Exodus 15:2

The Lord is Mighty, and greatly to be feared over all the world. He spake in His Word, and became to me a God of salvation. From their mothers' breasts even the children have given signs with their fingers to their fathers, and said This is our God, who nourished us with honey from the rock, and with oil from the stone of clay, at the time when our mothers went forth upon the face of the field to give us birth, and leave us there; and He sent an angel who washed us and enwrapped us; and now will we praise Him: He is the God of our fathers, and we will exalt Him.

THE ETERNAL IS MY STRENGTH AND SONG. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained that the word ozi (my strength) is connected with the following word [v’zimrath — and song], thus rendering its sense: “my strength and the song of my strength is the Eternal.” This is my G-d ‘v’anveihu': I will make Him a habitation, [from the root naveh (habitation)]. This is my father’s G-d, and I will exalt Him, i.e., by recounting His greatness.
Now this is surely the plain meaning of the verse. But [it should be noted that] Moses does not mention here the full Divine Name, [i.e., the Tetragrammaton, which consists of four letters], but instead mentions only the first two letters. In the entire Torah, it is the manner of Moses our teacher to mention the entire Great Name which He communicated to him, as it is said, This is My Name for ever, and this is My memorial unto all generations. And the Rabbis have already explained the verse, The hand is upon the throne of Y-ah,, and is quoted by Rashi at the end of this Seder. to mean that “the Holy One, blessed be He, swore that His throne will not be perfect nor will His Name be complete until the seed of Amalek will be entirely blotted out.” [The question then arises: why is the full Divine Name not written here?]
By way of the Truth, [that is, the mystic lore of the Cabala], the whole deliverance at the sea came through the angel of G-d — the one of whom it is written, for My Name is in him — just as it is said, and Israel saw the great hand. The “hand” alludes to the attribute of justice, which is the great hand that executes the vengeance. It is by this attribute that the sea was divided, as the prophet explained, Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Eternal… Art thou not it that dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep? and as I have written above. which is the attribute of justice… became revealed to them.” It is for this reason that Moses said that his strength and his song are this Name, [i.e., the first two letters of the Tetragrammaton, which allude to the attribute of justice], For in Y-ah the Eternal is an everlasting Rock. And so did [the psalmist] explain: What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleest?… At the presence of the G-d of Jacob. alludes here to the attribute of justice. And so the Rabbis have said in the Mechilta: “When Israel went into the sea, the Shechinah (Divine presence) was with …

. עזי וזמרת י-ה; the power, the glory and the fame of the Jewish people are only G’d. It was He Who became our ישועה, salvation. The chataf kametz followed by the letter י which is not part of the word is similar to a similar construction in Lamentations 1,1 רבתי בגוים as well as in Psalms 123,1 הישבי בשמים, and in Jeremiah 49,16 שוכני בחגוי סלע. On the other hand, when we encounter the construction עוזי as in Psalms 59,10 uzzi eleycha eshmorah, the meaning of עוזי is: “”My strength.”

וזמרת, the letter ת at the end of this word is similar to the letter ת at the end of the word שכורת instead of שכורה in Isaiah 51,21 or the letter ת at the end of the word שערות inתסמר שערות בשרי in Job 4,15. It is part of a repetition of the beginning of the verse i.e. the words ורוח על פני יחלוף, “a wind passed me by.” This is also how Rav Yoseph translated it. The word וזמרת is spelled defectively just as are the words שכורת and שערות in the verses quoted. [the author means that the letter ו, indicating a sound, is only read for the vowel cholem but not spelled out in the text. Ed.]

זה א-לי, even though G’d remained, of course, invisible to the human eye, it is order to describe the experience witnessed with the word זה, “this,” just as we find the word זה “this,” used by the Torah (describing an utterance by the people about to make the golden calf) in the line כי זה האיש משה, “for this man Moses, etc.” (Exodus 32,1) It is clear that they did not “see” Moses at the time, as the reason for what they were about to do was precisely Moses’ “invisibility,” i.e. he had not returned from the Mountain as promised.

ואנוהו, “I will describe His beauty in poetical terms.” We find something parallel to this in Jeremiah 6,2 הנוה והמעגנה, “the lovely and delicate one.” (a description of בת ציון, the concept of “Daughter of Zion.”) It is not to be compared to Isaiah 27,10 כי עיר בצורה בדד נוה משלח, “for the fortified city lies desolate, a homestead deserted, etc.” The proof lies in the repetition of the prophet’s theme at the end of his verse. [had he introduced a new thought, instead of the repetition of the same thought in different words, we could have erred in understanding his meaning. Ed.]

In our context both the words ארומממנה and אנוהו are clearly expressions of glorifying G’d.

עזי וזמרת י-ה, It is G’d’s glory that He flung Pharaoh’s might into the Sea. By doing this He demonstrated that He is the King of kings, and that it is appropriate that those who have been saved by Him praise Him in poem and song. They should demonstrate their joy at having been elevated to being servants of the true master, the King of the universe.

ויהי לי לישועה, my salvation consisted in the fact that He flung the enemy into the Sea. (compare Isaiah 66,14 “The power of the Lord will be revealed on behalf of His servants; but He shall rage against His foes.”)

זה א-לי, He is the eternal original Being as far as I am concerned. He invented or called into existence all perishable phenomena. Any and all phenomena which will endure have been enabled to do so only by His will.

ואנוהו, I will erect a suitable residence for Him in our midst. Within that residence I shall pray to Him exclusively and I will serve Him as is befitting to the One Who bestows both goodness and punishes the derelict. (compare Isaiah 44,17. ויתפלל אליו ויאמר הצילני נא כי א-לי אתה, “He prayed to Him, saying: ‘save me for You are my G’d.’”) Both prayer and service (sacrifices, etc.) have as their purpose to find favour in the eyes of the Lord.

אלוקי אבי, a reference to the “G’d of Yaakov” who had spoken of א-ל אלוקי ישראל, in Genesis 33,20. Yaakov had meant that G’d is great in His awesomeness, His supervision of the individual fates of His creatures. He had named G’d thus to indicate that G’d combines within Himself both the attribute of love and the attribute of Justice.

וארוממנהו, I elevate Him by my prostrating myself and humbling myself before Him, as well as by making it known that the purpose of everyone of my endeavours in this life to carry out His will to the best of my ability, consistent with the intellectual faculties granted to me. I acknowledge that His will is always superior and ultimately of the most benefit to His creatures. This is why in the final analysis He is beyond even our best efforts to praise Him and exalt Him. (Nechemyah 9,6).