|
“God possesses neither gender or human form. Rather, God is whatever each of us comes to know God as, through our own personal relationship with God.” Lessons for Today
Moses said to God, "When I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?" And God said to Moses, "Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh" (Exodus 3:13-14).
|
Rabbi Yaakov Mosheh Hiyyah wrote:
The explanation here is that the mystery of redemption is mainly something that is yet to be revealed. Anything good in the present will, by comparison, seem like nothing, when set beside the incredible goodness of the redemption (as rendered in Kushner & Olitzky, Sparks Beneath the Surface).
|
|
In his comment about the Divine Name, Rashi draws on the Talmudic idea (Berachot 9b) that Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh means that," I will be with them in this sorrow," meaning that God will be with the Israelites in the sorrow of their slavery and "I will be with them in the subjection they will suffer at the hands of the other kingdoms," indicating that there will be future trials and oppressions as well, but that God will stay with the Israelites through those sorrows as well. Rashi also focuses on the future tense conjugation of the verb "to be," but interprets it much more specifically to relate to the Israelites experience at that time of slavery and then, in the repitition, also relates to future oppressions - "Just as I help you now, I will help you later." But Rashi continues his commentary with a little dialogue between God and Moses, where Moses asks, "Why should I mention to them the other sorrows in the future? They have enough already with this sorrow!" God agrees with Moses's insight, and then continues directly by saying, "Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel, Ehyeh sent me to you" (Exodus 3:14). The use of the single Ehyeh the second time removes the reference to the future sorrows.
|
This is truly one of the most remarkable passages in the entire Torah, where God introduces God's self to Moses, and by extension to Israel and the world. At the burning bush, where Moses first receives his call to service to God, Moses asks God how he should refer to God when speaking to the Israelites. God responds with an answer that not only can be understood on many many different levels, but which also demonstrates an incredible understanding of the Hebrew language. Both of our commentators respond to this use of language.
In response to the question of name, God answers, Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh. This phrase is commonly translated as, "I Am Who I Am," but this is not correct. The term Ehyeh is a first person future tense conjugation of the verb "to be." Therefore Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh more literally means something like, "I will be who I will be" or "I will be who you will come to know me to be." In his comment, Rabbi Yaakov Mosheh Hiyyah expresses very nicely this sense of coming to know God over time. Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh indicates an unfolding knowledge of God that will gradually be revealed to Israel through their experience with, and of, God. Basically, when Moses asks God, "Who are You?" God answers, "You'll see!"
While this name may not satisfy the Israelites who, after living in the idolatrous Egyptian environment for over 300 years would probably be more comfortable with an identifiable God with a proper name, this answers does serve to instil in the Israelites a sense of hope. Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh suggests that there will be a future with God, and that God will not simply take the Israelites out into the wilderness and abandon them there. The relationship with God only begins with the redemption. As Rabbi Hiyyah connotes, it will only get better and better from there.
Lessons for Today
The idea of progressive revelation has great appeal, I believe, especially for a people who maintain an acute sense of their own history, and who come from an interpretive tradition. That fact that we can come to know and understand God anew in each generation and in each time means that God and God's teaching truly are eternal, and perhaps more importantly, relevant in every era. It would be very difficult to consider that God is a known, finite force, which each successive generation relates to in the exact same way, despite the experiences of their time. People are not unchanging, or at least the way we relate to them, so why would we expect God to be? Maintaining a relationship with God is just like all the other important relationships we maintain in our lives: if the relationship is good and healthy, it will grow and develop and become deeper and deeper with time.
This is why the Torah's use of the phrase Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh is so extraordinarily insightful. It not only presents an image of God that is beyond imagining, beyond the anthropomorphic limits of our language and the metaphoric forms of our understanding, but it promotes a knowledge of God that is developmental and progressive. We come to know God through our own experiences of God, not through some preformed name or image. I especially enjoy the fact that by choosing the first person future tense of the verb, the name of God is presented in the gender specific language of Hebrew in the only form that is truly gender neutral. God is neither male or female, father or mother, king or queen, lord or lady. God possesses neither gender nor human form. Rather, God is whatever each of us come to know God as, through our own personal relationship with God. Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh frees each of us to come to know God in our own way. God will be what God will be, for each of us.
|
