The pasuk says אלהברא מישאו מרום עיניכם וראו, lift up your eyes and see who created these. The Vilna Gaon writes that our purpose is to look at אלה, these, and be cognizant of what is around you and what you have, and recognize מי, from whom it all comes. When we do this, we will realize that it’s all from Hashem. Combining the word אלה with the word מי, we get to Hashem’s name אלה-ים!
At the sin of the golden calf, where the Jews disconnected from Hashem, they separated the מי and אלה. They said אלה אלהיך ישראל, this is your god. Aharon’s response was זהב מיל, who has gold. He was referring to the fact that the Jews were demonstrating that they no longer lived with the vision that it is all from Hashem — the מי was disconnected from אלה but connected to זהב.
Moshe said אלי לה' מי, whoever is for Hashem join me, and only the Leviyim responded. That is to say, disconnect the מי from זהב and connect it to Hashem (לה').
Rabbi Alt merited to learn under the tutelage of R’ Mordechai Friedlander ztz”l for close to five years. He received semicha from R’ Zalman Nechemia Goldberg ztz”l. Rabbi Alt has written on numerous topics for various websites and publications and is the author of six books including the recently released Dazzling Money Insights. His writings, some of which have been translated into Yiddish, Hebrew, German and French, inspire people across the spectrum of Jewish observance to live with the vibrancy and beauty of Torah. He lives with his wife and family in Kiryat Yearim (where the Aron was for 20 years [Shmuel 1, 7:1,2]) where he studies, writes and teaches. The author is passionate about teaching Jews of all levels of observance.
In this way we can grasp עד היום הזה...לכם לב לדעת 'ולא נתן ה (Devarim 29:3): we don’t understand Hashem’s ways until a certain time.
Esav similarly didn’t combine the מי and אלה. When he saw Yaakov’s family, he said מי אלה לך, who are these to you (Breishis 33:5). Esav lived in the physical world where he noticed the אלה, but was unable to connect it to the source i.e., Hashem. On the other hand, Yaakov’s response was הילדים אשר חנן אלה-ים את עבדך, the children whom Hashem has graciously given your servant — Yaakov recognized it was from Hashem (אלה-ים).
