Torah Reading for Va'eira

When anyone is in anguish, his breathing is short and he cannot draw long breaths.

In a manner similar to the above explanation I have heard this passage expounded by Rabbi Baruch b’Rabbi Eliezer, and he brought me a proof for this from the following verse: “At this time, I will let them know My power and My might, and they will know that My Name is God.” 9 This verse teaches us that when the Holy One, blessed be He, fulfills His promises, even regarding retribution, He thus makes it known that His Name is “God,” and all the more so when substantiating His promises for good.

But our rabbis 10 explained this passage in connection with the previous subject, that Moses asked: “Why have You mistreated this people?” 11 The Holy One, blessed be He, replied to him: It is a great pity about the loss of those who are gone and are no longer to be found! I now have reason to grieve over the death of the patriarchs. Many times I appeared to them as “God Almighty,” but they never asked Me: “What is Your Name?” But you asked: “They will ask me, ‘What is His Name?’ What should I tell them?” 12

but when Abraham wished to bury Sarah, he did not find a burial plot until he acquired one at a high price; and similarly with Isaac, the local people raised claims against him concerning the wells that he had dug; and similarly with Jacob, “he purchased the parcel of land upon which he had pitched his tent”; 13 yet they did not question My ways – but you asked: “Why have You mistreated this people?”

However, this explanation does not fit in with the text for various reasons: Firstly, it does not say: “but My Name God they did not ask Me.” And if you say that the verse is in fact telling us that God did not inform the patriarchs that this is His Name, I answer that this cannot be the meaning, for already when God first appeared to Abraham at the Covenant between the Pieces, it says: “I am God who took you out of Ur of the Chaldeans.” 14 Furthermore, according to this explanation, how does the context flow with the verses that follow here: “And I have also heard…therefore, convey to the Israelites, ‘I am God’”? I therefore say: the verse should be explained primarily according to its straightforward meaning, each word in its proper setting, but in this case the Midrashic explanation must also be expounded, as it says: “Is not My word like fire, declares God, and like a hammer that splinters a rock”; 15 similarly fire – God’s word, the Torah – is divided into several sparks, i.e., explanations.