The table below presents an aligned extract of verses or verselets in Nu15-41b. Both verses/verselets discuss God as he runs the world. The alignment justifies the Rashi comment that: (A) I am the God who took you out of Egypt and can redeem you from future problems. (B) I am the God who punishes you and other nations when they misbehave.

Verse	Text of Verse	Rashi comment
Nu15-41c	I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt to be your God I am the Lord your God [who leaves you in Egypt-like tyrannies when you don't observe the commandments.]	(A) I am the God who took you out of Egypt and can redeem you from future problems. (B) I am the God who punishes you and other nations when they misbehave.
Nu15-41c	I am the Lord your God who took you out of Egypt to be your God I am the Lord your God [who leaves you in Egypt-like tyrannies when you don't observe the commandments.]

Advanced Rashi: We can clearly see the aligned underlined phrases, I am the Lord your God. The first aligned passage explicitly states ...who took you out of Egypt. But what justifies our interpreting the second aligned passage ...who leaves you in Egypt-like tyrannies when you don't observe the commandments. This is not stated in the text!

To properly understand this we must understand the universal literary phenomenon of ellipsis, statements implied but not explicitly stated. Rashi used ellipsis. For example, Ex22-22 states don't abuse any widow or orphan If you dare abuse them.... Rashi explains The phrase If you dare abuse them is an ellipsis. It doesn't say what will happen if you abuse them but it is implicitly understood: If you dare abuse them you will be heavily punished. Gangsters frequently used such elliptical threats since they induce fear.

I think a similar approach of ellipsis applies to the verse we are studying in Nu15-41: It is implicit that the second I am the Lord your God is a threat and threats are better communicated elliptically. The justification for interpreting the ellipsis in this manner is the contrast implied by the two aligned phrases.

I am indebted to Dr. Aviva Zornberg's new book, The Murmuring Deep: Reflections of the Biblical Unconscious, for inspiring the understanding of this Rashi. I was at the launching of this book at Pardes in June a few weeks ago. There professor David Shulman used Indian philosophy to describe Aviva's book as studying silence. The book describes several types of silences and the communications implicit in them. Aviva picked up this theme in her own talk on her book. Using Kabbalistic terminology she distinguished between voice and words Frequently the Biblical text will give voice without words and it is important to understand the implied content. You can google the book title to find reviews or purchase it. I believe the ellipsis I am the Lord your God is an elliptical silence indicating punishment, a wordless voice which effectively communicates.