The verse says [32:39] “See now that I myself (Ani, Ani) am the One, there is no other god with me; I will kill and I will resurrect. I will hit and I will also heal, there is no one to save from My Hand”. The commentaries are here bothered by the two “Ani”s. It should just say the word Ani once.
The Kli Yakar explains, that the verse is coming to contradict those schools of thought that believe there are two Supreme Forces in the world: The Force that Gives us Good and the Force that Gives us Evil. The verse comes and says this is incorrect. The same G-d that Kills is the G-d that Resurrects. The same G-d that gives illness is the G-d that heals. Ani Ani Hu. (I, myself, am the One). There are no two “Domains”.
Rav Gedaliah Schorr, zt”l says that the Kaballistic works discuss two ways in which G-d deals with the world — the Revealed Way (Gilui) and the Hidden Way (Hester). The Revealed Way is referred to in this literature as “Ani” — we can see clearly that it is “I – G-d” who is dealing with us. But when the Hidden Way is talked about it is referred to in Kaballistic terminology as “Hu” — the third person. As if it were not G-d acting, but another Force, as it were, — “Him” not “I”.
Using these terms, Rav Schorr offers a beautiful interpretation of the verse: “Ani, Ani, Hu” means that the attribute that deals with you as ”Ani” is in fact identical to the attribute that deals with you as “Hu”. When G-d deals with us in a mysterious way such that we cannot understand His Ways, we must nevertheless believe that it is the same Force; the same Ribbono Shel Olam as the one Whose Presence is clearly evident to us.
A very short time ago, we beat our breasts with the confession for the” sins we have committed against You with ‘Timhon levav'”. ‘Timhon Levav’ means that we have ‘Temihos’ (questions) because we have not seen the Ribbono Shel Olam as the First Person (I), but as the Hidden Third Person (Hu); we have failed to believe with a complete belief that the Hidden and the Revealed manifestations are from one and the same Ribbono Shel Olam.
