When they will say to me, “What is His Name,” what should I say? ...He said, “This is what you shall say to the Israelites: ‘“I will be” sent me to you.’” (Shemos 1:15)
Hashem says that He is to be called, “I will be.” What does this name signify?
There is a concept of אין עוד מלבדו – “There is nothing other than Hashem.”
This concept actually has three levels of meaning, one deeper than the other.
The simple meaning is that there is a world, and Hashem alone runs it. In other words, the world appears superficially to operate according to its own internal rules. People who are talented, have financial backing and are hardworking will usually succeed and make good money, while those who are disadvantaged and unmotivated tend to be poor. As Chazal say, “Poverty follows a poor person.”
But in truth, that is not how it works. Hashem is the Master of the World. He decides who gets what. He runs the world. Health, wealth and everything else comes from Him. Nobody can take away what another is meant to get. Anyone with a brain will understand that you can’t fight the Master of the World, and that you need to obey Him.
The next deeper level of meaning is that Hashem is at every moment granting life and existence to the world. ואתה מחיה את כולם – “Hashem grants life to all of them.” This may be compared to artificial respiration. If a person is unable to breath on his own, they put him on a respirator that breathes air into his lungs and keeps him alive. Similarly, Hashem breathes life into the world at every moment, and without this, everything would immediately cease to exist.
According to this understanding, the world exists, but Hashem is constantly granting this existence.
The third and deepest level of meaning is that the world doesn’t really exist at all, that we are to interpret “There is nothing other than Hashem” in its most literal sense. The world’s existence is only Hashem’s Will that there should be a world. Therefore, besides His Will and Word, nothing else exists at all. This is the true meaning of אין עוד מלבדו at its profoundest level.
Sefer Nefesh Hachayim explained this point at length, and while doing so, issued a warning to the reader:
And if your mind is running forward [to contemplate this matter] you should go back to your place. About this it is written והחיות רצוא ושוב – “The Heavenly Creatures run and go back.” This means that when you contemplate what the Creator of the World is and how He is present in every place and in the work of His hands, you should stop your mouth from speaking and your mind from contemplating. Put the thought out of your mind.
If your mind is running to this thought, act swiftly; don’t contemplate on it. Go back to declaring the unity of G-d and to serving Him and fearing Him.... Over this matter, a covenant was sealed not to think about His Divinity, which not all sages are capable of understanding.
Since grasping the true nature of Hashem’s Divinity is so difficult, the holy Name related to this concept is אהי־ה, “I will be.” It expresses the idea that Hashem will be revealed in the future. The day will come when we will understand everything.
So when Moshe asked Hashem what Name to attribute to Him when speaking to the Jews in Egypt, the answer was, “‘I will be’ sent me to you.” In other words, right now they can’t understand the true meaning of Hashem’s Name, but the time will come when they will indeed understand it.
1 Devarim 4:35.
2 Bava Kama 92a.
3 See Yoma 38b.
4 Nechemiah 9:6.
5 Yechezkel 1:14.
6 Nefesh Hachayim 3:6.
