Anochi Hashem

Let's see the Ramban on Anochi. פרק כ פסוק ב. Anochi Hashem Elokecha. הדיבור הזה מצות עשה. Maybe we'll come back to that b'ezras Hashem. Amar Anochi Hashem yoreh veyitzaveh osam שידעו ויאמינו כי יש ה' והוא אלהים להם, klomar hoveh kadmon, מאתו היה הכל בחפץ ויכולת, vehu Elokim lahem shechayavim laavodo. ואמר אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים ki hotza'asam misham

תורה על המציאות ועל החפץ כי בידיעה ובהשגחה יצאנו משם, כי בידיעה ובהשגחה ממנו יצאנו משם.

So the Ramban says the pasuk is yoreh veyitzaveh. We understand what yitzaveh means; what does yoreh mean? So it's clear that the way the Ramban understands the pasuk is that the mitzvah is to believe Anochi Hashem Elokecha. If a person is looking to know how do I come to that knowledge of Anochi Hashem Elokecha, how do I substantiate that, how do I anchor that, so the Torah instructs us to look to Yetzias Mitzrayim. And that's what the yoreh veyitzaveh means, right? That אנכי ה' אלהיך הדיבור הזה מצות עשה, but the Torah provides both the mitzvah as well as how to go about fulfilling the mitzvah. The mitzvah is to know and to believe Anochi Hashem Elokecha, and the how to go about fulfilling that mitzvah is to look to the Nisei Mitzrayim. Why? Because Nisei Mitzrayim demonstrated Anochi Hashem Elokecha. Now, the Ramban is here explaining how much is compressed into that phrase, Hashem Elokecha. So yoreh veyitzaveh osam, that's why when he then says ki hotza'asam misham תורה על המציאות ועל החפץ, right, that indicates, that establishes, that teaches and proves. So the pasuk is, it's the mitzvah to believe with the proof that allows for the kiyum hamitzvah. שידעו ויאמינו כי יש ה' והוא אלהים להם. What does that mean? Klomar hoveh kadmon. Hoveh means an existent being. Kadmon literally means before, right, before anything, everything, before time. מאתו היה הכל בחפץ. Meito also, everything, everything that exists in the world emerged from Him, because of Him, because He willed it. מאתו היה הכל בחפץ. What... The same Havayah expresses, and this is the same idea that we spoke about last month in the first of the Rambam's Yud-Gimmel Ikkarim, is that Anochi Hashem, again the lashon Yud-Kei-Vav-Kei expresses existence, and what it means is not only that Hakadosh Baruch Hu exists but that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is existence. And that's how, again, everything the Ramban is saying here he's eliciting from the phrase Hashem Elokecha. He's simply elaborating everything which is compressed into those two words of Hashem Elokecha. So Hoveh VeKadmon, so the shem Havayah expresses existence, Hakadosh Baruch Hu is existence, and again therefore he is before time, before thought, before anything Hoveh VeKadmon, but he's existence and therefore Me-ito haya hakol, and that all existence, everything that we see around us, ourselves, everything derives from him. We're going to bracket for a moment which word here expresses the Becheifetz, we'll leave that bracketed. Ve-yacholut that Hakadosh Baruch Hu's omnipotence והוא אלהים להם שחייבים לעבודתו. So the lashon Elokim, first of all it connotes power in the sense of, let's say we had in Shirat HaYam, מי כמוכה באלים השם right, who amongst the mighty is like you Hakadosh Baruch Hu? Lavan says to Yaakov Avinu יש לאל ידי לעשות עמכם רע, Le-eil yadi, right, the strength of, I have the strength to really to do bad to you, but Elokei avichem intervened on your behalf. So Elokim, that's why it says in the Tur and Shulchan Aruch that when we say Elokeinu in a beracha, so we're supposed to be mechaven בעל היכולת בעל הכוחות כולם because that's what the shem Elokim expresses. Elokecha, right, it's not Anochi Hashem Elokim, it's Anochi Hashem Elokecha means and that Hakadosh Baruch Hu is he's your God, which is where the Ramban derives that shechayavim la-avodato. So klomar, again we bracketed Becheifetz, klomar Hoveh VeKadmon, Me-ito haya hakol, Becheifetz, all of that is compressed into the shem Havayah. Ve-yacholut והוא אלהים להם שחייבים לעבודתו, all of that is compressed into Elokecha. Ve-amar אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים, so that's the yitzaveh, right, that's what the content of the belief and the knowledge we're supposed to have is, and the yoreh, the proof, the demonstration, the yoreh

כי הוצאתם משם תורה על המציאות ועל החפץ. כי בידיעה ובהשגחה ממנו יצאנו משם וגם תורה על החידוש כי אם קדמות העולם לא ישתנה דבר מטבעו.

If the world has always existed, so then everything about the world is as... So that's what the Ramban says im kadmut ha'olam. If a person posits that the world has always existed, so then miracles are impossible. לא ישתנה דבר מטבעו. Because if the world has always existed, everything about the world is is absolute and fixed and rigid and inexorable. The the supernatural miracles of Mitzrayim therefore show Torah al hametziut, but if the world is not kadmon, if the world is mechudash, then obviously there's a Ribbono Shel Olam who's who's the Borei Olam. If the world has not always existed, so that means that the Ribbono Shel Olam willed it to exist. It doesn't mean that that that his existence implies that the world had to exist, it means that he willed it to exist, תורה על המציאות ועל החפץ. And the chefetz also is is evident and these yesodot ha'emunah of yediah v'hashgacha are also demonstrated through the Nissei Mitzrayim because the Nissei Mitzrayim were targeted, right? They were targeted in terms of punishing the Mitzriyim and the and saving Bnei Yisrael. V'torah al hayacholut. The the miracles pointed to Hashem's omnipotence. והיכולת תורה על היחוד. Right, the mashal is as follows: If if someone owns a business himself, if he's the sole owner, so then he can unilaterally make decisions. If someone's not the sole owner, so then he can't unilaterally make decisions, he has to coordinate with his with his partners. When you have when you have unencumbered unlimited omnipotence, yacholut, so so that means Hakadosh Baruch Hu doesn't need to coordinate with anyone. It means there's one Ribbono Shel Olam. There's there's one Ribbono Shel Olam. There's no there's no there's no limitation. That's what the Ramban means that

היכולת תורה על היחוד. וכמו שאמר בעבור תדע כי אין כמוני בכל הארץ. וזה טעם אשר הוצאתיך.

Ta'am in the Ramban, we're used to ta'am meaning reason. Ta'am in the Ramban often means this is the content. I guess you could say it's the reason for saying it but it it functionally in the Ramban it often means the the content. V'zeh ta'am and this is the content, this is the thrust of asher hotzeiticha, כי הם היודעים ועדים בכל אלה. You who experienced Yetzias Mitzrayim, so you know and you witnessed Anokhi Hashem Elokecha, because the Nissei Mitzrayim demonstrated all these yesodot ha'emunah. Presumably where the Ramban derives the chefetz, again that was the one word that that we didn't trace back as to to where the Ramban sees that encapsulated, is in the Elokecha because the Elokecha expresses that there's a special relationship between Hakadosh Baruch Hu and Knesset Yisrael, right? That above and beyond being Elokei Ha'olam, so in a very specific singular sense Hakadosh Boruch Hu is elokecha. And that expresses, that in turn means again that things are not just sort of... that is Hakadosh Boruch Hu wills that relationship. That special relationship is something which reflects chefetz. It's not something that... Hakadosh Boruch Hu's connection to the world as a whole is just sort of, there's no chefetz involved. There's just the fact that He created the world. Mah shekein the unique relationship elokecha, so that's where the phrase also expresses that Hakadosh Boruch Hu acts with chefetz. And the first phrase in the Ramban here when he says that הדיבור הזה מצות עשה so the Ramban is referring to a famous discussion of which he's a part. That the Rambam of course in his Sefer Hamitzvos, so the Rambam counts anochi as the very first mitzvah. And the Ramban ultimately again both here and in Sefer Hamitzvos concurs, in contradistinction to the Behag who doesn't count anochi as one of the taryag mitzvos. Now that doesn't mean that the Behag thinks it's sort of optional whether a person believes, you know, you want to believe you believe and you don't want to believe you don't believe. Rather what that reflects is according to all monei hamitzvos the list of taryag mitzvos doesn't represent, isn't intended and therefore doesn't represent a comprehensive list of everything a person is chayav in. It wasn't intended to and therefore doesn't provide a comprehensive catalog of all chiyuvim that a person has. All monei hamitzvos have fundamental things which are not in the minyan hamitzvos. So Rav Chaim Vital writes that all middos are not in... he has a different understanding of vehalachta bidrachav than the Rambam. He says all middos, all middos are not within the minyan taryag. According to all monei hamitzvos there's a certain... according to the Rambam himself, if you go through the Rambam's Sefer Hamitzvos, you go through the minyan taryag and you try to find all the yud gimmel ikkarim you will not find all the yud gimmel ikkarim. You won't find an ikkar that says you have to believe in yemos hamashiach or melech hamashiach. You won't find an ikkar that says you have to believe in techiyas hamaysim. You won't find all... you'll find some of them, but you won't find all the yud gimmel ikkarim in the minyan hamitzvos. All monei hamitzvos have a certain formal definition of what mitzvah means in the context of taryag mitzvos. So for the Behag, part of that formal definition is as follows: that a mitzvah presupposes a metzaveh. And therefore the belief in Hakadosh Boruch Hu who is metzaveh the mitzvos is axiomatic to mitzvos. It's not one of the mitzvos, it's that which is axiomatic to all mitzvos. Now again that doesn't mean according to the Behag that it's optional, it just means that formally the lashon mitzvah as used in the context of speaking of minyan taryag presupposes the metzaveh and in that sense the Behag says you can't have a mitzvah, you can't have a... The Behag says that it's optional, it just means that formally the leshon mitzvah as used in the context of speaking of minyan taryag presupposes the matzav. And in that sense, the Behag says you can't have a mitzvah, you can't have a mitzvah, the Mekhilta that the next Ramban is going to quote, maybe we'll look at it tomorrow bli neder as he continues and the ve-hata'am mibeit avadim is perhaps the Behag perhaps the way he reads the Mekhilta, and the Mekhilta perhaps is saying this. So that's why the Behag didn't count it as a mitzvah again, it's the most absolute chiyuv that there is, a person has a chiyuv to recognize and acknowledge the truth. And but formally in terms of minyan hamitzvos, so minyan hamitzvos, belief in Hakadosh Baruch Hu who's the metzaveh is axiomatic and then all the the taryag mitzvos are those which those mitzvos which the metzaveh communicated to us. In contradistinction, so the Rambam, the Ramban, they both think that Anochi Hashem Elokecha is is to be counted in the minyan taryag. Why? Because it includes something beyond that which is just axiomatic to to the minyan taryag. It's axiomatic to the minyan taryag to believe in Hakadosh Baruch Hu. It's not axiomatic necessarily that one is looking towards nisey mitzrayim to know that there's a Ribono Shel Olam. It's not axiomatic necessarily that the Rambam says that a person knows a logical proof of Hakadosh Baruch Hu's existence, that isn't axiomatic to to having the mitzvos. So that that constitutes a mitzvah as well. That that the belief, that the knowledge of Anochi Hashem Elokecha should be rooted for the Ramban in asher hotzeiticha, for the Rambam in in a logical demonstration, that belongs to the the minyan hamitzvos. Okay, we'll stop here for today.