In the midst of Az Yashir (Exodus 15), we find a difficult verse:

Who Is like You O L-RD, among the celestials;
Who is like You, majestic in holiness,
Awesome in splendor, working wonders? (Exodus 15:11).

The phrase among the celestials is the JPS translation of the Hebrew ba-elim. (Another English translation is “among the powerful.”)That phrase can be literally translated as “among the gods.” But there is a problem in translating in such a literal fashion, because of the following problem:

Philosophers of religion distinguish between monolatry, the service of only god, and monotheism, the belief that only One God exists. Logically, one could adopt the former without believing in the latter. That is, one could say, “There are numerous gods, but my god, the god that protects me, the god that I pray to and worship, is one particular deity out of a group of many.” Judaism, of course, rejects this. We proclaim ein od mi-levado- there is only one God. When we say the Shema, we are not only claiming that we worship only one God (monolatry) but are asserting monotheism. We are proclaiming the philosophical/theological doctrine of absolute monotheism as a fact about the universe. Ontologically, there is no other Divine Being but the One God. The L-RD alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other (Deuteronomy 4:39).

In the Mekhilta to the parashah of Az Yashir, and in other sources, Hazal present numerous derashot concerning the meaning of elim. For example, one famous derashah states: mi kamokha ba-ilmim (those who are mute).

Who is like unto Thee in silence, O L-RD, who is like Thee among the silent ones, O L-RD, who is like Thee, who, though seeing the insult heaped upon thy children, yet keepest silence, as it is said: “I have long time held My peace, I have been still, and refrained Myself; now will I cry like a travailing woman, gasping and panting at once.” (The verse alluded to is Isaiah 42:14-15; See Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael, ed. Lauterbach {Philadelphia, 1949}, pp. 60-61.) We praise God Who is silent in spite of the words and actions of those who blaspheme His nation, the children of Israel. Ramban (in his commentary, ad loc.) understands elim as the celestial beings, and this underlies the JPS translation quoted above. According to Ramban, these beings exist on a higher plane than human beings do, but they are definitely not gods.

I think that part of what impelled the numerous interpretations is the difficulty in accepting the peshat of elim as gods and that is precisely because a literal interpretation would indicate only an affirmation of monolatry, but not of monotheism. Just perhaps, the view quoted in the Mekhilta that the children of Israel and the nations of the world uttered the Mi Kamokha verse (but, by implication, not Moshe Rabbenu; see Mekhilta, ed. Lauterbach, p. 59) might be hinting at that. Benei Yisrael, having just left Egypt, and not yet possessing a refined religious consciousness, had reached the stage of monolatry after having seen the miracles, but they still had not yet reached the level of affirming absolute monotheism. The nations of the world as well, were (albeit, momentarily) also kofer ba-‘Aboda Zara. They renounced polytheism, and accepted monolatry. (Alternatively, Mi kamokha ba-elim could be an expression of absolute rejection of the reality of other gods by those who had previously believed in the reality of these other gods. If one goes in that direction, one might consequently understand that temporarily, at least, this opinion in the Mekhilta understood that the entire universe became [temporarily] monotheistic!) Moshe, however, of course did understand the truth of onto-theological monotheism. He was beyond making comparison that implied the lower level of monolatry. Hence, he did not utter that verse.

One could add to this last point by employing a notion utilized by Rambam, and expanded by the 14^th century Provencal Maimonidean Joseph ibn Kaspi. That is, the employment of the notion of “the Torah speaks in the language of man,” not only as an explanation of grammatical formulations, but as an expression of theological beliefs. It has been pointed out (see the JPS Torah Commentary) that several biblical texts in close proximity to each other utter statements such as “O L-RD G-D, You who let your servant se the first works of Your greatness and Your mighty hand, You whose powerful deeds no god in heaven or earth can equal” (Deuteronomy 3:24), a verse that seems only to indicate monolatry, and the subsequent declaration, cited above, that The L-RD alone is God in heaven above and on earth below; there is no other (Deuteronomy 4:39), an absolute and unambiguous declaration of monotheism. The way to solve the discrepancy is to realize that the verse at 3:24, which seems to only indicate monolatry, is a rhetorical flourish. There certainly is no reality to the other gods, but the language was couched in the rhetoric of comparison. The “language of man,” in sum, was that of monolatry. The belief, however, was that of absolute monotheism.

According to this last explanation, one might even suggest that even the untutored benei-yisrael, having seen the miracles at the sea, had indeed actually reached the level of monotheism. “And when Israel saw the wondrous power which the L-RD had wielded against the Egyptians, the people feared the L-RD; they had faith in the L-RD, and in His servant Moses.” (Exodus 14:31). They understood that ein ‘od mi-levado.