not know this as yet? Besides, what is the Torah's intention with the unusual introduction כמעשה? If the object of the word כמעשה was not known how would we know to what these מצות addressed themselves? This is true both for the מעשה which was presumed to be the norm in Egypt as well as the מעשה which was presumed to be the norm in the land of Canaan at that time. The entire paragraph from verse 2 through 5 is extremely vague.

דבר אל בני ישראל, “speak to the Children of Israel;” Nachmndes points out that seeing that the legislation following includes all segments of the people equally, the priests are not mentioned separately. The Torah introduces this chapter with the words: אני ה' אלוקיכם, as if to say: “when you speak to them tell them that you are speaking in My name.” There had been no need to spell this out more clearly seeing that whenever Moses came out of the Tabernacle without wearing his veil around his head, whatever he was going to say were instructions he had just received from Hashem, and he did not have to add the words: “thus Hashem has said.” Everybody knew that the spirit of the Lord was speaking out of Moses’ throat. There are many similar examples in the Book of Deuteronomy, paragraphs beginning with the words: והיה אם שמוע תשמעו אל מצותי, “it will be when you will surely listen, etc.,” when nobody misunderstood thinking that Moses was speaking about commandments issued by him instead of Hashem. The people were well aware that the promise of rainfall, to quote but one example, was not meant to mean that Moses would command the rain to fall. Ibn Ezra comments that the reason why the Torah, after having previously spoken about the demons, begins its admonition to the people not to walk in the footsteps of the Egyptians, is that these Egyptians had made a practice of offering sacrifices to these שערים, the demons. The reason that the practices of the people of Canaan were also singled out here as something the people of Israel should not try to emulate, was that these people were steeped very deeply in sexually perverted conduct, עריות. Our sages say that the Egyptians were no less guilty of sexually licentious conduct than were the Canaanites.

A Judge who will exact punishment. (Re’m) Because [the expression] אלהים represents the attribute of justice, i.e., to punish sins. [Whereas the expression] ה' represents the attribute of mercy, i.e., to forgive sins if a person repents, and to reward one for mitzvos. (Nachalas Yaakov) Re’m did not remember what Rashi writes at the beginning of parshas Va’eira, “’I am Adonoy,’ ([denoting] that He may be relied upon to exact retribution), etc.” We see that Rashi derives this from “I,” without regard to the expression אלהיכם. See there.

Our sages in Torat Kohanim said that the Torah compared practices rampant in Egypt with practices rampant in the land of Canaan. According to their interpretation, why did the Torah have to repeat the commandment? If all the Torah wanted to tell us was that the people of both these countries committed the same kind of sins, why did the Torah have to phrase this in such a cumber-some manner? Besides, why did the Torah have to add the gratuitous remark אשר ישבתם בה, "that you have dwelled amongst," when speaking of Egypt? Who did not know that the Jewish people used to reside in Egypt? Is there then another country called "Egypt?" We can ask a similar question concerning the land of Canaan concerning which the Torah writes: "which I am about to bring you to?" What other land of Canaan is there? Even assuming that there was another country called Canaan, one we have never heard of, how would we know anything about their practices?

It appears to us that the fact that the commandment mentioned here appears next to the various laws about incest as well as the fact that in verse 24 we are told not to defile ourselves by transgressing any of these commandments seeing that the nations mentioned have defiled themselves by ignoring these sexual mores, it is clear that the commandment introduced by the word כמעשה refers to sexual mores. Once we keep this in mind we have no problem explaining the wording of the Torah here.

It is well known that a Jew is able to fulfil all the commandments G'd has demanded of His people without suffering undue hardship and that he can develop a tendency to do so willingly. The only exception to this rule is the commandment to refrain from certain sexual unions. The נפש, animalistic life-force within man, exercises a powerful influence over man urging him to disregard those commandments. The Israelite can successfully battle this urge only if he a) controls his visual contact with the opposite sex and b) if he controls his fantasizing. If a person fails to control these two senses he will fall victim to temptation. If a person does not limit his visual contact with the opposite sex, the fact that he does not think about it does not guarantee that he will not be aroused through visual contact. You may learn a valuable lesson in the psychology of sexual attraction from the following incident reported in Kidushin 81. Rav Amram who was the Rabbi of the pious, had a number of female prisoners whose freedom was bought by the community of Nehardea brought to his house. He gave them accomodation in the upper floor in his house and disconnected the stairs to that floor to prevent men from visiting there. It happened that one of these women passed the place where the ladder used to stand and Rabbi Amram felt as if he had seen a bright light, i.e. the beauty of that woman made a powerful impression upon him and he felt a strong attraction to her. He brought a ladder which was so heavy that it took ten people to move it and moved it single-handedly to climb to the upper floor. By the time he had climbed half the rungs of the ladder he managed to control his lust and cried out: "Amram! the house is on fire!" As soon as people heard him they came running and observed that Rabbi Amram was standing half way up that ladder. The rabbis scolded him for having caused them embarassment as it was clear to all of them what had prompted Rabbi Amram to call out. So he told them it was better they should be embarassed on his behalf in this world than to have to be embarassed by him when they would meet him in the Hereafter. He made the evil urge swear an oath to stop tempting him and the latter swore such an oath. Thereupon he said to Satan: "see here, you are fire and I am only flesh; I have proven now that though I am flesh I am stronger than you." The story proves that even though Rabbi Amram had not been able to control his thoughts, as long as he was not aroused by looking at the object of his lust he was able to fight his impulses. There is another story told in Yalkut Shimoni parshat Vayechi in which someone had himself blinded in order to withstand the lure of the evil urge to commit sexual offences. If exposure to even one of these causes of temptation is dangerous, how much more so is it impossible to fight off temptation which is the result of both a lively imagination and the visual allure of the object of one's fantasy. The author lists a few more examples of the deadly nature of combining fantasy with visual allure. When one is exposed to both these temptations they are almost impossible to resist. The author explains the statement in Berachot 34 that "in the place where the rehabilitated sinners stand, the perfectly righteous are not able to stand," as meaning that the perfectly righteous never had to battle his sexual urges, whereas the rehabilitated sinner "stood still," i.e. arrested his urge to run towards the object of his temptation only after a battle with his evil urge.

This brings us to the commentary on our verse. The Lord G'd was very clever in giving this commandment. He explained to us that an ordinary person who finds himself in the throes of sexual passion need not say that the fight against his evil urge is doomed to failure anyway. G'd does not demand anything of us which we are incapable of delivering. If He did not know that given the proper circumstances which we ourselves can create we are able to fulfil what He expects from us, He would not have given such a commandment. G'd expects His commandment to test only those people who have first taken measures not to expose themselves visually to such temptation or to indulge in fantasies arousing their desire. If a person did not take the above-mentioned precautions to help him fight temptation based on his sexual urge he is not likely to withstand temptation when it comes his way. This is what the Torah hinted at when it wrote כמעשה ארץ מצרים אשר ישבתם, meaning that although you resided in a country such as Egypt which is a centre of sexual permissiveness and you were therefore not able to avoid thinking about such temptations, I still command you to triumph over your evil urge. The word ישיבה is a metaphor for inactivity, for an inhibition. The Torah refers to the Jewish people who displayed the ability to resist sexual temptation while they were surrounded by it. This encouraged G'd to legislate such resistance to temptation in an environment which would be more friendly to those who wish to resist temptation. You are not to emulate the actions of the Egyptians.

At the same time, G'd continues: "though I will bring you to a country in which you will be constantly aroused by seeing sexual permissiveness all around you so that you would not even have to exercise your imagination in order to become aroused, I demand from you not to copy their activities."

As far as someone saying that he is unable to control his thoughts in this manner, the Torah introduced this commandment by the repeated דבר אל בני ישראל ואמרת אליהם אני ה׳ אלוקיכם, "speak and say to the children of Israel I am the Lord your G'd," that while it is quite true that the human species as such finds it almost impossible to control their fantasies regarding their sexual passions this is not so in the case of Israelites seeing that the Lord is our G'd. Our affinity to G'd enables us to master drives which are of a purely biological nature. As soon as an Israelite has agreed to cleave to G'd this means that G'd in His turn dominates his nature, i.e. that the צורה תשלוט בחומר, "mind controls matter." This is in accordance with the statement of our sages in Bereshit Rabbah 34,11 that the hearts of the righteous are under their control whereas the wicked are controlled by their hearts. What the Midrash means is that the heart is the seat of man's desires whereas the seat of his will-power is his mind, his brain. G'd has granted man two separate levels of decision-making power. In matters of the libido the heart is the dominating factor, though the will situated in and controlled by the brain is capable of overriding the urges of the heart and prevent it from carrying out its urge. You find that people are able to impose fasts on themselves through sheer will-power though they have a strong urge to eat and drink, an urge that originates in their hearts. The same is true of people's ability to overrule their hearts' craving to indulge their sexual urges. The righteous always conduct themselves in this manner, their hearts being controlled by their will-power in spite of any urges originating in their hearts which they may experience. Their שכל, intelligence, i.e. their soul, makes the choice of how to act. If, moreover, G'd has warned us not to indulge in certain activities or that He has made it plain that certain categories of activities are abhorrent to Him, the rightous will desist from idulging his urge even if He did not spell out any specific penalty in that context. As a result, the will of a righteous person does not experience any difficulty in curbing the craving to indulge in such an activity. The wicked, on the other hand, are so captive to the urgings originating in their hearts that their will is not powerful enough to restrain their hearts. Perhaps this is due to their not possessing a נשמה, soul, (in the case of Gentiles) or that their soul has already become too contaminated by their behaviour so that it has submitted to other forces within the personality of the body it inhabits. G'd said: כי אני ה׳ אלוקיכם, that due to our נשמה in which some divinity resides, we the Israelites are able to successfully combat the cravings of our libido. Compare Psalms 78,60: אהל שכן באדם, "the tent He set within man." In this verse G'd refers to the soul in man as a form of Tabernacle. It is this which lends the Israelite the strength to cope with even the strongest temptations of the evil urge.

This is also what David had in mind when he said in Psalms 40,9: "my desire is to do what pleases You." David meant that he cleaved to G'd so much that even his heart, the seat of his desire was anxious to do G'd's will. David's heart did not have to be reigned in by his will-power, but it had so reformed that it would do G'd's will of its own free will. His heart hated those things which the heart, the seat of desire for material physical things normally desires. David alluded to this with the word חפצתי, in the past tense, meaning that whatever used to be his חפץ, the desire inspired by his heart, seat of his physical cravings, had stopped being that. David also alluded to this in Psalms 109,22 when he said: ולבי חלל בקרבי, "my heart was empty (or dead) within me;" in either event he says that the desires which normally fill a heart have departed from him. Instead, in 40,9 David says: "ותורתך בתוך מעי," "Your teachings fill my innards." David says that whereas a normal person feels that his guts have been filled with physical food, he feels that his guts have been filled with G'd's Torah which have replaced the need for such physical food.

Perhaps David wanted to tell us something I have heard in the name of the sainted Ari Zal in the introduction to his שער הגלגולים. There are occasions when a person who was good changes into an evil person and that person himself is unable to account for such a change in his character. The sainted rabbi attributes this character change in a person to his having eaten some some food which contained forbidden, i.e. harmful natural ingredients or the residue of an evil being whose soul had undergone a transmigration. When the basically good person consumes such food it affects his character negatively as he absorbs part of the life-force of the soul of the wicked. It follows that one has to be extremely careful not to eat anything which might have absorbed the soul of a sinner in a previous incarnation. David may therefore have alluded to something of this nature when he said that even his heart, i.e. the seat of his חפץ, had become attuned to doing the will of its Creator and that his guts were full of G'd's Torah, i.e. food permitted by the Torah.

The following will help to understand the plain meaning of ותורתך בתוך מעי, "Your Torah is inside my guts." The origin of all plants, be they the kind that are essential for the survival of our נפש, our physical life-force, be they part of the multitude of beneficial herbs nature is full of, or be they plants which we merely eat for our own gratification, is rooted in the Torah which is the "mother" of all. Just as the Torah itself contains several levels i.e. פשט ,רמז, דרש ,,סוד so the various foodstuffs we find in this world may also be classified according to different levels; each level i.e. category of food, makes a different kind of contribution to our wellbeing. In my commentary on Song of Songs called ראשון לציון have explained the verse (2,4) הביאני אל בית היין that just as there are herbs which have a natural beneficial effect on those who consume them, so there are commandments in the Torah the fulfilment of which has a natural beneficial effect on the body of the person fulfilling them. This is a most important prerequisite to the understanding of the commandments of the Torah. I have mentioned here only an outline of the subject in order to make Psalms 40,9 intelligble on the basis of the plain meaning of the verse. The nutritional value of every food a person eats derives from its having absorbed some of the sanctity of Torah. Ever since the time Adam ate from the tree of knowledge beneficial and harmful effects of food have become mixed up so that every food contains a negative element also. G'd commanded us not to eat from the fruit of a tree which is less than four years old in order to allow time for the harmful effects to have been screened out. Wheat, (since Adam's sin) is surrounded by husks, straw, and other parts which have to be discarded. G'd has instructed us through the Torah to abstain from numerous foods in which the harmful elements cannot be separated from the beneficial elements so that the life-force of the chosen people not become contaminated. It follows that when an Israelite eats food which is permitted, it is as if he benefited directly from the light of Torah, the light from the celestial regions. The only difference is that this light underwent a metamorphosis in accordance with the needs of the physical universe all of whose creatures require physical food each in accordance with his specific needs. David simply said that G'd's Torah reached his guts via the method G'd had prescribed for this food to fulfil its function within man. His desire to carry out G'd's will was aided by his having partaken only of permitted food. His guts do not contain anything which would deter him from making his desire correspond to G'd's will.

Let us now go back to the main subject under discussion, the Israelite's imagination as applied to matters concerning his libido. The more he thinks about this subject the more his desire becomes aroused making it harder for his רצון, will, to control his emotions, the urges rooted in his being flesh and blood. Whereas normally, one needs to concentrate on the subject of G'd's commandments in order to ensure that one fulfils them in the best way possible, in this case one must avoid even thinking about it so that one does not see the object of one's desire with one's eyes. The moment one looks upon the object in question one places one's innocence in jeopardy. We know that King David fell victim to his carnal urges as a result of looking at Bat Sheva (Samuel II 11,2) bathing on the roof of her house. Up until that moment David's heart which had been devoid of lust had not been aroused. He did what he did only as a result of what he saw with his eyes. The moment one begins to think carnal thoughts one's temptation is reinforced, and as a result this makes preoccupation with carnal thoughts appear as something natural. The wise Solomon was fully aware of this and this is why he wrote in Proverbs 1,10: "my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent." He meant that one should not engage in arguing with anyone who tries to entice one to sin. The mere fact that one argues about it already strengthens the forces of temptation. When David said in Psalms 19,9 that the precepts of G'd are clear and brilliant, he referred to the expressions דבור and אמירה respectively, i.e. that on the one hand G'd gave clear directives, i.e. like the decree of a king, דבור; on the other hand, He also phrased this commandment as אמירה, as a soft-spoken one, the kind of tone one adopts with highly placed people and He asked Moses to tell them that He is their G'd, i.e. to bestow His Holy Name on them. There is no greater tribute G'd can pay to a people.