Rabbi Naftali Tzvi of Ropshitz (1760-1827), Zera Kodesh (translation adapted from Rabbi Lawrence Kushner) 40a
Chasidic Midrash on Exodus 20:2
“Aאni Aאdonai Eאlohecha” “I am Adonai your God"
“YHWH spoke with you [all Israel] face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire” – Deuteronomy 5:4
“You saw no image when YHWH your God spoke to you at Horeb from out of the fire.” – Deuteronomy 4:15,
It seems to me that [these contradictory verses] can be understood according to something I once heard from the mouth of my revered master and teacher, Rabbi Mendl of Rymanov [1745-1815], his memory is a blessing. He explained the verse in Psalms 62:12, “One thing God has spoken but two things I have heard.” It is possible, he taught, that at Sinai we heard nothing from the mouth of God other than the letter aleph of the first utterance [“1st Commandment”], “Aאni Aאdonai Eאlohecha—I am the Lord [Adonai] your God” (Exodus 20:2).
(“O how beautiful are the words from the mouth of a sage! [Ecclesiastes 10:12]. And to understand such a holy teaching is like hearing the words of the living God, for his words—“Behold, My Word is like fire, declares the Eternal, like a hammer that shatters rock!” [Jeremiah 23:29])
We can now understand the apparent contradiction between the passages in Deuteronomy 5:4, “YHWH spoke with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire” and Deuteronomy 4:15, “You saw no image when YHWH your God spoke to you at Horeb from out of the fire.” There was nothing [that could be seen, in other words] but a voice!
It is possible to explain this in light of a teaching by our sages on Psalm 16:8, “I set YHWH before me continually.” [Our sages] say that this verse represents a great principle in the Torah. One might think they would have said that serving God or something similar was a great principle. It becomes clear when we read it in light of a tradition in our musar, or ethical, literature. There we learn that the Shem ha-Meforash, the Awesome Name of God, the four-letter name of yud י, heh ה , vav וand hey ה , actually hints at the letter aleph א. For the letter aleph א itself is constructed of two letter yud’s [yud is the tenth letter of the alphabet, and has the value of 10, so two add up to 20], with the letter vav [sixth letter = 6] joining them in the middle:
א = יוי
This makes a total of 26. The four-letter Name of God, yud י, heh ה , vav ו and hey ה also totals 26! ([yud=10 + vav = 6 + two hey’s = 5+5] = 26)
This, in turn, hints at the face of a human being. The two eyes resemble two letter yud’s י and a nose between them looks like a letter vav ו! In other words, on every human face there is a letter aleph! And just this is the meaning of Genesis 1:27, “In the image of God, [God] created the first human.” And this facial aleph, engraved on every person, has the same numerical equivalent, 26, as God’s most awesome name, yud, hey, vav and hey!
We also know that there is a kind of effulgence [divine light] surrounding every person, just as in holiness we are radiant. And this is the reason we are bidden to continually keep the image of God ever before our faces [Psalm 16:8], for indeed, the seal of the Holy One is literally on our faces, evoking the shape [of the Name] of the Creator. This is what our sages meant when they spoke of a great principle of the Torah.
When we were worthy to stand at God’s chosen mountain and we heard the voice issuing the letter aleph א [that is, the first commandment, “Aאni Aאdonai Eאlohecha—I am the Lord [Adonai] your God” (Exodus 20:2)], we were fulfilled and there was revealed to us the shape of the letter aleph. As we read in Exodus 20:15, “And all the people saw the thunder.” In other words, they saw what was heard! We saw the form of the letter aleph, itself evoking the name of God. And [at that moment] they all saw and understood that this was also the form of their own faces! And this then is the reason that we read just after the theophany in Exodus 20:17, “Be not afraid; for God has come only in order to test you, and in order that the fear of [God] may be ever with you so that you do not go astray,” for when a person continually keeps this idea [that God is in the face of every other human being] then he [or she] will not easily be inclined to go astray.
Jacob to Esau, Genesis 33:10
For to see your face is like seeing the face of God . . .
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
“To love another person is to see the face of God.”
Emmanuel Levinas, Ethics and Infinity: Conversations with Philippe Nemo, translated by Richard A. Cohen, "The Face," pp. 89, 88
There is a commandment in the appearance of the face, as if a master spoke to me. However, at the same time, the face of the Other is destitute. It is the poor for whom I can do all and to whom I owe all. And me, whoever I may be, but as a "first person," I am he who finds the resources to respond to the call.
. . . The first word of the face is the "Thou shalt not kill." It is an order.
. . . In discourse I have always distinguished, in fact, between the saying and the said. That the saying must bear a said is a necessity of the same order as that which imposes a society with laws, institutions and social relations. But the saying is the fact that before the face I do not simply remain there contemplating it, I respond to it. The saying is a way of greeting the Other, but to greet the Other is already to answer for him. It is difficult to be silent in someone's presence; this difficulty has its ultimate foundation in this signification proper to the saying, whatever is the said. It is necessary to speak of something, of the rain and fine weather, no matter what, but to speak, to respond to him and already to answer for him.
Rabbi Miriam Philips, on Rabbi Naftali, Zera Kodesh
yud-yud- vav is in the face. It spells, “God and…”
God is in my face and it is mine; God is in you and I respond. "God and"