Our Sages teach that the Ten Commandments given at Mount Sinai represent the sum total of the entire Torah: all 613 mitzvos are incorporated within these ten. In fact, the Tanya explains that all mitzvos are, in effect, a means of fulfilling the first two commandments. Taking this a step further, the Zohar states that the entire Torah is contained within the very first word, אָנֹכִי—“I,” with which G‑d introduced Himself simply as “I,” making known His unfathomable essence that transcends any name.
Astonishingly, according to the Midrash, the word אָנֹכִי is actually Egyptian! According to this Midrash, the most important word in G‑d’s communication to mankind was spoken in Egyptian—the parlance of the most debased society of its time, “the shame of the earth.”
By using an Egyptian word here, G‑d communicated the purpose for which the entire Torah was given: not merely to give depth to our spiritual lives, but to draw G‑dly purpose and holiness into the lowest and most mundane aspects of life as well. The opening word of the Ten Commandments is therefore not in Hebrew, the holy tongue, but in a language utterly removed from holiness, Egyptian.
Similarly, the Talmud relates that Moshe refuted the angels’ claims to the Torah by asking them, “Did you descend into Egypt?” Moshe emphasized this detail because the descent into lowly “Egypt,” and the struggle to refine the mundane parts of our lives, is the entire purpose for which the Torah was given. It is this “descent into Egypt,” our endeavors to reveal G‑dliness even in places that are not yet environments of holiness, that connects us with אָנֹכִי—G‑d’s very essence that was revealed at the giving of the Torah.
—Likkutei Sichos, vol. 3, pp. 892–895
