ספר שמות

Another way of understanding the words: ‎אנכי ה' אלוקיך‎, can ‎be understood after a look at Rashi, who says that the fact ‎that G’d appears in different facets is no reason to assume that ‎each facet belongs to a different Being, (based on Pessikta ‎rabbati 21; where we are told that whereas when G’d appeared ‎to the Israelites as a Warrior battling the Egyptians, their ‎perception of Him was as His being a young man at the height of ‎His vigour, whereas at the revelation at Mount Sinai they ‎perceived Him as an aged scholar). The reason is that Torah ‎emerges from the mouth of the mature, as we know from Job ‎‎12,12, ‎בישישים חכמה ואורך ימים‎, “wisdom is in the aged and ‎understanding in the long lived.” Seeing that G’d was aware that ‎the Israelites at the bottom of Mount Sinai viewed Him from a ‎different perspective than how they had viewed Him at the time ‎of the Exodus, He reassures them by saying that He is the same ‎G’d Who had taken them out of Egypt.‎However, when the father studies a subject requiring ‎intelligence with his son, instead of the father adjusting to his ‎son’s level, the father must try and raise his son’s level to that of ‎his own. The easiest way to achieve this is for the father to adopt ‎the mien of an aged experienced scholar, whose life experience ‎qualifies him to be the mentor of a son many years his junior. ‎This is what the author of Pessikta rabbati had in mind ‎when describing G’d as a young vigorous warrior at the time of ‎the Exodus, but appearing as an aged sage at the revelation at ‎Mount Sinai.‎The above quoted statement that G’d appeared to the ‎Israelites as a young and virile warrior at the time of the Exodus, ‎whereas He appeared as mature sage at the time of the revelation ‎at Mount Sinai, can also be understood differently, in terms of the ‎different degrees of ‎צמצום‎ “downsizing,” that G’d resorts to ‎depending on which of His creatures He is dealing with.‎