(ב) וַ֠יֵּרָ֠א מַלְאַ֨ךְ יְהֹוָ֥ה אֵלָ֛יו בְּלַבַּת־אֵ֖שׁ מִתּ֣וֹךְ הַסְּנֶ֑ה וַיַּ֗רְא וְהִנֵּ֤ה הַסְּנֶה֙ בֹּעֵ֣ר בָּאֵ֔שׁ וְהַסְּנֶ֖ה אֵינֶ֥נּוּ אֻכָּֽל׃
(6)
And he said:
I am the God of your father,
the God of Avraham,
the God of Yitzhak,
and the God of Yaakov.
Moshe concealed his face,
for he was afraid to gaze upon God.
(7)
Now YHWH said:
I have seen, yes, seen the affliction of my people that is in Egypt,
their cry I have heard in the face of their slave-drivers;
indeed, I have known their sufferings!
(8)
So I have come down
to rescue it from the hand of Egypt,
to bring it up from that land
to a land, goodly and spacious,
to a land flowing with milk and honey,
to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite,
of the Amorite and the Perizzite,
of the Hivvite and the Yevusite.
(9) So-now,
here, the cry of the Children of Israel has come to me,
and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.
(1) God spoke all these words, saying: (2)
I am YHWH your God,
who brought you out
from the land of Egypt, from a house of serfs.
(14) God said to Moshe:
Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh/I will be however I will be.
And he said:
Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel:
EHYEH/I-WILL-BE has sent me to you.
(15)
And God said further to Moshe:
Thus shall you say to the Children of Israel:
YHWH,
the God of your fathers,
the God of Avraham, the God of Yitzhak, and the God of Yaakov,
has sent me to you.
That is my name for the ages,
that is my title [from] generation to generation.
You are not to take up
the name of YHWH your God for emptiness,
for YHWH will not clear anyone
who takes up his name for emptiness.
Hevrutah (in small groups or pairs):
Read through the "ten" commandments.
- Why do you think these are the commandments? What are these specific commands essential?
- How do they flow? In other words where do they start, how do they develop and where do they end? Does the flow make sense?
- Then look below, at the traditional development of the ten. Is there a theme to the first five as opposed to the second five? What are the themes?
- Finally how does each command on the left side relate to the command on the right side?
My father was God and did not know it. He gave me the ten commandments neither in thunder nor in fury, neither in fire nor in cloud but in gentleness and in love. He added caresses and added kind words adding, “I beg you,” and “please.” He sang keep and remember in a single melody and he pleaded and cried quietly between one commandment and the next: Don’t take your God’s name in vain; don’t take it, not in vain. I beg you, don’t bear false witness against your neighbor. He hugged me tightly and whispered in my ear Don’t steal. Don’t commit adultery. Don’t murder. And he put the palms of his open hands on my head with the Yom Kippur blessing. Honor, love, in order that your days might be long on the earth. And my father’s voice was white like the hair on his head. Later, he turned his face to me one last time like on the day he died in my arms and said, “I want to add two to the ten commandments: The eleventh commandment: Don’t change. The twelfth commandment: You must surely change. So said my father and then he turned from me and went off disappearing into his strange distances.
Yehuda Amichai translated by Rabbi Steven Sager, From Open, Closed, Open.
Resources:
Aleph-Beta
Seeing The Ten Commandments In The Burning Bush
Was The Burning Bush A Template For The Commandments? Rabbi David Fohrman
https://www.alephbeta.org/playlist/ten-commandments-in-the-burning-bush
Seeing Layers In The Ten Commandments
What Is The Ten Commandments' Underlying Theme? Rabbi David Fohrman
https://www.alephbeta.org/playlist/ten-commandments-central-theme