Or HaChaim on Exodus 20:2/אור החיים על שמות כ׳:ב׳

1 אנכי ה׳ אלוקיך, "I am the Lord your G'd, etc." The reason G'd repeats "who took you out of Egypt, the house of bondage," was to heighten the contrast between then and now. The Israelites had been enslaved in a country which was notorious for not releasing slaves nor letting them escape (compare Isaiah 14,17). The Israelites had two major strikes against them at the time. They were mired deeply in impurity, and they were under the rule of a king notorious for not letting anyone escape.

2G'd also referred to His dual role as both the Eternal, i.e the meaning of the tetragram and the supreme authority, i.e. אלוקיך. Anyone who rebelled against G'd's decrees would face retribution. G'd manifested Himself in this dual capacity to remove all doubt about philosophies which inspired idol worship by suggesting that He had partners. G'd's taking the Israelites out of Egypt should have dispelled any such doubts about any opposing deities possessing any power at all. מבית עבדים, from the house of bondage. G'd makes the point that since it was He Who liberated us from one master, He is entitled to demand that we show Him obeisance.

3The reference to the house of bondage also alludes to the souls whom Israel came to rescue during its enforced stay in Egypt. I have explained this at length on Genesis 46,3 in connection with the expression: "I will make you (Jacob) a great nation there." Kabbalists go further and believe that Deut. 4,7: "for who is a great nation whose G'd is close to them, etc.?" is also a reference to the fact that all Jewish souls past, present, and future participated in the revelation at Mount Sinai. Accordingly, G'd repeated the statement concerning the Exodus because it referred not only to the bodies but also to the souls. The many stray souls which had been imprisoned in Egypt as part of the loot captured by the forces of the קליפה after Adam's sin had also been freed at that time.

4Yerushalmi Sukkah 5,4 commenting on Psalms 22,4: "You are the Holy One, enthroned, the Praise of Israel," states that G'd prefers the praise of Israel to that of anyone else. Whereas others praise the Lord by referring to Him as "the Lord of the universe," or as "the G'd of the angels," He prefers to be called the Lord G'd of Israel. When G'd says here: "I am the Lord your G'd," this means that He is not happy with being defined in any other way than as the G'd of Israel. By saying this, G'd advertised throughout the celestial regions that Israel was superior. By saying: אשר הוצאתיך מארץ מצרים, G'd advertised that Israel was His favourite on earth, and that He had taken them out of a place which had been considered a prison with maximum security. The statement is to be considered as a compliment to G'd. The best proof of this is to be found when Yitro described the Exodus in Exodus 18,1. He had already realised that the experience of the Exodus had stamped Israel as the choicest of the nations for all times. When G'd continues with the words מבית עבדים, the meaning is that He did not take them out of Egypt while the definition "slaves" still applied to them; rather He made the Israelites into free men at the same time. Had G'd allowed the Israelies to escape from Egypt, for instance, they would still have been considered as slaves, their status would not have undergone a change in legal terms. Their status was changed 1) because G'd had pressured Pharaoh in dismissing them, and 2) after Pharaoh pursued them and he drowned with his army, there were no longer any masters who could have disputed the Israelites' claim to being free men.

5Still another reason for the repetition of מארץ מצרים, מבית עבדים is that G'd addressed both bodies and souls separately. He said: "I am the Lord your G'd," in order to make it plain that He was speaking to the souls of the Jewish people. A soul would be able to respond to G'd describing Himself in spiritual terms; it is quite possible that the departure of the souls from the bodies we have mentioned previously took place at the moment when G'd addressed the souls as "I am the Lord your G'd." The souls then recognised their Maker. It is the essence of the souls that once they are no longer within a body they unite with their celestial origin. In Heaven there is no פרוד, separation. When G'd described Himself as "your G'd" (singular), He indicated that the Jewish souls are a single unit even in the terrestrial world which is essentially a world of divisions. This may be what David had in mind in Chronicles I 17,21 where he is quoted as describing the uniqueness of the Jewish people in these words: ומי כעמך ישראל גוי אחד בארץ, "who is like Your people Israel a unified nation even on earth?" Thanks to having been sanctified, the Israelites, like the angels, are all part of one great whole. When addressing the body of the Jewish people, G'd identified Himself in more mundane language, i.e. "Who has taken your bodies out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage."

6The words: "I am the Lord your G'd" also mean that G'd was already our G'd before we came into this world because the Jewish people are considered to be part of the sacred light, i.e. part of G'd Himself as mentioned in Deut. 32,29: "His people are part of G'd Himself." The word "your G'd" always refers to this sanctity which is part of His Light. Kabbalists are quite familiar with this concept. The word אשר means "the reason why." G'd explains the rationale why He took the Israelites out of Egypt, why He made the whole universe tremble at that moment. It had certainly been incumbent upon Him to save remnants of sanctity and to bring them closer to Him.

7The expression "I am your G'd" also means that G'd remains our G'd both when He employs His attribute of Mercy in dealing with us and when He employs His attribute of Justice in disciplining us.

8We have a tradition that one blesses G'd joyfully when something tragic occurs in one's life (Berachot 60). The reason is that when G'd subjects us to discipline He does so in order to insure that our future will be happier, will be guiltless. G'd alluded to this by saying here that even when He is perceived as "only" אלוקיך, the G'd who exacts retribution from you, He is still השם, i.e. the G'd who deals with you from a feeling of loving kindness seeing He has your ultimate welfare at heart.

9The division between the words מארץ מצרים and מבית עבדים may also be deliberate, i.e. the first expression refers to the Exodus which has already taken place, while the last expression refers to the liberation in the future when the Messiah will arrive.

10The words "who has taken you out of Egypt" also provide the answer to the question why G'd did not simply replace the Egyptians in Egypt with the Jews and established us as the rulers in that land. Why was it necessary to leave the land, to travel through the desert, etc.? Surely the Israelites would have derived greater satisfaction from such a solution to their problems than to have to march to Canaan and there to dispossess a people which had never done them any harm. Moreover, it would have demonstrated G'd's power if He dispossessed the Egyptians of their land! G'd explained that inasmuch as the very land of Egypt was a בית עבדים, a house of bondage, this would not have been appropriate. We read in Deut. 32,8: "when the Supreme G'd handed out the inheritance to the various nations, He established boundaries for the peoples in relation to Israel's numbers." The Zohar volume 1 page 108 comments on this that G'd handed out certain places on earth to the guardian angels of the various nations, and that the only land He did not assign to such guardian angels was the land of Canaan. G'd had reserved the land of Canaan for Himself. The Torah says מבית עבדים, describing the place as one assigned to one of G'd's servants (the guardian angel of Egypt). G'd did not want for the Jewish people to live in a homeland which "belonged" to the guardian angel of the Egyptians. He wanted the Israelites to reside in a country which was directly under His personal guidance.