speech
first person
At a glance
In short
Both mean I. Ani is the plain first person; anochi is the emphatic I myself, the weightier and rarer word (ani outnumbers it more than two to one in Tanach). Malbim and Rabbi Pappenheim locate the difference in where the news lies: with anochi it is in the subject (I, and no one else, did it), and with ani in the predicate (what I did, as against something else I might have done). So for them Anochi Hashem Elokecha stresses that He, and no other, is our God. Others read the pair differently: Rav Hirsch takes the force of anochi to be nearness rather than exclusion, and Rabbi Edel takes ani to speak for the soul and anochi for the body.
Distinctions
Ani (אני)
The ordinary first-person pronoun, and the one that survived into everyday speech; anochi by contrast sounds somewhat archaic today.
- Maharal: ani is simply first person, without stress.
- Malbim and Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim: ani is used where the fresh information sits in the predicate, so ani omed means "I am standing," that is, standing and not sitting.
- Rav Hirsch: ani marks the speaker off as distinct from the one he is addressing.
- Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel: when a person says ani he speaks for his soul.
- Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg shows from a range of sources that although ani is normally a common pronoun, when Hashem uses it, it can function as a Name of His.
Anochi (אנכי)
The emphatic form.
- Maharal: reflexive first person, one who is stressing himself, "I myself."
- Malbim and Rabbi Pappenheim: the novelty is in the subject, so anochi omed means "I, and not another, am standing." Applied to the opening of the Aseres HaDibros, this is why the Dibrah begins Anochi (Shemos 20:2): He and no other is the God who took us out of Mitzrayim.
Rav Hirsch reads the emphasis differently, and warmly: anochi carries the speaker's closeness to the one he addresses, in his standing as benefactor. On that reading Anochi opens the Dibros to establish Hashem's nearness to Klal Yisrael as the One who is their God and who brought them out. This somewhat echoes the Midrashic tradition that ties anochi in the Dibros to the Egyptian word anoch, meaning love and endearment.
Rabbeinu Bachya says anochi carries deeper, kabbalistic weight than ani, without explaining further. One might read that as anochi for the soul and ani for the body, but there is evidence to the contrary: Ibn Ezra relates anochi to anach, a plumb line (Amos 7:7-8), and Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel builds on this that anochi is the bob at the line's end, which anchors the straightedge, as the body anchors the soul in this world and holds it inside physical bounds. So for Rabbi Edel the two words name two elements of a person's existence, ani speaking for the soul and anochi for the body.
Rabbi Eliyahu Benamozegh (Eim LaMikra to Shemos 20:2) relates anochi to Sanskrit.
Radak on this root
Sefer HaShorashim
א-נ-ך
Tin, and the tin plummet a builder weighs with; also אָנֹכִי, which is like אני, I.
The wall and the plummet
עַל־חוֹמַת אֲנָךְ (Amos 7:7), upon a wall of anach: he explains אנך as בדיל, tin, and says it is called so in Arabic, with the kaf doubled; the meaning is a wall built with a measuring line and with the plummet of judgment. וּבְיָדוֹ אֲנָֽךְ (Amos 7:7), and in his hand an anach, is משקלת הבדיל, the tin plummet, for the plummet the builder weighs with is made of lead or of tin, that is, פְּייומְבִּין, a plumb.
Setting the plummet
הִֽנְנִי שָׂם אֲנָךְ (Amos 7:8), behold I am setting an anach, he explains as משקלת אנך, a plummet of anach. He says Rabbi Yonah explained the matter well, taking it in the sense of וְשַׂמְתִּי מִשְׁפָּט לְקָו וּצְדָקָה לְמִשְׁקָלֶת (Yeshayahu 28:17), and I will make justice the line and righteousness the plummet.
Not passing over him again
לֹֽא־אוֹסִיף עוֹד עֲבוֹר לֽוֹ (Amos 7:8), I will not again pass him by any more, means: I will no longer pass over his sins, for I will call him to account for them in judgment, judging them by the plummet of judgment and the line of law.
I, אָנֹכִי
אָנֹכִי הָאֵל (Bereishis 46:3), I am the Kel: אָנֹכִי is like אני, I.
וְהִנֵּה אֲדֹנָי נִצָּב עַל־חוֹמַת אֲנָךְ (עמוס ז, ז), פירושו בדיל. וכן יקרא בלשון ערבי אנ"ך בדגשות הכ"ף, ופירושו חומה בנויה בקו מדה ובמשקלת המשפט, וּבְיָדוֹ אֲנָֽךְ (עמוס ז, ז), משקלת הבדיל, כי כן עושם משקלת מהעופרת או הבדיל ששוקל בה הבנאי (רצה לומר פְּייומְבִּין), הִֽנְנִי שָׂם אֲנָךְ (עמוס ז, ח), פירוש משקלת אנך, ויפה פירש רבי יונה הענין בהנני שֹם אנך כענין וְשַׂמְתִּי מִשְׁפָּט לְקָו וּצְדָקָה לְמִשְׁקָלֶת (ישעיה כח, יז). ופירוש לֹֽא־אוֹסִיף עוֹד עֲבוֹר לֽוֹ (עמוס ז, ח), לא אוסיף עוד עבור על עונותיו כי אפקדם עליו במשפט כי באנך המשפט ובקו הדין אשפוט אותם. אָנֹכִי הָאֵל (בראשית מו, ג), כמו אני.
Radak, Sefer HaShorashim, Berlin 1847. Public domain, digitised by Sefaria from the National Library of Israel.
Sources
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Myself and I," What's in a Word?, Ohr Somayach, 18 February 2017.
Rabbi Reuven Chaim Klein, "Myself and I," What's in a Word? Synonyms in the Hebrew Language (book manuscript).
Cited in the essay: Shemos 20:2; Amos 7:7-8; Maharal; Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim; Malbim; Rav Hirsch; Rabbeinu Bachya; Ibn Ezra; Rabbi Yehuda Leib Edel, Redifei Maya (שורש אנך); Rabbi Yaakov Tzvi Mecklenburg, HaKsav VeHaKabbalah; the Midrashic tradition on Egyptian anoch; Benamozegh, Eim LaMikra to Shemos 20:2.