After God reveals to Moses at the Burning Bush that he has been chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses asked God what he should tell the Jewish people when they ask who sent him and God names Himself as, “I Will Be That Which I Will Be.” However, in the following verse, God states that the Tetragrammaton, the essential four-letter Name Havayah, is the Name by which He shall be known forever. While God is never again referred to as “I Will Be That Which I Will Be” in the Tanach, Kabbalah associates this Name with the sefirah of crown (keter), the highest of the ten sefirot, the most elevated and hidden aspect of God. This Name and its significance will only be truly revealed after Mashiach comes. Other traditions teach that this unique name of God is also associated with the sefirah of understanding (binah), which is likewise related with the future and the World-to-Come.
The connection between the Name, “I will be that which I will be” and Moses is astounding. Firstly, the numerical value of, “I Will Be That Which I Will Be” is 543, the inverse of the numerical value of Moses, 345. This in and of itself suggests that a “face to face” mirrorlike relationship existed between Moses and God. Bolstering this notion, Moses’ name spelled backward in Hebrew is “HaShem,” meaning “the Name,” the connotation used to refer to God when we wish to avoid enunciating one of His holy Names.
From this we may infer that during their conversation at the Burning Bush, God was trying to bring out and reveal to Moses his inner potential, while Moses was trying to draw out more information from God.
When Moses initially turned to see the unusual sight of a bush that was burning yet not consumed, God called to him by name twice, “Moses Moses,” instructing him to remove his shoes as the place he was standing was holy earth. It is explained in Chasidut that this directive was referring to Moses’ need to mentally strip off his physical nature in order to ascend from his initial state of physicality to a higher level of spiritual consciousness.
When God calls Moses by name twice, he is among only four people whose names are called twice: Abraham, Jacob, Samuel, and Moses. In the Masoretic tradition and in most printed books of the Tanach there is a line separating the two names. This line is a mark called pesik ta’ama, and literally means a comma, indicating a short gap or rest between the two names. The only exception is Moses. There is no comma creating a gap between his names when God called out to him. By calling him twice without a gap, God was revealing to Moses that his higher self (as his soul stands above, before God) and his lower self (his soul as embodied in this world) are identical. God was telling Moses that he can actualize his deepest soul qualities and potential in his corporeal existence; his highest and lowest selves could truly be identical.
The Power of Song
There is a profound numerical gem associated with the Divine name “I Will Be That Which I Will Be.” The numerical value of “I will be that which I will be” equals the phrase “the power of song,” both equaling 543. This mathematical identity teaches us that an individual’s cumulative potential and mission in life is aroused through song. In this sense, every person has an inner song, an inner vibrational field that attunes itself and guides him or her to fulfill their unique potential and purpose, the “I will be that which I will be,” of his or her life.
Parenthetically, according to the Zohar, Moses knew how to play all styles of music in prayer. It is explained in Chasidut that this means that Moses could play the individual melody of every soul. It was Moses who later led all of Israel in the Song of the Sea, one of the most inspirational collective moments in Jewish history. He not only awakened the inner song of each individual, but he also assembled them into one coherent and beautiful symphony. Indeed, Moses is the archetypal soul of the sefirah of victory, which also means “to orchestrate” or “to conduct,” revealing Moses’ ability to unite people through their inner song.
The Hebrew word “I will be” has the numerical value of 21 and is deemed one of God’s Names in its own right, connected to the sefirah of wisdom. Since “I will be” appears twice in the full Name “I will be that which I will be,” Kabbalah notes that when the numerical value of “I will be,” (21) is squared it equals 441, the numerical value of the Hebrew word for “truth.” One’s inner song reflects inner truth, the essential truths and sense of purpose that guide a person throughout their lives. This is what God was trying to teach Moses by revealing His Name “I will be that which I will be.”
Unifying Physical and Spiritual
As mentioned above, God’s first instruction to Moses at the Burning Bush was to remove his shoes, symbolizing his need to ascend from the downward pull of materialism to a higher level of spirituality. It is important to note that one of Judaism’s basic goals is the unification of the physical and spiritual realms, both on the practical and mystical level. Almost all the commandments entail a bodily action, physical object or speech, which is also considered an action. Every mitzvah (commandment) draws down and reveals the spiritual meaning and influence intrinsic to that mitzvah.
The relationship between the physical and the spiritual can be compared to that of matter and energy. Science changed our perception of reality forever when it revealed that matter is in essence pure energy. Similarly, when physicality is stripped of its exterior form, we find an inner core brimming with spiritual potential. The physical and the spiritual, like matter and energy, are two sides of the same coin, intrinsically bound together.
This profound observation serves as an illustration for how a Jew serves God physically through everyday actions but is at the same time also intimately bound to the final redemption and Mashiach’s task in the world. Mashiach’s primary goal is not political power or military domination, it is to educate humanity, to introduce an irreversible sea change in human consciousness. In the Messianic era, the entire world will finally perceive the Divine unity underlying reality and the consummate union between the physical and spiritual spheres.
Rashi alludes to this future reality in an intriguing commentary on the verse that describes Moses’ preparations to return to Egypt and redeem Israel: “And Moses took his wife and his sons and put them on a donkey and he returned to the land of Egypt.” Rashi explains that this was no ordinary donkey: rather, it was the same donkey that Abraham saddled before the binding of Isaac, and it is the same donkey that the Mashiach will ride in the future. Obviously, this statement is not to be taken literally; the same donkey has not lived thousands of years! Rather this Midrashic tradition alludes to the ongoing historical development of an idea. The letters comprising the Hebrew word for donkey (chamor) are the same as those comprising the Hebrew word for “physicality” or “materiality” (chomer). Mastering and transforming physicality so that it serves the spiritual is both humanity’s and particularly the Jewish people’s ongoing mission. Abraham symbolically began the process by saddling the donkey/physicality, while Moses went further by placing his wife and children over it. The Mashiach will complete the process by riding on the donkey himself, symbolizing his mastery of the material in the service of the spiritual.
The Midrash states that Moses “is the first redeemer and he [his soul reincarnated in the soul of Mashiach] will be the last redeemer.”
