Dvar Torah - YitroAseret Hadibrot "The Ten Pronouncements" -Rabbi Leonard Cohen

This is a very, very special Shabbat. This weeks parasha, Yitro, contains the Aseret Hadibrot – the Ten Pronouncements (often mistranslated as “Ten Commandments”) fundamental not only to Judaism, but to nations throughout the world.
The opening word of the Dibrot is simply, אנכי – anochi – ’I’… as in, “I am the L-rd your G-d”. It is said that in that one word anochi is encompassed the entirety of the positive mitzvot. What is so distinctive about this pronoun?

My great-grandfather was a Karliner Hasid, meaning that he was an adherent of the Hasidic dynasty founded by Rav Aharon of Karlin (1736-1772). It is told of Rav Aharon that he was learning in his study one day, when there came a knock at the door. The Rav called out, “Who is it?” And the man at the door replied, “It’s me” (ich, literally, ‘I’). Rev Aharon did not respond. A few minutes later, the man knocked again. Again, the same question, “Who is it?” and the same answer, “Ich”. Again, the Karliner Rav did not answer. After several rounds of the same, the Rav finally opened the door.
The man at the door exclaimed, “Why wouldn’t you open for me?! You know and recognize me well from all the time we studied under the Maggid of Mezeritch! Why did you keep me waiting outside like that?”
The Karliner Rav slowly answered, “There is no ‘I’. The only anochi is that of Hashem, who said, ‘Anochi Hashem Elokecha’, I am the L-rd your G-d who brought you out of Egypt. Everything and everyone is subject to Hashem’s unity.”
The man sighed in response, “You’re right, Rav Aharon. There is more for me to learn about humility.” And the man left and headed back to Mezeritch, so he could study more under the Maggid’s guidance.

The term anochi itself is no longer in common Hebrew parlance -- today, Hebrew speakers use the word ani for ‘I’. In biblical Hebrew, however, both terms were used, and the simpler ani appears twice as often as anochi.
Anochi is a pronoun, to be sure, through which Hashem articulates divine Presence. But the word is not just used by G-d. People in Torah, including Cain, Avram, Sarah, and Rivkah, all made use of the term.
The Malbim holds that the term anochi is a specific term referring to just oneself, meaning ‘I and no other’. Indeed, the Aseret Hadibrot specify Hashem’s distinction from all other entities that people erringly worship. Rabbi Shimshon Rafael Hirsch states that the pronoun signifies something yet further – a desire to attain closeness with the person with whom they are speaking. Just as there are both formal and informal ways of addressing someone in the second person in languages like French and German (“tu” vs. the more formal “vous”; “du” vs. “sie”), here too, R. Hirsch suggests, there is the more formal pronoun ani and the more intimate one of anochi.
It seems that Hashem wishes to draw close to the Jewish people, and wishes the Jews to draw closer to G-dself (yet another unusual pronoun, an English one that has come into usage in modern Jewish theology). At Mount Sinai, the entire Jewish people heard G-d’s voice directly. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks zt”l, in an essay published posthumously this week, emphasizes that that the Jewish relationship with G-Hashem is meant to be decentralized and democratized. This is part of Hashem’s desire for the Jews to become “a nation of kohanim (priests)” (Shemot 19:6). Rabbis in Judaism do not wear a distinctive garb, to signify that no person is more inherently elevated in holiness than another. We all have the capacity for a deeply personal relationship with G-d.
In following the ways of Torah, we fulfill a sacred mandate that enables us to become a “treasured nation” (19:5) to Hashem. In these challenging times, amid the isolation imposed on us by the pandemic, it is heartening and important to remind ourselves that we are each individually beloved in Hashem’s eyes.
Previous Dvar Torah compilation
For those who missed previous Dvar Torah's, they can now be found online at https://www.kscalgary.org/blog. David Craimer, the creator of Kehilat Shalom’s website, has meticulously compiled past Dvar Torah articles, and you’re invited to visit the site and read through it for Torah learning.