ספר דברים

Deuteronomy 6,4. “Hear O Israel!” it is a rule based ‎on tradition that when the Israelites pray and address G’d as ‎הא-ל ‏הגדול‎, “the great G’d,” G’d responds by wrapping Himself in ‎greatness, whereas when we add the words: ‎הגבור‎, “the mighty ‎One,” G’d drapes Himself in garments signaling that He is mighty. ‎When we continue in our prayers to refer to G’d as ‎הנורא‎, “the ‎awesome One,” G’d garbs Himself in a robe symbolizing that ‎adjective or attribute. The phenomenon of G’d garbing Himself in ‎various robes in response to our prayers is known as ‎אם‎, an ‎abbreviated form of the word ‎אמה‎, “cubit,” a basic unit in ‎measuring lengths. [If I understand correctly, this is used ‎as a device to interpose between the root, the essence, and visual ‎image of the essence it hides. Ed.] The “essence” behind is ‎known as ‎מטי ולא מטי‎, “both capable of being found and not ‎capable of being found;” [in the sense of “at one and the ‎same time attainable and yet not attainable”. Ed.] Even ‎this expression never appears without an accompanying ‎modifying adjective, attribute.When we recite the first line of the kriyat sh’ma, i.e. the ‎verse above, we refer to G’d in His essence prior to His having ‎garbed Himself in “robes,” in order to make it easier for us to ‎visualize Him, seeing that His Essence is beyond our ability to ‎visualize. The moment we add the word: ‎אלוקינו‎, i.e. “our G’d,” we ‎have already added something that reflects how G’d has imposed ‎restrictions on Himself and the absolute freedom represented by ‎His Essence. It is important for us to remember at all times that ‎we do not address our prayers to the “visualized” version of ‎‎“Hashem,” but to His Essence.[In order to ‎understand the concept of ‎אם המדידה‎ the “mother of measuring,” ‎the reader may recall that there is a rod exactly one meter long ‎preserved in Paris as a terms of reference whenever a dispute ‎would arise about the accuracy of a device claiming to be exactly ‎one meter long. Ed.]‎ ‎