I am Hashem

by Aryeh Siegel

I am Hashem your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slaves (Exodus 20:1). The first two words of the Ten Commandments that God spoke on Mount Sinai are:

I [am] Hashem [the four-letter name of ineffable divinity].

Who am I? Hashem. The true Self is the true Reality.

Abraham was told to go “to himself” to the land I will show you. It was not essentially a journey to a piece of real estate in the Middle East, but a journey within; a journey to the Self that “I” will give you the experience of (“show you”). The Hebrew word for “land” is connected to the word for “will” – the intention here being the divine will to give without receiving. This is the will we seek to discover in the journey within.

The Self is of course not just this physical body that was born some years ago and will someday cease to be alive. It is not even this personality that grows and expresses itself throughout my life. Deep within my consciousness is the awareness that I am part of the single general soul. My life has meaning by virtue of it being part of this larger story. Beyond this story is the story of creation. So the journey within – very, very deep within – will lead to the divine – to the Creator. On the way there, and on the way back, I find the meaning in my life in this body and personality.

How can I fully know the meaning of my life without knowing the meaning of life? How can I fully know the meaning of life without knowing the purpose of creation? How can I know the purpose of creation without at least some appreciation of the nature of the Creator? This nature is to give selflessly. So as I increase humility and love, meaning becomes more apparent