The First Commandment

What's the difference between No-thingness with a capital N and vanilla nothing with a lower case n? What makes one Nothing G-d and the other just nothing?

But G-d the Creator is the G-d that Israel shares with the rest of creation. At Sinai, G-d did not speak to us as the author of nature

the Midrash makes a surprising statement: it says that the first word of the Ten Commandments is in the Egyptian language!

Any successful speaker will tell you that you need to speak your audience's language. "When in Finland," the saying goes, "start with Finish." But why does G-d start the Ten Commandments in Egyptian?

"Who took us out of Egypt"?! What about "who created the Heaven and Earth"? Surely stage-managing the Exodus doesn't even approach His role as designer and creator of the universe!

G‑d is saying: "Let's get one thing straight from the beginning: I am. The stars and the planets, the animals and the green trees and even humanity exist only because I am, and to serve My 'I am.' If you follow these Ten Commandments, you will join me in 'I am.'"