Layers of Meaning in Mi Chamocha

Marc Brettler, My People's Prayer Book, (Vol. 1, pgs. 130-131)

[In this prayer,] grammatical tenses [are] used in a particularly significant way. [The prayer recalls God's past actions and contains commands in the present.] The climactic hope for a new Exodus, however, is given in the future ("Adonai will reign forever and ever"). This alternation of tenses reinforces the theme...that the promised new redemption will mimic the past one. Indeed, it will occur not in the distant future, but in the near present as all time periods - past, present and future - converge.

Lawrence Hoffman, My People's Prayer Book (Vol. 1, pg. 133)

...the Rabbis insist on a moral God who enters history to right wrongs and bring about a better age...[and] ruled that the righteous of all nations receive a share in the world to come.

Rachel Barenblat, How Can We Keep From Singing (https://velveteenrabbi.blogs.com/blog/2019/01/how-can-i-keep-from-singing.html)

מִֽי־כָמֹ֤כָה בָּֽאֵלִם֙ יְהֹוָ֔’’ה? מִ֥י כָּמֹ֖כָה נֶאְדָּ֣ר בַּקֹּ֑דֶשׁ, נוֹרָ֥א תְהִלֹּ֖ת, עֹ֥שֵׂה פֶֽלֶא׃

Mi chamocha ba-eilim Adonai? Mi camocha nedar bakodesh, nora tehilot, oseh feleh!

Who is like You, God -- majestic in holiness, awesome in splendor, Worker of Wonders?

...when we sing these words each day, we're called to remember. To remember the miracle of the redemption from slavery, the Exodus from Egypt, the crossing of the Sea. Take apart the English word remember and you get re/member -- to experience memory in the body; to re-inhabit lived experience. Singing Mi Chamocha is an opportunity to re-member liberation. To experience it again. To feel it in our bodies. To cultivate our sense of awe and trust, and from those emotions, to joyously sing.

Siddur Lev Shalem for Shabbat and Festivals, pg. 158

The Babylonian Talmud links this last b'rakhah of the recitation of the Sh'ma, mentioning God's redeeming the people Israel from Egypt, to the personal prayers that now follow in the Amidah, and recommends that there be no verbal interruption at this point (Berakhot 9b). It is as if to say that the possibility of prayer flows out of our experience of God's love as exhibited in freeing us from slavery.

Lawrence Kushner and Nehemia Polen, My People's Prayer Book, (Vol. 1, pg. 134)

And just this is the real meaning of Mi kamokha, “Who is like You among the gods, Adonai!” For the Kabbalists, the word mi is not an interrogative “who,” but another name for God. And ba’elim “among the gods” can also be read as bet ilan “two trees.” So now the Mi kamokha reads not as a question but as a statement: “‘Who’ [i.e., God] is two trees,” the tree of life which is Ayin, “Nothingness,” and the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which is yesh, “something,” ne’dar bakodesh, nora tehilot, oseh fele, “adorned in holiness, revered in praise, worker of miracles.” And when we balance our power to act, our self-assertion, our yesh, our something, with the humility of being selfless, Ayin, Nothing, then we too can perform wonders. And this is redemption.

Leo Fuchs

Perhaps in the Mi Chamocha, just before we transition to our personal prayers of request in the Amidah, we are meant not just to be grateful that we are free and that God freed us, but also to think hard about what we will do with our freedom. What will we make of the precious gift of our lives and freedom to make choices? What will we request of God during the Amidah? How do our personal prayers for ourselves and our families link to our prayers for our communities?