From comment of rav S.R. Hirsch on first of Atzeres Hadibros - the Ten Commandmants.
The so called "belief in the existence of God", as ancient and modern theological philosophers like to express the idea of "the first commandment", is miles away from what this fundamental verse of Jewish thought and Jewish existence demands from Jewish thought and Jewish life. Not the fact that there is a God, also not that there is only one God, but that this One, unique, true God, is to be my God, that He created and formed me, placed me where I am, and goes on creating and forming me, keeps me, watches over me, leads and guides me; not that my connection with Him should be through ten thousand intermediaries as a chance product of a universe which He brought into being eons ago, but that every present breath that I draw and every coming moment of my existence is to be a direct gift of His Almight and Love, and that I have to live every present and future second of my life solely in His service — in a word, not the knowledge of the existence of God, but the acknowledgment of God, as my God, as the exclusive One in Whose hands is the disposal of all my fate, and as the exclusive One guide of all my acts, it is only with this, only with the acceptance of this Truth, that I can lay the foundation of a Jewish Life. To the demand Anoichi HaShem Elokeichu there is but one corresponding reply Atu Elokai!
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