This is my God and whom I will enshrine; The God of my father, whom I will exalt.
Exodus 15:2b
In their fashion, Cha’zal, our ancient, blessed sages, parsed this verse phrase by phrase, drawing forth a maximum of meaning. I share with you some of their comments.
Rashi on “This is my God” teaches: So clear was the manifestation of godliness to them that every Jew, even the humblest, could literally point with their finger and say, “This is my God!”. The incredibly powerful manifestation of the Holy One left an indelible imprint on our national memory.
Our teacher, the Or Hachaim derives from the sequence of the verse that a Jew should first develop faith in God from one’s personal experiences – my God, who saved me – and then relate it to one’s legacy of faith from one’s ancestors. The same sequence our teacher observes is found in the first paragraph of the Amidah where we describe God first as our God, and then as the God of our ancestors. Interestingly, Rashi in his commentary cites the Mechilhta which states that this is the Jews acknowledgement that one’s own spiritual stature is a legacy from previous generations: “I am not the beginning of holiness; rather, my holiness is firmly established upon me from the days of my ancestors.”
Whom I will enshrine. Onkelos, Rashi, ibn Ezra, and Ramban all agree that the most literal understanding of enshrine is primary based on translating the Hebrew word as being built on Naveh, meaning “home”. For these sages, the phrase expresses Israel’s longing to build a Temple as the resting place of God’s presence; a phenomenon repeated wherever Jews found themselves.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk and Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch expand on this idea and read the verse as, “I will make myself a sanctuary for God”. For these commentators, the greatest of all sanctuaries is a human being who makes themself holy, a life worthy of the divine presence.
Rashi offers another understanding deriving the translation from the Hebrew word “noy”, meaning beauty I will beautify God by relating God’s praises. Other sages expanded on the connotation of beauty namely, that one should endeavor to serve God in a beautiful manner by seeking a beautiful etrog, sukkah, tallit, tefillin, and other ritual objects. For these sages, elevating how we perform mitzvot is an adornment for God. (Shabbat 133b)
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameyach –
Rabbi David M. Eligberg
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