Interpreting Sh'mot Chapter 3: Rashi, Rashbam, Ibn Ezra and Sarna

(1) ויאמר משה מי אנכי?, anyone who wants to truly understand the plain meaning of this sequence will heed my exegesis carefully. My predecessors were quite wrong....

One who interprets [these passages] differently is simply in error.

(23) A long time after that, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites were groaning under the bondage and cried out; and their cry for help from the bondage rose up to God. (24) God heard their moaning, and God remembered the covenant with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. (25) God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.

Chapter 3

(1) Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (2) A messenger of יהוה appeared to him in a blazing fire out of a bush. He gazed, and there was a bush all aflame, yet the bush was not consumed. (3) Moses said, “I must turn aside to look at this marvelous sight; why doesn’t the bush burn up?” (4) When יהוה saw that he had turned aside to look, God called to him out of the bush: “Moses! Moses!” He answered, “Here I am.” (5) And [God] said, “Do not come closer! Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you stand is holy ground!” (6) and continued, “I am the God of your father’s [house]—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. (7) And יהוה continued, “I have marked well the plight of My people in Egypt and have heeded their outcry because of their taskmasters; yes, I am mindful of their sufferings. (8) I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, the region of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. (9) Now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me; moreover, I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them. (10) Come, therefore, I will send you to Pharaoh, and you shall free My people, the Israelites, from Egypt.” (11) But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and free the Israelites from Egypt?” (12) And [God] said, “I will be with you; that shall be your sign that it was I who sent you. And when you have freed the people from Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.” (13) Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers’ [house] has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is [God’s] name?’ what shall I say to them?” (14) And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh,”*Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh Meaning of Heb. uncertain; variously translated: “I Am That I Am”; “I Am Who I Am”; “I Will Be What I Will Be”; etc. continuing, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh*Ehyeh Others “I Am” or “I Will Be.” sent me to you.’” (15) And God said further to Moses, “Thus shall you speak to the Israelites: יהוה,*יהוה This name (y-h-w-h; traditionally read Adonai “the Lord”) is here associated with the verb hayah “to be.” the God of your fathers’ [house]—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you:
This shall be My name forever,
This My appellation for all eternity. (16) “Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: יהוה, the God of your fathers’ [house]—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said, ‘I have taken note of you and of what is being done to you in Egypt....

(1) THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD, UNTO HOREB. This is the manner in which Moses recorded it.1It was not yet known as the mountain of God since the Lord had not yet revealed Himself on it. However, when Moses wrote the Torah about 40 years later, it was so known. Hence we see that Moses used contemporary terminology when he wrote the Torah. The place is called Horeb because of its great heat and lack of rainfall.2The word comes from the root chet, resh, bet, which means dry. As Moses noted,3Ex. 5:3. it is located three days’ journey from Egypt. There is no moisture there and the dryness is overpowering because the Nile is far away.

One of the Sages said to Rav Kahana: Did you hear what is the reason that the mountain was called Mount Sinai?

Rav Kahana said to him: It is because it is a mountain upon which miracles [nissim] were performed for the Jewish people.

The Sage said to him: If so, it should have been called Mount Nisai, the mountain of miracles.

Rather, Rav Kahana said to him: It is a mountain that was a good omen [siman] for the Jewish people.

The Sage said to him: If so, it should have been called Har Simanai, the mountain of omens.

Rav Kahana said to him: What is the reason that you do not frequent the school where you can study before Rav Pappa and Rav Huna, son of Rav Yehoshua, who study aggada?

As Rav Ḥisda and Rabba, son of Rav Huna, both said: What is the reason it is called Mount Sinai? It is because it is a mountain upon which hatred [sina] for the nations of the world descended because they did not accept the Torah.

(13) Moses said to God, “When I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers’ [house] has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is [God’s] name?’ what shall I say to them?” (14) And God said to Moses, “Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh,”*Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh Meaning of Heb. uncertain; variously translated: “I Am That I Am”; “I Am Who I Am”; “I Will Be What I Will Be”; etc. continuing, “Thus shall you say to the Israelites, ‘Ehyeh*Ehyeh Others “I Am” or “I Will Be.” sent me to you.’”

(1) מה אמר אליהם?, seeing that I do not know Your specific name. (1) ויאמר אלוקים אל משה, if you do not know My name, I will tell you that I am the Eternal. This means that I can fulfill any promise I make. Now that I have told you that My name is “the Eternal,” כה תאמר, thus you shall say to the Children of Israel, “the One Who is the Eternal has sent me to you.”

[According to Rashbam, the name "Ehyeh" conveys God's eternal capacity to fulfill His promises - a very positive image of God. But see the forthcoming interpretation in B'rakhot which is followed by Rashi. It conveys a different image of God.]

The Gemara proceeds to discuss the promise of redemption from Egypt that God made to Moses at the burning bush. When Moses asked God what to say when Israel asks him God’s name, “and God said to Moses: ‘I will be that I will be,’ and He said: ‘Thus you will say unto the children of Israel: I will be has sent me to you’” (Exodus 3:14). The Holy One, Blessed be He, told Moses to go and tell Israel: I was with you in this enslavement, and in this redemption, and I will be with you in the enslavement of the kingdoms in the future.

Moses said before Him: Master of the Universe, it is enough for them to endure. Let the future suffering be endured at its appointed time. There is no need to mention their future enslavement. The Holy One, Blessed be He, agreed with Moses and said to him: Go and tell the children of Israel only that, “I will be has sent me to you.”

(1) אהיה אשר אהיה I AM THAT I AM — I will be with them in this sorrow — I Who I will be with them in the subjection they will suffer at the hands of other kingdoms (Berakhot 9b). Whereupon Moses said to him: Lord of the Universe! Why should I mention to them other sorrows: they have enough with this sorrow! God replied to him: You have spoken rightly — כה תאמר THUS SHALT THOU SAY etc.… Ehyeh, “I am” — without the addition of אשר אהיה which has reference to future sorrows — has sent me unto you”.