ספר שמות

When G’d tells Moses in Exodus 6,3 “I appeared ‎to Avraham,” He means that the patriarchs were ‎not privy to the “second” level of ‎ראיה‎ ‎‎“seeing=understanding,” only to the level of ‎revelations originating in a domain in which Justice, ‎דין‎ ‎is at home. This level is defined by G’d as ‎ב-אל שדי‎, the ‎power known as the “G’d Shaddai.” This name of G’d is ‎widely known in many parts of the physical universe, ‎and is an allusion to the G’d, Who, at the end of the ‎sixth day of creation said: ‎די‎, “enough,” before He ‎sanctified the seventh day, the Sabbath. G’d added ‎explicitly, that He had not revealed His name ‎‎“Hashem” to the patriarchs, i.e. ‎ושמי ה' לא נודעתי ‏להם‎. The precise meaning of the word ‎נודעתי‎ is “I ‎became revealed on the level of man gaining intimate ‎knowledge of Me,” the dimension of Me that is ‎manifest only in the regions “above” the world of ‎אותיות‎, ‎‎“letters.” In that region, as we have explained already ‎there is no ‎דין‎, attribute of Justice,” but only ‎חסד‎ the ‎attribute of love, kindness. G’d implies that it was ‎impossible for Him to reveal this aspect of Himself to ‎the patriarchs as long as He had not proven its ‎existence through His having redeemed the Israelites ‎from their miserable fate.‎This is also the reason why G’d did not say to ‎Moses: ‎לא הודעתי להם‎, “I have not made known to them,” ‎‎(active mode), but He said ‎לא נודעתי להם‎ I have not ‎become known to them, (passive mode). ‎חסד‎, loving ‎kindness, must be experienced by the recipient ‎passively; doling it out when the recipient is not aware ‎of it, i.e. something whose seed will take time to ‎blossom and eventually ripen, cannot be defined at the ‎outset in terms of its ultimate manifestation. This ‎dimension if and when it manifests itself, does not ‎require intervention by G’d in the affairs of men ‎through miracles, but is a natural development, easily ‎recognized by those who are privileged to experience ‎it. [Some of the words in this paragraph are ‎mine. Ed.]‎