Toward the end of Parashat Ki-Tavo, Moshe briefly recounts the nation’s experiences over the previous forty years: “I led you for forty years in the wilderness; your garments did not wear out upon you, and your shoe did not wear out upon your foot. You did not eat bread or drink wine or strong drinks – in order that you know that I, the Lord, am your God” (29:4-5).
A number of writers noted the difficulty inherent in the final clause of these verses – “in order that you know that I, the Lord, am your God” – insofar as it is Moshe, not the Almighty, who speaks to the people at this point. Why does this verse speak of God in the first person form, as though God Himself is the speaker, when it truth it is Moshe who speaks?
This question led Rav Shimshon Refael Hirsch to suggest a particularly novel and insightful interpretation to this verse: “so that you should know that ani Hashem is your God.” Meaning, according to Rav Hirsch, Moshe is indeed the speaker, but the words “ani Hashem” (“I, the Lord”) actually constitute a third-person reference to God. Already in Egypt, when God assigned Moshe to convey the message of deliverance to the Israelite slaves, and to Pharaoh and the Egyptian taskmasters, He repeats several times the fundamental message of ani Hashem. Thus, for example, the promise of redemption that Moshe proclaims to the people concludes with, “you shall know that I the Lord am your God…” (Shemot 6:7). Rav Hirsch suggests that the phrase ani Hashemhere in Parashat Ki-Tavo is a reference to the message he conveyed to Benei Yisrael back in Egypt, during the period of slavery. He tells the people that it is only after the experience of forty years of desert travel, during which time the people survived supernaturally through the overt miracles of God, that they finally confirmed in their minds the message of ani Hashem which was conveyed to them (or to their parents) in Egypt.
Indeed, this interpretation flows naturally from the preceding verses: “Moshe called to all Israel and said to them: You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt… The great wonders which your eyes beheld… Yet, the Lord did not give you a heart to know, eyes to see or ears to listen until this day. I led you for forty years in the wilderness…” This is precisely Moshe’s message to the people: the message of the Exodus was not fully internalized until this point, after they had spent forty years traversing the wilderness. The extraordinary events of the Exodus did not – and could not – have the same enduring impact as the consistent, day in, day out experiences of the forty years in the wilderness. These forty years laid the groundwork for the covenant into which Benei Yisrael now enter with God as they stand on the brink of entering the Land of Israel. Only after this forty-year period did the process of the Exodus finally reach its conclusion, as the people once and for all firmly and unwaveringly accepted and learned the message of ani Hashem.
Courtesy of Yeshivat Har Etzion - www.etzion.org.il