God reveals His name to Moses

Our parasha, Va’era, begins with the following revelation (Exodus 6:2-3):

וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיֹּ֥אמֶר אֵלָ֖יו אֲנִ֥י יְהוָֽה׃ וָֽאֵרָ֗א אֶל־אַבְרָהָ֛ם אֶל־יִצְחָ֥ק וְאֶֽל־יַעֲקֹ֖ב בְּאֵ֣ל שַׁדָּ֑י וּשְׁמִ֣י יְהוָ֔ה לֹ֥א נוֹדַ֖עְתִּי לָהֶֽם

And God ſpake vnto Moses, and ſaid vnto him, I am the Lord. And I appeared vnto Abraham, vnto Isaac, and vnto Iacob, by the Name of God Almighty, but by my name IEHOVAH was I not knowen to them.

(As far as I know, this is the only place where the KJV prints an attempted transliteration of the Tetragrammaton, rather than translating it as "the LORD".)

Our scholar comments:

ושמי יי. לית. לא היה יותר שהקדוש מפרש שמו לאדם על ידי שאלה ששאל לו מה שמו אך משה -- לכך לית
ושמי יהוה: תגין על השם, כלומר אותו השם הנכתר והמצויין והוא השם המפורש המעולה

יהוה: מעוטרות הֵיהין רמז על הוויותיו ב' היהין הן י'. ורמז על י' הוויות עומק ראשית עומק אחרית (א) עומק מעלה (ב) עומק מטה (ג) עומק מזרח (ד) עומק מערב (ה) עומק צפון (ו) עומק דרום (ז) עומק טוב (ח) עומק רע (ט) עומק ראשית (י) עומק אחרית. הרי י' הווייות הכל ממנו
לא נודעתי להם. לא הודעתי היה לו לומר. אלא לא נודעתי -- אני לא נודעתי להם על ידי שום שאילה כי לא שאלו לי האבות מה שמך. ולך נודעתי על ידי ששאלת לי מה שמך ואמרתי לך השם והווייותיי, וזהו נודעתי כי השם הקדוש מעיד על ייחודו והווייתו, וכתיב: כשמך אלהים כן תהילתך. וזהו נודעתי

לא נודעתי. לית. לשום אדם נודעתי כי אם לך, על ידי שאילתך. ולכך תגין על השם לרמז על אודות ההווייות

And my name YHWH. This string of words appears nowhere else in Scripture, [only here] --for there has been no other occasion when God has made His explicit name known to an individual in response to the question "What is Thy name?". [He did this] only for Moses -- and therefore, this string of words appears nowhere else in Scripture.
And my name YHWH.* There are tagin on the Name, to indicate that this is the crowned, distinguished Name, the superior, explicit Name.
YHWH. The letters hé are crowned, to allude to His modes of existence.** Twice hé is ten, alluding to the ten modes of existence, utter firstness and utter lastness: (1) Utter height, (2) utter lowness, (3) utter east, (4) utter west, (5) utter north, (6) utter south, (7) utter good, (8) utter bad, (9) utter firstness, (10) utter lastness. These are the ten modes of existence -- all from Him.
I was not knowen (noda‘ti) to them. It should have said "I did not make known" (hoda‘ti). So what does it say I was not known? It means that I did not become known to them in response to any question, for the Patriarchs never asked me: "What is Thy name?" But to you I have become known in response to your question: "What is Thy name?" I have told you the Name, and my modes of existence. And this is why it says noda‘ti ("was known"), for the Holy Name gives testimony about His unity and existence. As it is written: According to thy Name, O God, so is thy praise. (Psalms 48:11). This is the meaning of noda‘ti.
I was not knowen to them. This string of words appears nowhere else in Scripture, for I was not known to anyone else, but only to you, in response to your question. Therefore, there are tagin on the Name, to allude to the modes of existence.

*In the manuscript, each of the two letters hé in the Name is crowned with three tagin. (This is interesting to me, because I have seen a set of Scrolls of Nevi'im in which several occurrences of the Tetragrammaton have their letters hé crowned with multiple tagin, in verses of particular significance.)





**I don't know much about these Ten Modes of Existence. I think that they are Saadianic, that is, they have something to do with the philosophy of R. Saadia Gaon in Sefer Emunoth Ve-de‘oth.