It's G-d's World After All

"And Elokim spoke harshly to Moshe, and He whispered to him, 'I am Hashem. I appeared to Avraham, to Yitzhak and to Yaakov as El Shakkai, but with my name Hashem I did not make Myself known to them'." (Note: my translation of "vayedaber" and "vayomer" is based on midrash.) The opening verses of our parasha clearly contain deep teachings about the names of G-d, and the special nature of the revelation that Moshe Rabbeinu merited to receive. What exactly is being said, however, is far from clear. The first difficulty stands out so clearly that literally all of the commentators feel they have to address it: how can G-d say that he did not reveal His name Hashem ("yud-keh-vav-keh") to the Avos? We find explicitly in Sefer Bereishit G-d saying "I am Hashem" in prophecy, individually to Avraham, Yitzhak and Yaakov! There is another major question that we might overlook because of where the parasha begins. Looking back at the last few verses of Parshat Shmot, we find Moshe complaining to G-d in the strongest of terms - "why have you done evil with this people, and why have you sent me? From the time I have come and spoken to Par'oh in Your name, it has gotten worse for this people and you have not saved Your people at all!" In the very last verse of the parasha, Hashem begins to respond to Moshe's challenge, but clearly the answer "now you'll see what I'm going to do to Par'oh," etc. is not adequate at all. It can't be that G-d's response to Moshe was "I'm getting to it, hold on!"
We see then that these mysterious verses that introduce our parasha must somehow be a response to Moshe's challenge. What is G-d's reply? And why has our tradition separated the response from the question, starting a new parasha in the midst of this exchange? According to the holy Netziv, to understand Hashem's response we must first understand Moshe's question. Moshe's complaint was based on his belief that there are two different ways the world "behaves", or is "run" by the Creator. One is called "teva" (nature), and the other "hashgachah" (individual providence). Teva is what happens when G-d doesn't get personally involved, as it were, but just allows things to happen according to the laws of nature. Or course, G-d created those laws, but it is like a watch that has been built and wound up - and then left to run on its own. Hashgachah is when G-d personally directs events, overseeing and directing each detail for a special purpose of His own. When Par'oh decreed that the rebellious Jews should be punished for their insolence by having to work even harder and being beaten more harshly, that was the way of nature. When a tyrant feels his authority questioned, he tends to tighten his grip on his subjects. Moshe's perplexity, his thunderous complaint, was that it was time for G-d's hashgacha to be revealed: G-d should be saving His people and relieving them of their suffering, even though it breaks all the laws of nature! "Isn't that what a revelation means, isn't that why You sent me?"
Moshe is pained at two aspects of the situation - first, the great continuing suffering of the Jews, and, secondly, the fact that G-d's name is being desecrated. "I came and spoke in Your name" that You wanted to free Your people - and the slavery only got worse! This diminishes Your glory, chas v 'shalom." G-d's response to Moshe is that the dichotomy he sees between teva and hashgacha is a false one. The name "Elokim" is the gematria (numerical value) of "ha-teva" (nature). And the name "Hashem" means that He brings all into being, constantly directing all with individual hashgachah. When Elokim says to Moshe "I am Hashem", He is revealing that everything, even nature, is individually overseen and directed by G-d towards His ultimate purposes. Par'oh is not increasing the slavery despite G-d's plan but rather because of it. Hashem wanted Par'oh to make that decree.
But why? Are we learning here that all of the suffering and darkness in the world cannot be separated from G-d, as if He wasn't involved, and that difficult things "just happen" - or, even better, were done by someone else called "the Devil"? G-d's response to Moshe is hardly reassuring: "Moshe, you are complaining that I am not preventing suffering? You should know that I am in fact causing the suffering!" The Netziv continues: "know that the name El Shaddai always hints at the fact that the ultimate purpose of creation is to give honor to G-d, to reveal G-d 's glory. As we pray in Aleinu, 'to fix the world under the kingdom of Shaddai". This name, Shaddai, seems to stand in opposition to the name Hashem, with its implication that G-d is overseeing each event. It seems that if G-d's purpose is to reveal his honor, He can't be overseeing the world so much, because we see so many things which in fact lessen G-d's honor in the eyes of people. How can murderous tyrants, epidemics, all the incredible suffering and confusion of the world be personally directed by Hashem, who wants only to reveal His glory? If G-d does oversee each moment and event, it is clear that he is not concerned with His honor!
The Avot, too, were troubled by this question, and G-d says that he appeared to them as El Shakkai. The Netziv says an awesome pshat: the Gemara says that El Shakkai means "the One who said to His world, 'Dai!' (Enough!)" At creation, the world was expanding and expanding, until G-d said "enough" - just there. This means that this world, just as it is, is the perfect revelation of G-d's glory. This truly is G-d's world, despite everything. Yet, the Netziv adds, it is completely impossible for a human being to understand how it can be that this world is the ultimate way to reveal G-d's glory. It is forbidden to try to figure out how that can be, for it is not possible.
However, we can know that it is true. Even this knowledge, knowing that this truly is G-d's world in all its aspects, is awesome, and needs to be revealed to us by G-d. Moshe was made to know that he didn't know. He thought to explain that not everything is directed by G-d… no, says Hashem, the answer is a question. Somehow, this is G-d's perfect world, "Dai!" - just there. Clearly the verses indicate that Moshe was revealed a deeper understanding than that of the Avos. Yet, having said that this paradox cannot be understood by human consciousness at all, what could that deeper revelation possibly have been? The revelation of a mystery, of wonder, is also a revelation. Moshe was revealed a deeper level of knowing he didn't know, a greater consciousness of the name Hashem. That, however absurd, terrible, or bizarre parts of the world may seem, all things are a direct manifestation of G-d's will. The Zohar says that the Avos saw the colors that can be seen, but Moshe saw the colors that cannot be seen, for only Moshe saw through a "clear lens." You might think this means Moshe's lens was equipped with special X-Ray powers to see what normally cannot be seen. But the Zohar says that these colors, these revelations, cannot be seen at all! To "see" what cannot be seen is to know that you are not seeing it. To believe you are seeing and understanding what cannot be seen or understood is the true blindness. And that this world, all of it, is G-d's world is something that cannot be understood.
The Avos may have had more theories to explain it, but Moshe felt the mystery of it more profoundly. The Malbim says that this is why the revelation to the Avos is described as a "vision," but to Moshe it is just being "made known" to him. Knowing that there is no vision, no true understanding, of the depths of this mystery. This insight about the meaning of Moshe's "clear lens" is explicit in an incredible Gemara (Yevamot 49b.) Chazal ask how Isaiah can contradict the Torah - Moshe said in G-d's name, "no man may see Me." But Isaiah prophesied "And I saw G-d!" There is no contradiction, says the Gemara. Isaiah saw through an unclear lens, Moshe saw through a clear lens, through the clear lens that enables one not to see. This is the uniqueness of Moshe's prophecy - revealing that there is that which can never be revealed or seen. This is why it is appropriate to end Parshat Shmot before G-d's answer to Moshe - because it is no answer. The answer is to "sit" and meditate with the question. "Vayashev Moshe el Hashem", with his complaint Moshe returned to G-d and meditated upon His mystery. May we all be blessed to never lose our sense of wonder and what Avraham Joshua Heschel called "radical amazement" at the world, at the mystery of creation: especially on Shabat, when even G-d stopped constructing for a day just to take it all in with a deep breath - "veyenafash." Good Shabbos!