"And God spoke to Moses" (Exodus 6:2). The Hebrew word for "spoke" (vayedaber) implies harshness, while "said" (vayomer) implies gentleness. Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk uses this grammatical distinction to unlock the entire spiritual architecture of Parashat Vaera.
The Talmud teaches: "The wicked begin with harmony and end with suffering; the righteous begin with suffering and end with harmony" (see Genesis Rabbah 66:4). The righteous must first serve God through awe—guarding themselves against the evil inclination, breaking every physical appetite. This is harsh. It is Din (Judgment). It is Elohim. But after conquering the appetites, peace arrives. The enemy—the evil inclination—is subdued. That is Adonai, the name of love.
"And Elohim spoke"—harshly, through judgment. "And said to him, 'I am Adonai'"—softly, through love. The two halves of the verse map the spiritual journey from fear to love.
Rashi explains that God spoke harshly to Moses because Moses had "hurled words toward heaven" (Shemot Rabbah 3:9), protesting: "Why have You done such evil to this people?" But Rebbe Elimelech insists this was not rebellion. Moses challenged God out of overwhelming love for the Jewish people. And love for Israel is love for God. Therefore, even though harsh speech was warranted, God ultimately responded with the soft language of love: "I am Adonai."
King David prayed for exactly this transition: "Confirm Your word through Your servant" (Psalms 119:38)—help me reach the level of love, so that from love I arrive at the higher awe.
And El-him spoke to Moshe, etc (Exodus 6:2) - Seems to us that [we should] explain what is in the Gemara "the wicked:their beginning is harmony and their end is suffering but the righteous: their beginning is suffering and their end is harmony" (See Genesis Rabbah 66:4). There is to say that the righteous need to serve the Blessed Creator from the beginning with awe and guard oneself from [being manipulated by] the impulse for evil, and to break every physical appetite, and this is "their beginning is suffering" and after one has merited to break every appetite and one's enemy - this is the impulse for evil - he is in peace with himself, the "their end is harmony". And this is "and El-him spoke", that "speaking" is the language of difficulty, and Elokim is the level of awe; and the explanation of "and spoke" is difficulty; "Elokim" means that when he was in the level of awe; "and said to him 'I am Ad-nai'" means when he came to the level of love that is 'Ad-nai' then the saying was in a softer language. And one could say that this is the intention of Rashi z"l "And Elokim spoke - spoke harshly with him [Moses] because he had spoken so censoriously when he said 'why have You done such evil to this people?!'" And as it appears in the midrash that he hurled words towards heaven (Shemot Rabbah 3:9), and in truth, may God protect and grant peace, that Moses hurled words against the Blessed Name - he only did that due to his love for the Jewish people, and this teaches regarding the greatness of the love of the Creator Whose Name is Blessed, and the explanation is this: "And Elokim spoke etc' that is to say that even though it was appropriate for Him to speak harshly because he hurled words against Heaven, yet, since it was because of the greatness of his love for the Jewish people, which is the love for the Creator Whose Name is Blessed, therefore 'He said to him 'I am Hashem' which is a soft saying of love. And this is what King David of blessed memory prayed (Ps. 119:38) 'Confirm Your word through Your servant', meaning that the One Whose Name is Blessed helps one to come to the level of Love, which is hinted by the language of 'saying'; 'that fears You' means love like this: that from love one will come to fear, which is the higher awe. And this si easy to understand. "And I appeared" (Ex. 6:3) - And Rashi, Z"l, wrote "And I appeared to the patriarchs". And at a first glance, what does Rashi want with this, doesn't the verse explain [itself] 'Avraham, Yitzchak etc' and we know that they are called 'patriarchs'. And it seems that the intention of Rashi with this is that Avraham was the attribute of Love (chesed), Yitzchak the aspect of Strength (gevurah) and Yaakov, Balance (tif'eret) and they influenced one another in their aspects, and if so, how was it applicable that El Shadai was seen to all? Isn't it that holiness (kedushah) comes from above according to a person's level? However, the root of this issue is this: from the side of the Blessed Creator there is no change whatsoever, rather, according to the service done by a person in their level [holiness] continues on them. We find that Avraham continued on himself the attribute of Love, and so Yitzchak in his attribute, and also too Yaakov, but from the side of the Blessed Creator, there is unified unique simplicity, and this is why Rashi z"l explained "I appeared to the patriarchs" meaning, that with regards to the Blessed Creator there is no separation or division between them at all, and everything is one, therefore [God] appeared to them in one aspect, as El Shadai. And this is easy to understand. "And I appeared etc as El Shadai etc" (Ex. 6:3) - And we seek to explain with what appears in the Gemara "Shadai - that said to the world, 'enough (dai)'" (Chagigah 12a:15) so it would not keep expanding. And the issue is that our sages z"l made us listen to the great goodness that the Blessed Creator did to us: it is known that the Lofty one is more realized the farther it is from the one to whom [the Lofty one] delegated [action], and it is found that were it not for the fact that [God] said to God's world 'enough!' the world would continue to expand to no end, and the husks (kelipot) from the Depths of the Great Void (Nukvah deTehomah Rabah) would have become present in the world, and now that God said 'enough!' - this is the goodness, that the husks would not become so present. And there is also "SHaDDai - " that is, that this name loosens (meShaDeD) [the laws of] Nature for the good of Israel. (see Ramban on Genesis 17:1:1) And this is "and I appeared etc as El Shadai" (Ex. 6:3) meaning, when I appeared to the patriarchs to promise them regarding the Land of Israel, I promised to them in the name El Shadai, which loosens the divisions, so that the husks and the nations will not have a grip on the Land of Israel, even if, God forbid, Israel aren't deserving. "And My name H' I did not make known to them", meaning, I did not promised them in the name Havaya, Blessed be the One and Blessed be the Name, lest, God forbid, they come to sin, and there is strengthening of the husks and the nations will grip, God forbid, the Land of Israel - therefore God was visible to them as El Shadai. And sit with this (think about it deeply).
