Chasidic doctrine connects the three words that open the Ten Commandments, “I am Havayah your God,” with God’s self (עצמות), referred to as “I am who I am”—that which is not even hinted to in any letter or any tag of a letter in the Torah. From here and down God is revealed a certain way and all these revelations are known as “Names.” We will see that the secret of God’s Name corresponds to the sefirah of wisdom in our partzuf. In any case, it is the interior part of the crown, Atik Yomin, that is compared to God’s self, since Atik literally means, “removed,” and Atik Yomin refers to He who is “removed from days [of Creation],” suggesting that God is above and beyond His Creation. It is for this reason that the Ten Commandments do not start with a proclamation that God is the one who created heavens and earth, as in the Torah’s beginning—because God’s self is so far-removed and above Creation. About God’s being we say, “His existence is dependent only on His self.”
