Comentario sobre Exodo 24:16

ויכסהו הענן AND THE CLOUD COVERED IT (lit., “him”) [SIX DAYS] — Our Rabbis are of different opinions as to what this passage means. Some of them hold that these were the six days from the first of Sivan (until the Feast of Weeks, the day of the Giving of the Law) —

וישכון כבוד ה' על הר סיני, “the attribute כבוד of Hashem rested on Mount Sinai.” This is in line with what had been mentioned in connection with 20,1: “G’d said all these words.” I have elaborated on this subject there. When the Torah writes here that the cloud covered the mountain this means that during the six days from the first of Sivan until the time of Matan Torah the cloud enveloped the mountain.

The mountain. [If the six days that are referred to in the verse took place before the giving of the Ten Commandments, we must say that the cloud covered the mountain] but not Moshe. For right afterward it says, “He called to Moshe” to proclaim the Ten Commandments. And it cannot be that Moshe was covered in the cloud all six days, because Moshe was going up and down the mountain each day as it says in Parshas Yisro. But according to the opinion [that Rashi mentions later,] that holds that “He called to Moshe” took place after the Ten Commandments were given, at the beginning of the forty days, then ויכסהו הענן refers to Moshe — because “whoever intends to enter the camp of the Shechinah. . .”

'וישכון כבוד ה, “the glory of the Lord abode;” actually it had already settled on the Mountain, as we know from Exodus 19,20: וירד ה׳ על הר סיני, “the Lord descended onto Mount Sinai;” it had also stated that “Moses had approached the thick cloud which enveloped the higher regions of the Mountain beyond which was G-d’s presence.” (Exodus 20,18).

and that the word ויכסהו in the phrase ויכסהו הענן “the cloud covered him” or covered “it” means that it covered the mountain.

To proclaim the Ten Commandments. All agree that “Come up to Me to the mountain” (v. 12) took place after the Giving of the Torah, as Rashi wrote previously. Nevertheless, the Torah then went back to relate [the events] according to the order [in which they happened]. First it writes the story of the Ten Commandments, and afterward the story of [Moshe going up to receive] the Tablets (v. 18): “. . .Moshe remained on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.”

ויקרא אל משה ביום השביעי AND HE CALLED UNTO MOSES ON THE SEVENTH DAY of Sivan to utter the Ten Commandments. It is true that Moses and all Israel were standing there but the text states, “He called unto Moses” merely to give special honour to Moses calling him by name. Others, however, say that the passage means: AND THE CLOUD COVERED HIM — Moses, FOR SIX DAYS after the Ten Commandments had been given. These were at the beginning of the forty days which Moses spent on Mount Sinai when he went up to receive the Tablets, and Scripture teaches you that whosoever enters the camp of the Divine Majesty (here the mountain and later on the Holy of Holies) requires separation from others (must live in seclusion) for six days (Yoma 4a).

Requires seclusion for six days. This is like the Kohein Gadol who requires seclusion for seven days before Yom Kippur, since he enters the Kodesh HaKodoshim. Surely this [need for seclusion] applies as well to one who enters the camp of the Shechinah.

מתוך הענן, “out of the cloud.” Seeing that during the preceding six days Moses had been covered by the cloud and had not proceeded further, the Torah now has to tell us that on the seventh day G’d called to him out of the cloud and instructed him to come inside it. This is why the Torah continues: “Moses entered the cloud.” Our sages in Yuma 4 said that G’d made a path for Moses inside the cloud. They based this on the same expression בתוך being used when the Israelites entered the Sea of Reeds and G’d made separate paths for each tribe, as the expression בתוך in our verse here.