The Ra’aya Mehemna, the part of the Zohar that focuses on the Torah’s commandments, learns from this that the first commandment we received, even before leaving Egypt, is to know God, “You shall know that I am Havayah your G o d .”
The Zohar explains that there are two aspects to knowing God, knowing God in general and knowing God specifically.
Without knowing God in a general manner, i.e., knowing that God is supreme above all creation and controls all, there is no point for Moses to perform miracles, because one might think that it is either a natural phenomenon or an act of sorcery.
This is very relevant in our age, because even though we have experienced so many miracles in the Land of Israel, as the Lubavitcher Rebbe would say, literally a miracle every moment, still they have not made the impact they should because they are not recognized as miracles. We are lacking even this general knowledge of God.
Still, the final goal is to know God not in this general sense, but in a particular and specific manner. The Zohar says that this last stage of knowing God was only attained at the end of the 40 years in the wilderness, when God gave us a knowing heart.
It learns this from the verse, “You shall know today and insert into your heart that Havayah is God in the heavens above and on the earth below, there is none o t h e r .”
Bringing knowledge of God into the heart in this manner constitutes the particular aspect of the commandment to know God. The purpose of the entire Torah and the commandments is to bring a person to this particular knowledge.
Knowing God According to the Rambam
In his commentary on the Zohar, the Rebbe’s father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneersohn, writes that this verse we are studying, “You shall know that I am Havayah your God” constitutes a nearly explicit source for the Rambam’s understanding of Torah. The Rambam begins his book with the words, “The foundation of all foundations and the pillar of wisdom is to know that there is a Primary Being who brought into being all existence.”
This, as we said, is the commandment to have general knowledge of God. Then comes the entire Mishneh To r a h, his central corpus detailing all the Torah’s laws. But it all leads up to the closing words describing the Messianic era:
In that era, there will be neither famine or war, envy, or competition for good will flow in abundance and all the delights will be freely available as dust. The occupation of the entire world will be solely to know God. Therefore, the Jews will be great sages and know the hidden matters, grasping the knowledge of their Creator according to the full extent of human potential, as Isaiah 11:9 states: “The world will be filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the ocean b e d .”
The description he ends with is knowledge of God in the particular manner. The book begins with knowledge and ends with knowledge, but the opening refers to the mitzvot in the book are in between these two aspects of knowing God.
Rebbe Levik dwells on the following point. The Raaya Meheimna says a few words about what it means to know God in general and from these words we can understand some of what it means to know God in the particular. Just as in the Rambam after the first chapter where he acknowledges the need-to-know God in general he adds a few words about the workings of nature, which is still in a general manner, but allows us to understand how God appears in some of the particulars.
Seven Idioms of Redemption
Now, returning to the verses we have been discussing from the first reading of Va’e i r a, since they contain altogether 7 verbs or “idioms” of redemption, we can say that there are 7 stages to the redemption (not just 4 or 5, as normally enumerated). When only 4 or 5 stages are identified, they are corresponded to the letters of Havayah from below to above.
But now if we consider 7 stages of redemption, we should correspond them to the emotive powers, from above to below:
- loving-kindness-chessed – “I will free”
- might-gevurah – “I will save”
- beauty-tiferet – “I will redeem”
- victory-netzach – “I will take”
- acknowledgment-hod – “I will be”
- foundation-yesod – “You will know”
- kingdom-malchut – “I will bring”
Let us spend a few moments explaining this model. “I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians” is the essence of the Exodus and demonstrates God’s loving-kindness towards us. God says “I will save you”—“with an outstretched arm and with great chastisements” clearly demonstrate a rectified power of might. Next, “I will redeem you,” which corresponds to the sefirah of beauty (tiferet) exemplifies the principle that the mother principle, i.e., the sefirah of understanding associated with redemption, extends (through its foundation) down to beauty and is there revealed.
The next two idioms both describe the relationship that will form between the Almighty and the people and thus correspond nicely to victory and acknowledgement which are considered two sides of one body. “I will take you” is the active verb, thus corresponding to victory (netzach) and “I will be you God,” which is passive, corresponds to acknowledgment (hod).
The idiom, “You shall know that I am Havayah your God” corresponds to the sefirah of foundation. Foundation is known as the “general principle”. This beautifully corresponds with the Zohar’s explanation that these words refer to the general principle of faith in God. Finally, the correspondence between “I will bring you to the land [of Israel]” and kingdom is very clear since the land is always associated with the sefirah of kingdom.
(from a class given on the 22nd of Tevet 5772)
- Exodus 6:6-7.
- Ibid. v. 8.
- See in depth in Sod HaShem LiYerei’av, pp. 296ff.
- Additionally, the filling of the filling of the word “earth” also equals 2000.
- The Zohar’s words are: “I will take you to be My people and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am Havayah your God.” This commandment, the first of all commandments, the initial first of all commandments, [is] to know the Holy, blessed one in general. What does in general mean? To know that there is a supreme sovereign, who is the Master of the world, who created all worlds, the heavens and the earth and all their hosts. And that is in general. But the goal of all is the particular, to know him particularly.
- See in length Derech Mitzvotecha, Mitzvat Ha’amanat Elokut, introduction.
- Deuteronomy 29:3.
- Ibid. 4:39.
- Hilchot Yesodei HaTorah 1:1.
- Hilchot Melachim 12:5
- “I will bring” to the tip of the yud, “I will take” to the yud, “I will redeem” to the first hei, “I will save” to the vav, and “I will free” to the final hei. See in depth in Sod HaShem LiYerei’av, pp. 296ff.
- 1 Chronicles 29:11. Foundation is described as “for all in the heavens and the earth”, the value of the first two words “for all” is the same as “foundation”. The tzaddik—the foundation of the world—is known as the one who unites the heavens and the earth.
