Comentario sobre Exodo 33:25

לך עלה מזה GO, GO UP HENCE — The land of Israel is situated higher than all the other neighbouring lands, therefore it said “go up” (Zevachim 54b). Another explanation is: As a compensation for what He had said to him (Moses) in a time of anger, (Exodus 32:7) “Go, go down”, He now said to him, at a time of good-will, “Go, go up”.

לך עלה מזה, "go and ascend from this place, etc." The mention of an "ascent" is significant. Perhaps the Torah alludes to Shabbat 88 where we are told that Moses appropriated for himself the jewelry the Israelites stripped off themselves. [That "jewelry" was always perceived as being spiritual, such as the phylacteries. Ed.] This is alluded to here by the use of the word עלה in addition to לך. The apparently superfluous word אתה, "you," further supports the idea that the Torah speaks about an ascent by Moses which signified a spiritual dimension. The spiritual ascent was limited to Moses, i.e. אתה, as distinct from the people. As far as the people were concerned, G'd's instruction was only: לך, "go on."

עלה מזה אתה והעם, “move forward from this place, you and the people!” G’d now indicated that although He had forgiven partially, the people were not on a spiritual level which enabled Him to make His presence manifest among them again, and therefore He would content himself by assigning an angel as their escort representing His Shechinah, instead. G’d made mention at this point of

Kap. 33. V. 1. Das oben (V. 34) als Entgegnung auf Mosche Bitte Angedeutete wird hier nun in besonderem Ausspruch näher ausgeführt. — העם אשר העלית, noch immer im Sinne der Volksverirrung, und hier noch umsomehr, da fortan die unmittelbare Führung Gottes hinter die durch seinen "Boten" vermittelte zurücktreten soll.

לך עלה מזה, “go and set out from this place!” the reference in the word זה is the place where the sin of the golden calf had been committed. G-d is implying that at a different place He may be in a better position to exercise His right of forgiveness. The choice of the expression: עלה, “ascend,” indicated that anyone proceeding from the south in a northerly direction is automatically ascending.

אתה והעם THOU AND THE PEOPLE [WHICH THOU HAST BROUGHT UP] — Here — (in contrast to Exodus 32:7) it does not say “and thy people” (the mixed multitude which thou, of thine own accord, hast brought up from Egypt) (Midrash Tanchuma 3:9:26).

הארץ אשר נשבעתי, “the land which I had promised on oath” (to the patriarchs’ descendants) G’d hinted that on account of the people who had died by the plague, and their having thus been partially rehabilitated, it was possible for Him to once more mention the merit of their ancestors. He added:

לאמור, "to say, etc." When the Torah reported communications from G'd to the Patriarchs, such communications did not usually involve לאמור, i.e. that they were to be passed on to others. The Torah wishes to remind us that whenever G'd had spoken to the Patriarchs promising to give the Holy Land to their descendants, such promises were לאמור, i.e. they were meant to be relayed by the Patriarchs to their children, etc.

וגרשתי את הכנעני וגו׳ AND I WILL DRIVE OUT THE CANAANITE etc. — These are only six nations whilst in Deuteronomy 7:1 seven such are mentioned! But the Girgashites, the seventh, arose and emigrated of their own accord from before them (the Israelites) and therefore are not mentioned here amongst those who were driven out (Jerusalem Talmud Shevi'it 6:2; Leviticus Rabbah 17:6).

ושלחתי לפניך מלאך, the very angel who introduces himself to Joshua (Joshua 5,14) as the שר צבא ה', “Commander in Chief of G’d’s hosts.”

ושלחתי לפניך מלאך, "and I will send an angel ahead of you, etc." It is clear from this verse that up until now G'd had meant for Moses personally to lead the children of Israel into the Holy Land and to distribute it to them. We have a line in Exodus 6,1 where G'd told Moses: עתה תראה "now you will see," and many commentators understood this to mean that Moses would be a witness only to the Exodus from Egypt but not to the conquest of the land of Canaan. Perhaps G'd had cancelled that decree in consideration of how Moses had interceded on behalf of the Jewish people, putting his own future on the line.

V. 2. Das ושלחתי ist weitere Ausführung des: הנה מלאכי ילך לפניך. Es sagt vielleicht: ich werde ein Verhängnis vor dich hersenden, so dass du das Land schon verlassen findest.

ארץ זבת חלב ודבש UNTO A LAND FLOWING WITH MILK AND HONEY do I bid you to bring them up.

אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש, the wording suggests that the place where G’d made this promise is dry and that it requires miracles by G’d to gain an adequate livelihood from that earth. At this point in time the Israelites had not qualified for G’d to perform such miracles for them. G’d promises that they would proceed to a land where they would not have to depend on constant miracles in order to gain their livelihood. [The author may have mentioned this as we know that around Mount Sinai at the time there was plenty of grazing land, suggesting that it might have been a fit location to settle. Ed.]

פן אכלך בדרך, "lest I consume you on the way." There is no comparison between someone who angers his teacher while in his teacher's presence to someone who takes advantage of the teacher's absence to anger him. בדרך, "on the way." This is a hint that the announcement that "only" an angel will accompany the Jewish people would not apply at all times and in all circumstances. When Israel would be in a city, i.e. in a relatively safe environment, G'd Himself would be near them (compare Isaiah 26,1).

פן אכלך, as if the Torah had written auchalcha, i.e. “I will consume you.” G’d has been described elsewhere as “consuming fire” (Deuteronomy 4,24)

אל ארץ זבת חלב ודבש, ”to a land flowing with milk and honey.” G’d meant that the land itself would not become ruined by their inhabitants nor as a result of the sins of their inhabitants, but neither would the land condone the sins of its inhabitants and G’d would expel the six tribes as mentioned previously. G’d added, as an expression of His goodwill,

Do I tell you to bring them up. [Rashi is explaining] that this connects to v. 1: “Leave, go up from this. . . to the land of which I swore.” It does not connect to what immediately precedes, [for then it would convey:] “And I will drive out the Canaanites. . . to a land flowing with milk and honey.”

V. 3. Vers 2 ist Parenthese, und Vers 3 setzt die in V. 1 begonnenen Gedanken fort. Es beginnt aber ein selbständiger Satz mit אל ארץ זבת וגו׳, und das: כי לא אעלה וגו׳ ist hiervon und nicht von: ושלהתי מלאך das Motiv. Nach Siporno: Ihr müsst hinein in ein auf natürlichem Wege Nahrung gewährendes Land; denn hier in der Wüste könntet ihr nur durch die besondere göttliche Wundermacht gespeist werden, für deren Führung ihr euch noch unreif erwiesen und deren Nähe ihr nicht ertruget. Die Wanderung in der Wüste bedingt die völlige Hingebung an Gott, bedingt das Bewusstsein, der Mensch habe nur an die Erfüllung seiner Pflicht zu denken und alles übrige Gott anheim zu stellen, bedingt das Bewusstsein, dass eben diese Pflichterfüllung, die Verwirklichung seines Gesetzes, das einzige, aber auch das ewige und unmittelbare Band ist, das den Menschen mit Gott verknüpft und ihn hoch über alle Voraussetzungen physischer Bedingungen auf den Adlerschwingen der unmittelbaren göttlichen Führungen emporträgt. Nichts in der Wüste zu vermissen, weil uns Gott gewiss ist, wenn wir sein Gesetz bei uns haben, das war ja die Prüfung, die sie am Horeb bestehen sollten, aber nicht bestanden haben. Darum müssen sie aus der Adlerschwingenhöhe unmittelbarer Gottesführung wieder in die Erdenniedere des gewöhnlichen physischen Daseins gebracht werden. פן אכלך וגו׳ siehe Vers 5.

כי לא אעלה בקרבך BECAUSE I WILL NOT GO UP AMONG THEE, therefore I say to thee, I will send an angel before thee.

כי לא אעלה בקרבך, this is why I am telling you to move on from here, you and the people (verse 1). Do not wait to break and make camp at G’d’s signal, i.e the moving of the cloud. G’d explains that His not moving with the people would be for their protection,

כי לא אעלה בקרבך, “for I, in My capacity of My essence, will not go up amongst you.” This was not a description of the Israelites’ unworthiness at that time, but was meant as a protective device. In the event that the Israelites would sin again, in spite of being in the presence of G’d’s manifest Shechinah, He would be forced to react in a manner that would spell their destruction. As a result of the golden calf episode Israel suffered two major setbacks. 1) the absence of the Shechinah from the camp; 2) leadership by means of an angel until the destruction or expulsion of the Canaanites from their land. Once this promise to the patriarchs had been fulfilled, they were not even promised the presence of an angel as visible evidence of G’d’s continued personal interest in their fate. To make this point clear, G’d described the terms of reference for His angel as being limited to בדרך, “while on the way,” Concerning all this the Torah continues with:

For this reason I say to you. . . I.e., this gives the reason for (32:34), “Behold, My angel will go before you.” It is because, “I will not go up among you. . . I may destroy you.” This does not connect to what immediately precedes, rather to (v. 1): “Leave, go up from this.”

According to the Kabbalists the desert is the home of Samael who succeeded on several occasions to overpower and kill Jews who lacked G'd's protection due to their share in the sin. The Zohar volume 2 page 157 expands on that theme when commenting on the words המדבר הגדול והנורא in Deut. 1,17. It uses that verse as proof of how dangerous it is to be בדרך, "on the way."

כי עם קשה ערף אתה FOR THOU ART A STIFF-NECKED PEOPLE, and if My Shechina were in thy midst and thou rebelledst against Me, I might become exceedingly angry with thee and destroy thee on the way.

פן אכלך בדרך, lest I would be forced to kill you while you are on the way. G’d implies that if He were to be present personally when the people sinned, their punishment would be commensurably greater for having rebelled against the presence of G’d also.

And you are rebellious against Me. . . [Question:] It is written in 34:9, “Let my Master go among us, for ( כי ) it is a stiff-necked people.” Does this not show the contrary to be true, that being stiff-necked makes it fitting for God to go among them, thereby contradicting what it says here? [The answer is:] Rashi already resolved this by explaining that the כי written there means “if,” conveying: “Since You bear iniquity. . . if they will be a stiff-necked people and rebel against You. . . You will forgive our iniquity.” (Re”m)

אכלך is an expression for ‘‘destroying”.

הדבר הרע THIS EVIL THING — that the Shechina would not dwell nor go with them.

עדיו, a type of jewelry; they had removed it as a sign of mourning for their demotion, as the Torah writes when stating ויתאבלו, “they practiced mourning.” ולא שתו איש עדיו עליו, seeing G’d had told them in verse five to remove such jewelry. [Some people had not seen fit to do this voluntarily. Ed.]

They mourned. Even though a child does not wish to listen to his mother’s admonishments, the moment she attempts to leave him he begins to cry. He is willing to endure even chastisement if she will only continue to watch out for him. Similarly, although the B’nei Yisrael were punished many times in the desert, they were dismayed when God threatened to take His Shechinah away.

וישמע העם הדבר הזה ויתאבלו, “when the people heard this they went into mourning for themselves.” When Hashem observed that the people now mourned their fate, He switched to the Attribute of Mercy, [note that the Torah refers now to ויאמר ה' instead of וידבר ה' and instead of speaking אל העם He addresses the בני ישראל, a complimentary term. Ed.]

וישמע העם את הדבר הרע הזה, “when the people heard this bad tiding, etc.” It appears to me that the Israelites imposed upon themselves various kinds of afflictions, corresponding to the sin they had committed. Whereas previously they had worn crowns on their heads, reflecting their joy of being alive, now when they heard that the Shechinah had removed itself from their midst they responded by foregoing their previous joy in being alive. This the Torah describes in stages; 1) ויתאבלו, “they went into mourning;” 2) לא שתו, “they did not put on their jewelry.” The prophet Hoseah 2,5 describes the removal of jewelry as equivalent to being stripped naked of one’s garments when he says פן אפשיטנה ערומה והצגתיה כיום הולדה, “lest I strip her naked and display her as on the day she was born.” What he meant was that G’d threatened to deprive the Jewish people of the glory of the presence of His Shechinah. The Israelites had been in the habit of using this presence just like other people use their clothing to cover their nakedness to give them dignity. The Israelites would remain as they had been before G’d gave them the Torah, i.e. “naked.” Targum Yonatan understands the words of the prophet similarly when he wrote: דלמא אסליק שכינתי מנה ואעדי יקרה ואשוינה רטישא כזמני קדמאי עד לא אתקריבת לפולחני, “lest I remove My presence from them and My precious jewelry, and I will make them forsaken like before I brought them close to My service (the giving of the Torah).”

V. 4. Dass dem Volke der mühe- und kampflose Eintritt in ein Land des Überflusses aus der Öde der Wüste ein "böses" Wort war, weil ihm dabei zugleich der Verlust der geistigen Gottesnähe und die Einbuße seines Gott offenbarenden Weltenganges angekündigt war, das zeigt denn doch die geistige und sittliche Höhe dieses Volkes trotz seiner Verirrung, das zeigt denn doch, welches Gefühl und welches Bewusstsein ihrer geistigen Bestimmung ihnen innewohnte, und die tiefe Trauer, in die es dieses Wort versenkte, zeigt, wie ihnen keine in Aussicht gestellte materielle Fülle Trost und Ersatz zu bieten vermochte, und war der erste, bedeutende Schritt zu ihrer Wiedererhebung.

ולא שתו איש עדיו עליו, “they did not adorn themselves with the jewelry and costly garments that they had taken with them from Egypt.”

איש עדיו [AND NO MAN PUT ON HIM] HIS ORNAMENT — the crowns which were given them on Horeb when they said: (Exodus 24:7) “we shall do and hearken” (Shabbat 88a).

And no man wore his ornaments. All who were worthy of receiving the spirit of prophecy realized that this was not the time to seek it.

ולא שתו איש עדיו עליו. Es ist nicht gesagt, was das für ein Schmuck gewesen. Dass es ein konkreter, an- und abzulegender Schmuck gewesen, ist aus dem Zusammenhange klar. Versteht man das מהר חרב im V. 6 dahin, dass sie diesen Schmuck am Horeb erhalten hatten, so muss an einen besonderen Schmuck, und nicht an einen Schmuck im allgemeinen gedacht sein. Wir wagen eine Vermutung. Es gibt nur ein Objekt, das uns als jüdischer Nationalschmuck bezeichnet ist. Es heißt טוטפות: Stirnzierde (Schmot 13, 16) פאר: Schmuck ohne weiteres (Jechesk. 24, 17) und wird auch als Zeichen der Trauer abgelegt. Sollte hier nicht an diesen einzigen jüdischen Nationalschmuck gedacht werden können? Sie erhielten תפלין sofort beim Auszuge aus Mizrajim. קדש uחd והיה כי יביאך sagte jedem jüdischen Manne seine Gott heilige Bestimmung, weihte Mannesarm und Manneshaupt dieser Gott heiligen Bestimmung, schmückte Mannesarm und Manneshaupt mit dem Zeichen und dem Diadem dieser Bestimmung — einer Bestimmung, die am Horeb erst ihren ausführlichen Inhalt erhalten sollte — und eben am Horeb wurde ihnen das Bewusstsein, wie sie der ihnen mit dem Auszuge aus Mizrajim erteilten Bestimmung nicht gewachsen: ist etwas natürlicher als das Gefühl, das sie in tiefem Schmerze über diese geistige und sittliche Unreife — die תפלין nicht anlegen ließ? Das מהר חרב hieße dann: vom Berge Horeb an, oder kausal: in Veranlassung des Berges Horeb, wie אנכי ד׳ אלדיך מארץ מצרים (Hosea 12, 10). Der Horeb, der ihrer Bestimmung erst die rechte Bedeutung geben sollte, beraubte sie dieser Bestimmung! — Dann erklärte sich auch das sonst Auffallende, sowohl das im V. 5 von Gott ausgesprochene הורד וגו׳ nachdem sie den Schmuck bereits abgelassen, sowie der im V. 6 wiederholte Bericht, dass sie ihn abgelegt: ויתנצלו. War dieser Schmuck nämlich ein gebotener: תפלין, so bedurfte es noch erst der Billigung, dass sie ihn fortan ablassen mögen, und es ist dann die Wiederholung nicht überflüssig, dass sie denselben bereits freiwillig, im Gefühle der Unwürdigkeit, abgelassen hatten. Denn eben diese freiwillige Entkleidung gab derselben als Ausdruck der Selbsterkenntnis ihren Wert.

רגע אחד אעלה בקרבך וכליתיך WERE I TO GO UP AMONG THEE ONE MOMENT, I SHOULD CONSUME THEE — If I were to go up amongst you and you rebelled against Me in your stiff-neckedness I would be angry with you but one moment — for this is the duration of His wrath (Berakhot 7a), as it is said, (Isaiah 26:20) “Hide thyself for a short moment, until the indignation be passed” — and I would consume you; therefore it is better for you that I should send an angel.

רגע אחד אעלה בקרבך וכליתיך, whereas at this time you are mourning about My not being personally in your midst, (verse 3) you fail to understand that this is intended for your benefit, and may save you from instant extinction. You are, after all, such a stiff-necked people unwilling to respond to admonition, even though at the revelation of Mount Sinai you had become equipped to attain spiritual perfection.

אמור לבני ישראל, “say to the Children of Israel, etc.;” G’d now explains that the absence of His essence in their midst would be to their advantage, not as they had thought that it would be a sign of estrangement. Nonetheless, they had done well in considering themselves as in mourning and not wearing any decorative jewelry. They should always react to their own sins by observing a state of mourning, i.e. demonstrating that they were ashamed of their conduct. G’d would then take note of their penitence and react in accordance with the sincerity of their remorse.

Immediately, that you will remove your ornaments from yourselves. . . It means: I will do this to you immediately. The word “now” does not relate to that which preceded, as it does in: “Now here is your wife, take her and go” (Bereishis 12:19), and: “Now your two sons” (ibid. 48:5). [Rashi knows this] because our verse cannot be so explained. This is because the preceding statement is for their good. [To save them from destruction,] God is sending the angel rather than going Himself. Whereas this phrase, “Now remove your ornaments,” is a punishment. You might ask: Is it not written in v. 4 that they took off their ornaments of their own accord, as it is written, “No man wore his ornaments”? The answer is: There, they just removed them temporarily, out of mourning. But here, Hashem told them to remove them permanently.

ועתה הורד עדיך מעליך, these were the garments the Israelites wore when Moses sprinkled the blood of the covenant on them. It was the blood of the sacrifices offered by the firstborn at Mount Sinai. It was known as עדי ישראל, “the jewelry of Israel.” They were called thus as they symbolised glory and great honour, seeing that this blood was the visible sign of the covenant concluded between G’d and the people of Israel. I have already drawn attention to this in my commentary on Exodus 24,8.

V. 5. ויאמר im Gegensatz zu וידבר V. 1: erläuternd, zu Herzen redend. אתם וגו׳ וכליתיך: dass ich meine Beziehung zu euch und eurem Geschicke wieder auf die Stufe der von Gott geführten בני נח zurücktreten lasse (siehe Kap. 31, V. 34), bedingt eure eigene Fortexistenz. Gottes besondere Beziehung zu Israel und Israels besondere Beziehung zu Gott haben ja das doppelte Ziel: Gottes Walten über der Menschen Geschicke und Gottes Gesetz für der Menschen Tat an die Menschheit zu offenbaren. Beides gehört wesentlich zusammen. Soll Israels Geschick Gottes Walten offenbaren, so muss sein Leben ein Spiegel des göttlichen Gesetzes für die Menschentat sein. Eine besondere Gottesführung eines sündenvollen Volkes würde das Sündhafte als Gottes Willen verkünden und den diametralen Gegensatz zu dem mit Israels Erwählung beabsichtigten Zweck bewirken. Das Volk, das als "Gottesvolk" dastehen soll, muss als Muster des Gehorsams gegen Gottes Gesetz dastehen. Jede seiner Abweichungen vom Gottesgesetze wird durch den Namen, den es trägt, zu dem todeswürdigen Verbrechen des חלול השם, der Heiligsprechung des sittlich Schlechten im Namen Gottes, und die Rettung der Erkenntnis des göttlichen Sittengesetzes im Kreise der Menschen fordert züchtigende Rüge von Verirrungen des Gottesvolkes, die in Mitte anderer Völker ungerügt hervortreten. Es ist dies die faktische Anwendung des Prinzips, das einen Schlüssel zu Israels Geschichte bietet, und das sich in dem בקרבי אקדש. (Wajikra 10. 3) hinsichtlich aller den Stempel besonderer Gottesnähe tragenden Menschen ausspricht, und als Schlüssel der Geschichte Israels in dem Prophetenworte gegeben ist: רק אתכם ידעתי מכל משפחות האדמה על כן אפקד עליכם את כל עונתיכם (Amos 3, 2). — ועתה הורד וגו׳: siehe V.4.

ועתה הורד עדיך מעליך, “and now, take off your ornaments!” This command is difficult to understand as the Torah had already reported the people as having no longer put on their jewelry without having been ordered not to put it on. (Compare Exodus 33,4) Presumably, the people did not put their jewelry on for a day as a sign of mourning, but had put it on again on the following day. They had to be told therefore that at least as long as they had not atoned for their sin they were not allowed to wear ornaments. Rabbi Joseph Kara of blessed memory, explained verse four in our chapter, which reported the Israelites as not having put on their jewelry, as referring to the festive garments, the ones they had worn at the time the Ten Commandments had been revealed to them. This was the meaning of Exodus 19,14, where after immersing themselves in a ritual bath in preparation for that that event, they are described as putting on their garments. Had they been the same garments they had worn before immersing themselves in a ritual bath, the Torah certainly did not have to tell us that. They had had their jewelry removed from them by angels sent for that purpose to make them conscious of their great sin, as reported in the Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 88. This is also the meaning of Exodus 33,6: ויתנצלו בני ישראל, “they stripped themselves; An alternate explanation: the meaning of the words in verse 4: ולא שתו וגו', is that they took off their uniforms, as if saying that unless G–d will march with us we will not agree to fight for possession of the land of Canaan. When G–d heard that He told them that instead of taking off their military uniforms they better take off their jewelry instead for as long as He would tell them what he had in mind for them.

הורד עדיך מעליך, “remove your jewelry from your persons!” this sounds strange as the Torah had already reported that the people had not put on their jewelry. They were told not to wear it, as it is more embarrassing to be denied the right to wear jewelry than to simply abstain from doing so from their own free will. In other words, by obeying G-d’s command to abstain or even remove the jewelry they had taken another small step in their moral rehabilitation.

ועתה AND NOW — This punishment shall be inflicted upon you now, at once, viz., that you should put off your ornaments from you.

ועתה הורד עדיך מעליך, this spiritual preparedness which you attained at the revelation is something that G’d does not unilaterally remove from the people as we have a rule that gifts are not revoked without the consent of the recipient. Our sages have phrased it thus in Taanit 25 (where the golden leg miraculously given to Rabbi Chanina was taken back only after he had prayed for it to revert to where it came from.)

הורד עדיך מעליך, “remove your jewelry from yourselves!”

I know what I have in My heart. . . I.e., it does not mean that through their removing the ornaments, He will know what to do with them, as the verse seems to imply. [Rashi knows this] because removing the ornaments is not a cause for God to know what to do with them.

ואדעה מה אעשה לך AND I KNOW WHAT I SHALL DO UNTO THEE — In respect to the visitation for the remainder of the sin which still remains unpunished (cf. Rashi on Exodus 32:34) I know what is in My mind to do unto you.

ואדעה מה אעשה לך, for once you do this as an admission of your guilt you will not be guilty of the ultimate punishment.

את עדים מהר חורב means THEIR ORNAMENT which they possessed from (מִ, from — in consequence of what happened at) MOUNT HOREB.

AND THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL STRIPPED THEMSELVES OF THEIR ORNAMENTS. The meaning of this is that when they heard this declaration, they stripped and divested themselves of all their ornaments, even more so than they had done before. Now Onkelos who translated the word edi (ornament) as “the equipment of armor,” was in agreement with the opinion of the Sage⁴³⁰Reference is to Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai. in Bereshith Rabbah⁴³¹I have not found it in Bereshith Rabbah, but in Shemoth Rabbah 45:1. who said “He tied them with belts.” That is to say, at the time of the Giving of the Torah the Holy One, blessed be He, girded them with weapons of armor to save them from all mishaps and the angel of death, just as the Rabbis have interpreted:⁴³²Erubin 54a. “‘charuth’ (graven) upon the Tablets⁴³³Above, 32:16. — ‘cheiruth’ (freedom) from the angel of death” [was given to the Israelites together with the Tablets of the Law], these [weapons of armor] being the Names of the Holy One, blessed be He.⁴³⁴And as long as they were in possession of that knowledge they were above the power of the angel of death. Now, however, that they were divested of this knowledge they became subject to the decree of death as all human beings are (Bachya, Vol. II, p. 340, in my edition). Thus Israel now accepted upon themselves death from their own free will as a form of punishment for the incident of the calf. This was indeed an expression of great repentance and regret for their sin.

ויתנצלו בני ישראל את עדים, “The Children of Israel divested themselves of their jewelry.” Even though we had already read in verse 4 that the people did not put on their jewelry, some commentators understand the words ולא שתו to mean ולא הסירו, “they did not remove,” i.e. until ordered to do so they did not remove the jewelry they had been in the habit of wearing. Other commentators claim that every Israelite would normally be adorned with two crown-shaped pieces of jewelry. Removing, or better, not adorning themselves with jewelry as mentioned in verse 4, referred to only one of these two crowns. Now they were commanded to strip both crowns from themselves.

Their ornaments which they possessed. . . I.e., they did not remove their ornaments while still at Mount Chorev. [Rashi knows this] because they removed them only after the incident of the Calf. There is a ש is missing, for it is [as if it says עדים שמחורב .] The Kitzur Mizrachi asks: It already said in v. 4, “No man wore his ornaments.” If so, why did Hashem have to command, “Now remove”? Rabbeinu Bechaye answers: They refrained of their own accord from wearing all their ornaments, and wore only some. When Hashem commanded them, they completely removed and stripped themselves of all their ornaments. See other answers there.

V. 6. ויתנצלו Siehe V. 4.

ומשה AND MOSES, from the time of the sin and henceforth,

NOW MOSES TOOK THE TENT AND WOULD PITCH IT WITHOUT THE CAMP. Rashi wrote: “This was practiced by Moses from the Day of Atonement until the Tabernacle was set up [five and a half months later — on the first day of Nisan], but not afterwards. For on the seventeenth day of Tammuz the Tablets of the Law were broken, on the eighteenth he burnt the calf and brought the sinners to judgment, and on the nineteenth he ascended the mountain and stayed there for forty days. On the first of Ellul it was said to him, and come up in the morning⁴³⁵Further, 34:2. to receive the second Tablets. There he spent another forty days [which terminated on the tenth day of Tishri]. On the tenth of Tishri the Holy One, blessed be He, became reconciled with Israel, and He handed over to Moses the second Tablets, whereupon Moses came down the mountain and began to command them concerning the work of the Tabernacle. This occupied them till the first of Nisan, and from that time on, since the Tabernacle was set up, G-d only communicated with him from there.” This also is the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, that all this [narrated here in Verses 7-11] took place after Moses brought down the second Tablets [the account of which is narrated further on in 34:1-10], there being no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah.
But it does not appear to me to be correct, for what reason is there to mention this [practice of Moses] here in the middle of the section? The words of our Rabbis in all Midrashim are also to the effect that Moses did this on account of their sin with the calf. Thus they explained⁴³⁶Shemoth Rabbah 45:3. [that Moses said], “One who is excommunicated from the master, is also excommunicated from the disciple,” and as Rashi mentioned [that G-d said to Moses], “I am angry and you are angry; if so, who will bring them near to Me?” Now if the removal of the Tent was after the Day of Atonement [as Rashi and Ibn Ezra have it], the Holy One, blessed be He, as well as Moses, was already in [complete] reconciliation with them! Rather, it appears that on the day that he came down from the mountain — on the seventeenth of Tamuz — he burnt the calf and punished the worshippers.⁴³⁷And not, as Rashi has it, that the burning of the calf and the punishing of the sinners took place on the eighteenth of Tammuz. On the next day, [i.e., on the eighteenth of Tammuz] he told them that he would go up to G-d to seek atonement for them,⁴³⁸Above, 32:30. and so he went up to the mountain where the Glory was. This is the sense of the verse, And Moses returned unto the Eternal,⁴³⁹Ibid., Verse 31. and prayed briefly: Oh, this people have sinned a great sin,⁴³⁹Ibid., Verse 31. and G-d answered him, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, etc.;⁴⁴⁰Ibid., Verse 33. And now go, lead the people,⁴⁴¹Ibid., Verse 34. and the plague began.⁴⁴²Ibid., Verse 35. Then He commanded him, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people etc.,⁴⁴³Verse 1 here. and Moses told this to Israel, and they mourned, and stripped themselves of the ornaments.⁴⁴⁴Verses 4-6. Then Moses realized that the matter was a very long one, and did not know what the end thereof would be, therefore he took the tent and pitched it outside the camp so that the Divine Glory would communicate with him from there, for it was no longer dwelling in the midst of the people, and if the tent were to be in the midst of the camp, He would not communicate with him from there. Scripture continues, and it came to pass, that every one that sought the Eternal…,⁴⁴⁵In Verse 7 here. meaning that everyone who sought the Eternal used to go out to him.⁴⁴⁶Ramban interprets the Hebrew yeitzei (the imperfect — “was going out”) as yotzei (a participle — taking of the nature of both a verb and an adjective — “used to go out”). Rashi explained it likewise. Then Scripture [in Verse 8-11] completed the narrative of all that happened whilst the tent was there until the Tabernacle was set up, which was, according to the opinion of our Sages, from the Day of Atonement until the first day of Nisan.⁴⁴⁷See Ramban further, 40:2.
I have seen in Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer [the following text]:⁴⁴⁸Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 46. “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha says: “[After the Revelation] Moses spent forty days on the mountain, studying the Written Law at daytime, and the Oral Law at night. After the forty days he took the Tablets and came back to the camp. On the seventeenth of Tammuz he broke the Tablets and killed the sinners of Israel, and then stayed in the camp forty days until he burnt the calf and ground it like dust of the earth. Thus he eliminated idolatry from Israel, and established each tribe in its place. On the first of Ellul the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, come up unto Me into the mount⁴⁴⁹Deuteronomy 10:1. [to be given the second Tablets]. Then the ram’s horn was sounded throughout the camp, announcing to the people that Moses was going up the mountain, so that [they might not be alarmed by his absence] and not be misled anymore after idols. [On that day] the Holy One, blessed be He, was exalted by the sound of that ram’s horn, as it is said, G-d is gone up amidst shouting, the Eternal amidst the sound of the horn.⁴⁵⁰Psalm 47:6. “For by the sound of this horn Israel vowed eternally never again to be deceived by the idols” (R’dal; see my Hebrew commentary, p. 518). And thus likewise the Sages ordained that we blow the horn every year on the first day of Ellul.”⁴⁵¹The Shofar is now sounded in the synagogue every morning during the whole month of Ellul, except on the Sabbaths and on the day before the New Year. Thus far are the words of this Agadah. And if this is so, then the whole section from: Moses took the tent, applied to the time from the eighteenth of Tammuz till the end of the forty days [i.e., up to the first of Ellul], and from the Day of Atonement till the first of Nisan [when the Tabernacle was set up]. But this exposition does not fit in well with what Scripture says, And I fell down before the Eternal, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread etc.,⁴⁵²Deuteronomy 9:18. and it is further written there, So I fell down before the Eternal the forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because the Eternal had said He would destroy you,⁴⁵³Ibid., Verse 25. and it is impossible that all this refers to the last forty days [i.e., between the first of Ellul and the Day of Atonement], since He told him, Hew thee two Tablets of stone… and come up unto Me into the mount,⁴⁴⁹Deuteronomy 10:1. thus these last forty days were already those of G-d’s good-will, after He had already nullified the decree that He would destroy you!⁴⁵⁴From all this it is thus obvious that there was an intervening period of forty days [i.e. from the eighteenth of Tammuz to the twenty-ninth of Ab] when Moses was on the mountain interceeding for Israel. So how could the Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer hold that there were only two ascents of forty-day periods of Moses? — In his commentary to that Midrash, Rabbi David Luria answers Ramban’s question by suggesting that the phrase He would destroy you does not refer to the beginning of that verse, so I fell down before the Eternal, but reverts to the very beginning of the incident of the calf, when G-d had said He would destroy them. The verse itself can still apply then to the final forty days, which culminated on the Day of Atonement.

וקרא לו אהל מועד, in order for the people to know that there G’d would communicate with him as opposed to within the boundaries of the encampment of the people.

יקח, meaning לקח, he had taken.

ומשה יקח את האהל, “and Moses would take the tent, etc.;” Rashi writes that what is described in our verse did not happen until after the Day of Atonement, when Moses had returned from the Mountain for the third and last time. Moses continued pitching his camp outside the people’s camp until after the Tabernacle had been assembled and inaugurated. [based on Tanchuma. Ed.] Nachmanides writes that he cannot agree with the above. He feels that there would have been no point in mentioning this at this juncture, seeing that Moses had not even ascended the Mountain for the second time as yet. Moreover, according to our sages, the only reason why Moses removed his tent from the camp was that the people were in disgrace, and just as G’d had seen fit to remove His presence from the people, G’d’s pupil, disciple, merely emulated his Master. After the Day of Atonement, when the people’s sin had been forgiven, what would be the point in positioning his tent outside the boundaries of the camp at that time? Following his reasoning, Nachmanides therefore feels that Moses on the 17th of Tammus, the day he had returned from the Mountain for the first time and had smashed the Tablets, he also burned the golden calf, instructed the Levites to execute active idol worshippers. On the following day he told the people that he would ascend the Mountain again and pray there for forgiveness. He did so and offered a short prayer. This was the occasion when G’d told him that He would not accept his offer to save the people and to die in their stead and to have his name blotted out from the Book of Life. He told the people that he had been told that G’d would punish the guilty and not be content with their leader assuming their guilt and punishment. He then instructed them to remove their jewelry, telling them that the process of mourning would be drawn out, and that forgiveness, if at all, would not be instant, and he told the people to observe mourning. Moses moved his own tent to an area that was not spiritually contaminated by the people’s sin, and in this manner he hoped to maintain his ability to communicate with the Shechinah on a reciprocal basis. This could not be expected within the camp, as the spiritual contamination caused by the golden calf episode had not yet been cleansed. In fact, the Torah itself testifies that until after the inauguration of the Tabernacle Moses could not communicate with the Shechinah while within the camp. [(compare Exodus 40,34-38 and Leviticus 1,1) (compare also Moses’ comments in Leviticus 9,7-24) In all these verses the return of the Shechinah to the camp is illustrated. All of this took place only at the beginning of Nissan of the second year, [some eight and half months after Moses smashed the Tablets. Ed.] Concerning Rashi’s statement that Moses burned the calf on the 18th of Tammuz and that on that same day he executed the people who had been actively engaged in worshipping the calf, and that on the 19th he ascended the Mountain again, this is difficult, for if we do not consider the day of his ascent as a day belonging to the forty days, seeing that this day did not have the preceding night with it, as Moses had still been in camp then, (compare Talmud Shabbat quoted by Rashi) we will be left with two days missing, if according to tradition Moses was supposed to have returned on the 10th day of Tishrey from his last ascent and stay on the mountain. Even if we were to assume that Moses ascended again already on the 18th day of Tammuz, we are still short a day if he spent 40 days on the Mountain and returned on the 10th of Tishrey. Unless the actual daylight hours of Moses’ ascending or descending the Mountain are counted as whole days, the calculations do no jive.

ומשה יקח את האוהל, “and Moses would take the tent, etc.” The word יקח in this instance is the present tense. It means Moses would do this on a regular basis. The words הרחק מן המחנה mean that Moses had to go some distance away from the encampment of the Israelites seeing the Israelites were in a state of disgrace vis-a-vis heaven due to their great sin. Moses applied the ruling we have learned in Rashi that whenever the student is in a state of disgrace so is his teacher. Hence Moses had to leave the environment of people whose sin had caused the Shechinah to withdraw.

He thought: one who is ostracized by the master. . . I.e., B’nei Yisrael are ostracized by the Master, which is Hashem. Then too, [they should be] ostracized by the disciple, who is me; for I am Hashem’s disciple.

V. 7. ומשה יקח kann wohl schwerlich wie das יקימו V. 8. ירד V. 9 u. f. als erzählendes Futurum gefasst werden. Ein solches Futurum historicum steht nur bei sich dauernd wiederholenden Vorgängen. Das Aufbrechen des Zeltes geschah ja aber nur einmal. Wir glauben daher, das יקח imperativisch verstehen zu sollen. Es gehört noch zum Inhalte der VV. 1—3 u. 5 an Mosche gerichteten Gottesrede. Nicht aus eigenem Entschlusse, sondern in Folge göttlichen Geheißes geschah die Verlegung des Zeltes in eine Entfernung außerhalb des Lagers. Es kam damit das כי לא אעלה בקרבך dem Volke zur konkreten Anschauung. Indem gleichwohl Gott noch dem Mosche für jeden, Gott, d. h. die Erkenntnis seines Willens, Suchenden nahe blieb, war damit zugleich die Fortdauer einer Verbindung des Volkes mit Gott, und somit die Hoffnung auf eine Wiederherstellung gewährende Zukunft, die ja schon das ואדעה מה אעשה לך (V. 5) ahnen ließ, angedeutet.

ומשה יקח את האהל, “meanwhile Moses took his own tent far beyond the limits of the camp of the Israelites;” according to our author the word אהל here is a reference to the ornaments-jewelry that had been removed from the male Israelites, and which Moses merited as pointed out in the Talmud tractate Shabbat folio 88, where Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish is quoted as proving from Scripture that at some time in the future this jewelry will be restored to their original owners. He based this on Isaiah 35,10. This is also why we read after Moses’ return from the Mountain that his face was shining so brilliantly that the people were blinded until he covered his forehead with a kind of veil. (Exodus 34,9) An alternate interpretation: the word אהל here is closely related to אור, light, where we find the word בהלו נרו עלי ראשי, “when His lamp shone over my head;” (Job 29.3)

ומשה יקח, “Moses had taken, etc;” this has been written in the future tense as it relates to what he had done after bringing the second set of Tablets down from the Mountain.

יקח את האהל USED TO TAKE THE TENT — יקח expresses an action continually going on — he used to take his tent and pitch it without the camp. He said, “One who has been placed under an interdict by the Master must be placed under an interdict by His disciple also” (Since God had stated that He would not dwell amongst the people, Moses, the disciple, also felt compelled to remove from their midst) (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 27).

הרחק, he treated the people as if they were outcasts seeing that G’d was not willing to communicate with Moses while he was within the camp of the Israelites.

Two thousand amohs.. The reason [for this distance] was so everyone who sought Hashem could come on Shabbos to the tent, as was the arrangement in Yericho in Yehoshua’s time (Midrash Tanchuma ch. 27).

הרחק DISTANT [FROM THE CAMP] — two thousand cubits, just as it is stated, (Joshua 3:4) Yet there shall be a space between you (the Israelites) and it (the Ark) about 2,000 cubits by measure” (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 27).

Even the ministering angels. . . Rashi derives this from כל מבקש ה' , which is an inclusive term.

וקרא לו AND HE CALLED IT — This does not mean that he so named it once for all but that whenever he spoke of it he used to call it the tent of meeting, i. e. a meeting-place for those who sought instruction in the Torah.

כל מבקש ה׳ EVERY ONE WHO SOUGHT THE LORD — Hence (from the fact that anyone who visited Moses is described here as “one who seeks the Lord”) we may learn that he who makes a call on (Hebrew: seeks) a scholar (זקן is a Rabbinical term for a wise man; cf. Kiddushin 32b: אין זקן אלא חכם) may be regarded as paying his respects to the Divine Presence (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 27).

יצא אל אהל מועד WENT OUT UNTO THE APPOINTED TENT — יֵצֵא (the imperfect) has here the meaning of יוֹצֵא (the participle: cf. Rashi on יקח וכו׳), i. e. he used to go out. Another explanation of והיה כל מבקש ה׳ is: The word כל, “every one”, implies: even the ministering angels used to go out unto the appointed tent; whenever these enquired where was the place of the Divine Glory their fellow-angels used to answer them: See, He (God) is in the tent of Moses.

והיה — This expresses an action continually going on (“and it used to be”),

To go to the tent. Rashi is answering the question: Why is it written, “Whenever Moshe went out to the tent”? It should say: “Whenever Moshe entered the tent.” Rashi answers that “went out” refers to Moshe’s exit from the Israelite camp, not Moshe’s tent.

והיה כצאת משה, “it would be that whenever Moses came out, etc.;” this describes Moses leaving the camp of the Israelites in order to return to his private residence (tent).'

כצאת משה WHEN MOSES WENT OUT from the camp in order to go אל האהל INTO THE TENT, יקומו כל העם ALL THE PEOPLE ROSE UP — they used to stand up before him and did not sit down until he vanished from their sight (Hebrew: was hidden from them).

יקומו כל העם ונצבו, “all the people would rise and remain standing at attention, on account of the Presence of G-d’s shechinah, which they knew would descend to above Moses’ tent when he would arrive there.

והביטו אחרי משה AND THEY LOOKED AFTER MOSES — Not sneeringly but out of admiration; they exclaimed: Happy is the human being (Hebrew: one born of woman) who is so sure that the Shechina will enter the door of his tent after him (cf. Kiddushin 33b; Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 27, Exodus Rabbah 51:6).

And they would gaze after Moshe — in an admiring way, [saying, in effect:] “Fortunate is one born of woman who is assured that the Shechinah will follow him into the entranceway of his tent.”

ודבר עם משה — This means the same as ומדבר עם משה AND HE USED TO SPEAK WITH MOSES (The verb ודבר expresses the idea of an action always going on as Rashi has explained the preceding verbs). The Targum renders it by ומתמלל עם משה (Hithpeal) i. e. He used to speak to Himself with (in the presence of) Moses — which is an expression of respect used with reference to the Shechinah. A similar Hebrew expression is, (Numbers 7:89) “Then he heard the voice מִדַּבֵּר to him” (= מתדבר, with assimilated ת), and it does not read there, מְדַבֵּר, “speaking to him”. Where the reading is מִדַּבֵּר its interpretation is: The voice was speaking by itself (i. e. it was not directed to any particular person) and the ordinary man naturally heard it (because he was there); but where the reading is מְדַבֵּר, it implies that the King was conversing with the ordinary man.

The same as ומדבר עם משה . . . I.e., it is an ongoing action (the present tense).

VV. 9-—11. Nicht Gott oder Göttliches wohnte im Zelt. Es war Mosches Wohnzelt, daher ja auch sein Diener immer darin blieb. Er war darin als נער, als erst noch werdender Mann. Ihn suchte dort die Gottesgegenwart nicht auf. Nur wenn Mosche ins Zelt eintrat, ließ sich die die Gottesgegenwart ankündigende Wolke nieder. Dewarim Kap. 9 u. 10 erfahren wir, dass Mosche dreimal vierzig Tage vor Gott zugebracht habe, zweimal zum Empfang der Gesetzestafeln (9,9 und 10, 10) und einmal zwischen beiden zur Erlangung der Vergebung für die Egelsünde (9, 18). Bei diesen mittleren vierzig Tagen heißt es nicht, daß er sie auf dem Berge zugebracht habe, sondern ואתנפל לפני ד׳ וגו׳ er habe vierzig Tage fastend und betend vor Gott zugebracht. Wir glauben daher, dass diese mittleren vierzig Tage im Zelte außerhalb des Lagers verlebt wurden. Dann bliebe die Erzählung in ganz chronologischer Folge. Am 17. Tamus wurden die Tafeln zerbrochen. Am 18. Vernichtung des Kalbes und Hinrichtung der Schuldigen. Vom 19. Tamus bis zum 1. Elul liegt alles von Kap. 32, 10 bis Kap. 33, 23 Erzählte. Es waren das vierzig Tage, die von Mosche Bemühen ausgefüllt waren, dem Volke Gottes volle Gnade wieder zu erwirken. Und פסל לך Kap. 34, 1 ward am 1. Elul gesprochen, an welchem Mosche wieder den Berg bestieg, um am 10. Tischri mit dem wiedergeschenkten Zeugnis des Gesetzes dem Volke das Unterpfand der wiedergewonnenen Gnade wieder zu bringen. Man muss dabei nur einräumen, dass das ואתנפל לפני ד׳ כראשנה ארבעים יום וגו׳ (Dewarim 9, 18) nicht ausschließt, daß während dieser vierzig Tage Mosche von Zeit zu Zeit zur Belehrung des Volkes in das Lager zurückgekehrt sei, worauf sich dann die V. 8.—10 berichteten Ein- und Ausgänge bezögen.

“He heard the voice מִדַבֵר to him.” It is מִדַבֵר , as opposed to מְדַבֵר . This is because מְדַבֵר denotes that the king is speaking with a commoner, whereas מִדַבֵר means that the Voice is speaking to Itself.

והשתחוו AND THEY PROSTRATED THEMSELVES to the Shechinah.

והשתחוו איש פתח אהלו, “and they would prostrate themselves, each one at the entrance to his tent.” They did not bow down and prostrate themselves on account of the presence of the pillar of fire or the pillar of cloud, but as a sign of respect for the attribute of כבוד which was present in Moses’ tent. The matter is similar to the respect we show to the Torah scroll. When we bow down before it we do not mean to honour the scroll but what the scroll represents, i.e. the word of G’d which is written on the parchment.

To the Shechinah. I.e., not to the entrance of Moshe’s tent, as איש פתח אהלו seemingly implies. The only reason it says איש פתח אהלו is because the Pillar of Cloud was there [i.e., at the entrance of Moshe’s tent].

וקם כל העם וישתחוו, “and the entire nation would rise and prostrated themselves;” this describes what has been written in verse 8; seeing that these two verses were very long, the Torah decided to make sure the reader would not lose track of the subject. We find that the Torah used a similar method in Genesis 15,2, when it quotes Avraham asking G-d what possible enduring gift he could give him seeing that he had no biological heir. Avraham comes back to that subject in Genesis 15,3, “reminding” Him that he has no issue. We also find such a “reminder” when Yaakov and Lavan discuss his remuneration for looking after Lavan’s flocks in Genesis 30,27. There are numerous more examples of this type in the Bible.

ודבר ה׳ אל משה פנים אל פנים AND THE LORD SPAKE UNTO MOSES FACE TO FACE — Here too (as in v. 9) in spite of the fact that the text states “face to face” the Targum is: ומתמלל עם משה‎.

AND HIS MINISTER JOSHUA, ‘BIN’ (THE SON OF) NUN, ‘NA’AR’ (A LAD). Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote: “Joshua lived a hundred and ten years,⁴⁵⁵Joshua 24:29. and the Sages say⁴⁵⁶Arakhin 13a. that it took him seven years to conquer the Land [of Israel] and seven years to apportion it amongst the tribes. If so, he was now fifty-six years old,⁴⁵⁷The forty years of the wilderness plus the fourteen years in the Land of Israel, make a total of fifty-four years. Subtract these from a hundred and ten, and you are left with fifty-six. Yet Scripture calls him na’ar (lad)! and how does Scripture call him na’ar (lad)? We must therefore say that this is the meaning thereof: and his minister Joshua the son of Nun rendered him such service as can be given only by a youthful attendant.”
In my opinion it is the way of the Sacred Language to call any attendant [regardless of age] na’ar, for the person of high office is called ish (man),⁴⁵⁸See Ramban Genesis 9:20, Vol. I, p. 141. and [with respect to him] his attendant is called na’ar. Thus: Gehazi ‘na’aro’ (his attendant);⁴⁵⁹II Kings 4:12. Let ‘ha’ne’arim’ (the attendants), I pray thee, arise and play before us.⁴⁶⁰II Samuel 2:14. Similarly, and ten ‘ne’arim’ (attendants) that bore Joab’s armor,⁴⁶¹Ibid., 18:15. and Joab [David’s commander-in-chief] would surely only turn over his armor to valiant men who stood near him! And it is also written, And Joshua said unto the two ‘men’ that had spied out the land,⁴⁶²Joshua 6:22. and yet it is written there, and ‘ha’ne’arim’ the spies went in etc!⁴⁶³Ibid., Verse 23. [Thus we must say that the] term [ha’ne’arim] is used because they were servants of the congregation, acting for them as spies. There are many similar instances. So also, the ‘na’arei’ of the king that ministered unto him,⁴⁶⁴Esther 2:2. [the second half of the phrase being in apposition,] explaining that they were the servants who attended the king personally, and not the attendants of the court. And if so, our verse is stating: and his minister Joshua the son of Nun was always in attendance, and never departed out of the tent.

פנים אל פנים, as opposed to נופל וגלוי עינים, (Numbers 24,4) as Bileam described his visions which came to him only when he had lost control over his own senses.

ודבר ה׳ אל משה פנים אל פנים, "and G'd spoke with Moses face to face." The message of this verse is that the intimacy between Moses and G'd was in direct proportion to the preparation Moses made to welcome G'd's presence. This teaches each of us that the attainment of sanctity is in direct proportion to the efforts we make to attain it.

ויהושוע בן נון נער, “Joshua son of Nun, a lad,” Ibn Ezra writes that seeing that we know that Joshua lived to the age of one hundred and ten, and we have a tradition that he spent seven years conquering the land of Canaan, and seven more years settling the people on their respective portions of that land, he was 96 years of age at the time the Israelites crossed the Jordan. This means that at this time he was already 56 years of age. We must therefore wonder at why the Torah describes him as נער, “a (mere) lad.” He therefore understands the verse to mean that Joshua, who was the personal valet of Moses, was charged with the kind of errands one charges a lad to do for one. Nachmanides writes that there is no need to resort to this explanation of the word נער in our verse, as there are many instances when a person who performs valet service for others is referred to as נער, and this in no way poses a problem. The person for whom the service is performed is known as איש, which automatically makes the one performing the service a junior to the איש, i.e. a נער. As to the unusual vowel chirik instead of the usual segol under the letter ב in the word בן נון, Nachmanides explains this as a mark of distinction for the bearer, meaning that there was no one who could match Joshua in wisdom and understanding. [an allusion to בינה understanding. Insight. Ed.] An alternative explanation is that the subject here is that בינה מוליד נון reminiscent of Psalms In that verse ינון is a reference to the Messiah, and future Jews are credited to the Messiah as if they were his biological offspring (including the people being resurrected in due course) all on account of the meritorious deeds performed by the Messiah (Alshich)

After conversing with him. . . [Rashi knows that it was in order to teach what he had learned] because otherwise, why would Moshe return to the camp after God spoke to him face to face? The place where God spoke to him was where he dwelt, as it is written: “When Moshe had gone into the tent. . .”

פנים אל פנים, “literally: “face to face,” an obviously incorrect translation, seeing that G-d does not possess physical attributes; Our author takes it for granted that the reader is aware of this, and does not spell it out. He does, however, indulge in presenting the reader with another insoluble problem, that of that either G-d or Moses must have changed position in order to speak to one another as if on the same level. He therefore tells us, his readers, that he does not know if the expression means that G-d had raised Moses closer to His level, or vice versa, i.e. that G-d had descended to Moses’ level. He had done so in Exodus 34,5, after the third forty days after the revelation at the Mountain had expired, i.e. on the Day of Atonement.

ושב אל המחנה .( AND HE RETURNED INTO THE CAMP — After God had conversed with him, Moses used to return to the camp and teach the elders what he had learned. This Moses practised from the day of Atonement until the Tabernacle was set up, but no longer. For on the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken, on the eighteenth he burnt the calf and punished the of fenders, on the nineteenth he ascended the mountain, as it is said (Exodus 32:30) “And it came to pass on the morrow (the day after he had punished the wrongdoers; cf. vv. 26—29), that Moses said unto the people”, [Ye have sinned a great sin and now I will go up to the Lord]”. There he spent forty days and sought mercy for the people, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 9:18) “And I threw myself down before the Lord [as at the first, forty days and forty nights]”. These terminated on the last day of Ab (there were 11 days from the 19th to the 29th of Tammuz therefore 29 days in Ab complete the forty) and he then returned to the people. On the first day of the New Moon of Ellul it was said to him, (Exodus 34:2) “And be ready in the morning] and go up in the morning unto mount Sinai” — to receive the second tablets. He again spent there the forty days of which it is stated, (Deuteronomy 10:10) “[And I stayed in the mountain, according to the first, days, [forty days and forty nights]”. The words כימים הראשונים, “like the first days”, cannot refer to the number of days for this is stated immediately afterwards; they are to be joined with עמדתי — I stayed in the same state as on the first days: How were the first forty days passed? In God’s good-will (because the Israelites had not yet sinned)! So, too, the last forty days were passed in God’s good-will — from which you must admit that the intervening forty days were passed in God’s anger. On the tenth of Tishri God became reconciled with Israel in joy and perfect affection and said to Moses: “I have forgiven!” and handed him over the second tablets, whereupon Moses went down and began to command them concerning the work of the Tabernacle (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 31; Seder Olam 6; Rashi on Exodus 18:13, Deuteronomy 9:18 and also Taanit 36b). They were occupied in its construction until the first of Nisan and from the time when it was set up God did not converse with him any more except from the tent of meeting.

The reason for the form ‘bin’ Nun [instead of ‘ben’ Nun] is that the vowel chirik comes sometimes in place of the segal [which would have made it “ben Nun”]. Similar cases are: The words of Agur ‘bin’ (the son of) Jakeh;⁴⁶⁵Proverbs 30:1. Normally it should have been ben. ‘she’bin lailah hayah’ (which came up in a night) ‘u’bin lailah avad’ (and perished in a night);⁴⁶⁶Jonah 4:10. Here too the words should have been: she’ben, u’ben. ‘im bin hakoth harasha’ (if the wicked man deserve to be beaten).⁴⁶⁷Deuteronomy 25:2. Here likewise the sense of the verse is: “ben hakoth — a person deserving to be beaten, because he hit his friend.” So clearly explained in Ibn Ezra ibid.
Yet despite all this I wonder! Why [of all the times that Joshua the son of Nun is cited in the Scriptures] is the name of this righteous man not once mentioned properly [i.e., ‘ben’ Nun]? Therefore I think that they used to call him in this way as a mark of honor, since he was the greatest of the disciples of Moses our teacher, and so they called him binun, meaning “the understanding one,” since there was none so discreet and wise as he.⁴⁶⁸Genesis 41:39. Or it may be that the meaning of it is: “Joshua, whom understanding begot;” they thus used the term nun as in the expression, may his name ‘yinon’ (be continued) as long as the sun.⁴⁶⁹Psalms 72:17.

כאשר ידבר איש אל רעהו, as opposed to soliloquizing, [as in praying but not receiving an answer.]

Until the mishkon was erected but not longer. . . Beforehand he did not act in this way because there was no time to learn or to teach, due to the troubles with the Calf, his praying for the people, and his receiving the second set of Tablets.

כאשר ידבר איש אל רעהו, "as a man speaks to his friend." We understand this simile as emphasising the word רעהו, "his friend." We find a similar thought in Proverbs 27,19: "as face to face [is reflected] in water, so man's heart [will be reflected by his counterpart]." Solomon speaks of a mental telepathy between the hearts of people who do not even see each other but perceive whether their counterpart loves them or hates them. The relationship between man and invisible G'd is based on something deeper than the exterior sense of sight. The heart senses the attitude of its opposite number. If someone prepares to love his fellow man the heart of his fellow man responds to such invisible feelings. Alternatively, the meaning is that just as his "friend" will not love him unless he has reciprocated the feeling of love, so is G'd's attitude to us. If one wishes to gauge one's standing in the eyes of G'd one needs only to examine one's own attitude towards G'd and His service. If one feels the urge to serve the Lord and delights in doing so, this is proof that G'd relates to such a person with love.

ושב אל המחנה, “and he would return to the camp.” In Exodus 18,13, on the words: ויהי ממחרת, Rashi comments that the first set of Tablets were smashed on the 17th of Tammuz, that on the 18th i.e. the day following he burned the calf and punished those who had worshipped it, and that on the 19th he ascended the Mountain again. The problem is that both in Deut. 9,18 and in Exodus 18,13 he says that Moses ascended again on the eighteenth. Different super commentaries on Rashi attempt, each one in his own way, to resolve this apparent contradiction.

ושב אל המחנה AND HE RETURNED TO THE CAMP — The translation in the Targum is: וְתָיִב למשריתא (a participle) “and he used to return to the camp”, because (as explained above) it denotes continuous action. Similarly, he translates all the verbs occuring in this section by participles: וראה כל העם he renders by ונצבו ;וחזן by והביטו ;וקימין by והשתחוו ;ומסתכלין by וסגדין. The Midrash explains ודבר ה' אל משה thus: And the Lord spake to Moses that he should return to the camp. He said to him: I am angry and you are angry; if this is to remain so, who will attract them to Me again? (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 27 and Berakhot 63b).

לא ימיש מתוך האוהל, in order to ensure that none of the Israelites would enter this tent, seeing all of them were in a state of disgrace. This tent was reserved for the presence of the Shechinah out of bounds, as in Exodus 3,5 where Moses was warned not to come close while wearing footwear. The reason that at that time even Moses was not admitted as he was, shows that he was not yet spiritually equipped for that degree of communication from G’d.

And on the nineteenth he went up, as it says. . . You might ask: In v. 18:13, Rashi wrote: “On the seventeenth of Tammuz he descended and broke the Tablets, and early the next day — which is the eighteenth of Tammuz he ascended.” [Why does Rashi say here that it was the nineteenth?] The answer is: In Taanis 29a, Abaye resolves a difficulty by saying that Tammuz in that year had thirty days [instead of its usual twenty-nine]. Rashi [in 18:13] calculates Moshe’s forty days and nights according to the [usual] pattern of a twentynine-day month being followed by a thirty-day month — based on Tammuz being always twenty-nine days — therefore Rashi says that Moshe ascended on the eighteenth of Tammuz. But when he calculates it according to Abaye’s statement that Tammuz in that year was thirty days [which adds a day,] he says that Moshe ascended on the nineteenth. (Re”m) Nachalas Yaakov writes: It seems to me that Re”m confused one Tammuz with another. Abaye spoke about the Tammuz when the Spies were sent, which was in the second year [after leaving Egypt]. Whereas the Tammuz of the Calf was in the first year. See there. An alternative answer: Moshe ascended on the [morning of the] eighteenth, but the calculation of forty days started only on the nineteenth. This is because the eighteenth was without the nighttime [i.e., it was not complete so it was not counted].

ומשרתו יהושע בן נון נער, “and his personal disciple, Yehoshua son of Nun, a lad, etc.“ Joshua lived a total of 110 years (Joshua 24,29). If you deduct the 40 years the Israelites marched through the desert and the 14 years which Joshua spent in the land of Israel prior to his death (seven years of war and seven years of distributing the country and allocating it to the various tribes) you will note that at this time Joshua was 56 years old. How is it then that the Torah refers to him as a נער, “a lad?” The answer is that the word נער means “personal valet.” The master is known as איש, whereas the valet is known as נער by comparison. This is spelled out in greater detail in Esther 2,2 where the text speaks of נערי המלך משרתיו, “the lads of the king, i.e. his personal valets.” The word משרתיו in that verse is used to define who were the people called נערי המלך.

ראה אתה אמר אלי SEE. THOU SAYEST UNTO ME — Set Thy eyes and Thy heart to Thy own words (Think for a moment of what Thou, Thyself, hast told me)

AND MOSES SAID UNTO THE ETERNAL: ‘SEE, THOU SAYEST UNTO ME: BRING UP THIS PEOPLE.’ This happened on Mount Sinai, when Moses went up there on the nineteenth of Tammuz. It was not necessary though for Scripture to say, “and Moses went up to G-d, and he said to him, ‘See, Thou sayest unto me, etc.,’” for it is known that as long as the Glory dwelled upon Mount Sinai, all communications [to Moses] took place there. Similarly Moses said, and now I will go up unto the Eternal,⁴⁷⁰Above, 32:30. and it is also said, And Moses returned unto the Eternal,⁴⁷¹Ibid., Verse 31. meaning that he returned to the place where he had stood before the Eternal.⁴⁷²Genesis 19:27.

ראה, do not turn your face away but take my comment seriously.

ראה אתה אומר אלי, "See, You are saying to me, etc." Moses refers to the fact that on the one hand he was the leader (messenger) who was charged with leading the Israelites towards the land of Canaan, whereas on the other hand G'd had just told him that He would send an additional supernatural messenger, an angel, to lead the Israelites. Moses wanted to know more about the nature of this supernatural messenger that would accompany the Israelites. This is why he said: ואתה לא הודעתני את אשר תשלח עמי, "You have not told me whom You are going to send with me." Moses made his consent to the new arrangement dependent on knowing more about the nature of that angel. In the event that G'd would tell him that his consent was not needed, Moses added: ואתה אמרת ידעתיך בשם, "You have said 'I know you by name,' meaning that you have elevated me beyond the level of the Patriarchs (compare Exodus 6,3). He implied that his status of being familiar with the attribute י־ה־ו־ה was such that he was entitled to be consulted. The word ידעתיך in this verse corresponds to the word נודעתי in Exodus 6,3.

ראה אתה אומר אלי העל, as we know from 32,34 לך נחה את העם,

ויאמר משה ראה אתה אומר אלי , “Moses said: “See, You say to me: “take up this people, etc.” The instructions which Moses claimed to have received at Mount Sinai occurred on the 19th of Tammuz. The Torah did not have to write at that time that Moses ascended the Mountain, seeing that as long as the glory of G’d hovered over the Mountain, it was clear that G’d spoke to Moses from that location.

ראה means: Set Your “eyes” and Your “heart”. . . Re”m writes that, in his opinion, the text in our books is corrupt. [Instead of the verse quoted,] it should have written, “And this that You said to me: ‘I will send an angel before you and I will drive out. . .’ (33:2).” This is because [the present verse,] “Behold, I am sending an angel” (23:20), was stated before the incident of the Calf. It is true that Rashi explains there, “Here they are foretold that they are destined to sin, and the Shechinah would then say to them: ‘For I will not go up among you.’” Nevertheless, the primary verse is, “I will send an angel before you,” which was stated after the incident of the Calf. Nachalas Yaakov [disagrees partially with Re”m] and writes: It seems to me that it should rather say, “Behold, My angel will go before you” (32:34). First of all, this verse precedes, “I will send an angel before you” (33:2). Second of all, it is more likely to have been confused with (23:20), “Behold, I am sending an angel,” [due to their similarity,] thus causing the corruption in the text.

V. 12. An keinen Teil des göttlichen Wortes dürfte Übersetzung und Erläuterung sich zagender wagen, als an den Inhalt des VV. 12.—23 Niedergelegten. Werden wir doch darin an die Grenze der menschlichen Erkenntnis von Gott geführt, wird uns doch darin das über diese Grenze Hinausliegende noch angedeutet, um uns eben dessen Unerreichbarkeit für das in unserem Hiersein uns eingeräumte Maß der Erkenntnis auszusprechen. Wie soll der Versuch des Verständnisses und des Ausdrucks nicht fürchten, hier den Punkt des Wahren und die Linie des Entsprechenden zu verfehlen! Wir versuchen daher nur das wiederzugeben, was unmittelbar Wort und Zusammenhang darzubieten scheinen.

ואתה לא הודעתני, “and You have not informed me;” Moses means that not only did G–d not inform me of details about the angel which He had said that He would send to walk ahead of the Jewish people (Exodus 32, 34) ; it is not only that You Yourself will not walk in front of us, but You did not even name the angel You have assigned for this task. We are now no better off than any human being on earth, each one of whom has an angel walking in front of him. (Compare Psalms 91,11) where David refers to this with the words: כי מלאכיו יצוה לך לשמר לך בכל דרכיך, “for He will order His angels to guard you wherever you go.” Seeing that this is so, how do I benefit from Your having told me that I have found favour in Your eyes? Even Avraham’s servant, Eliezer, had been assured of the same kind of angel, without having been told by G–d that he had found favour in His eyes? (Compare Genesis 24,7)

ראה אתה אומר אלי, “See, You say to me:” the reason why we always read this paragraph on the Sabbath of the intermediate days of the festival of Passover and Sukkot, is because in this section all of the three pilgrimage festivals are mentioned. By mentioning these days as belonging to the festivals we derive the work prohibitions that apply on these days. The main point is the fact that the individual offerings the pilgrims have to present are to be offered on one of those days. (Compare Talmud Chagigah folio 18)

אתה אמר אלי וגו׳ ואתה לא הודעתני וגו׳ THOU SAYEST UNTO ME [BRING UP THIS PEOPLE] AND NEVERTHELESS THOU HAST NOT LET ME KNOW [WHOM THOU WILT SEND WITH ME] — for what You have said to me (Exodus 23:20) “And I will send an angel before thee” is not “letting me know”, for I am not satisfied with it.

AND THOU HAST NOT LET ME KNOW WHOM THOU WILT SEND WITH ME. “And that which You said to me, Behold, I send an angel before thee,⁴⁷³Above, 23:20. — that is not ‘letting me know,’ for I am not satisfied with it.” This is Rashi’s language. But it is not correct to fit this thought into the language of the verse. Besides, why should Moses have said this only now [that he was not satisfied with the angel], and when the matter was communicated to him he remained quiet? Did Moses think to gain because of the incident of the calf? Instead, the purport thereof is as follows: The Holy One, blessed be He, had told Moses here, and I will send an angel before thee,⁴⁷⁴Above, Verse 2 (in this chapter). and Moses told Him, Thou has not let me know who is that angel whom Thou wilt send with me, and whether it is that first angel in whom is Thy Name.⁴⁷⁵Ibid., 23:21. This is the sense of the expression, Yet Thou hast said: I know thee by Name, meaning that You have known me and exalted me by [the knowledge of] Your Name. And so also did Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explain the verse here. In his opinion⁴⁷⁶So explained by Ibn Ezra above 23:20 (towards the end). the angel he [i.e., Moses] wanted was Michael. With his good sense [Ibn Ezra] understood the verses to imply that the first angel was pleasing to Moses and to Israel. He could not, however, know the truth, since he neither heard it [from others] nor did he prophesy it [on his own].⁴⁷⁷This is a veiled criticism of Ibn Ezra who neither received the mystic traditions of the Cabala from others, nor studied them by himself. As Ramban will explain in the following verse, this whole subject can be understood only through “the way of Truth.”

אתה אומר אלי העל את העם הזה, when You said to me in verse 1 “lead up this people, etc.,”

ואתה לא הודעתני, but You have not informed me about Your going with us, seeing You only spoke about sending an angel. I do not want this, but I want You, personally, to go with us.

ואתה לא הודעתני את אשר תשלח עמי, “yet You have not told me whom You will send to be with me.” Rashi understands Moses as referring to G’d’s having said that He would send an angel along (compare 32,20) as something which he was not even willing to consider as a הודעה, an “official information.” Nachmanides claims that this is not the correct meaning of what we read here at all. It does not jive with the syntax employed by the Torah. Furthermore, if correct, why would Moses say this to G’d at this juncture instead of in 32,20 when he had been told to get moving with the people? Did he then intend at this point to gain some advantage of what had happened on account of the golden calf? I believe (Nachmanides speaking) that what happened was as follows: G’d had told Moses that He would send an angel ahead of the people, to which Moses replied that he had not been told the “name” of that angel, i.e. the category of that angel and his terms of reference. He wanted to know if that was the same angel that had traveled with the Jewish people before the unhappy events with the golden calf, an angel who was high up in the celestial hierarchy, so that our sages describe him as an angel אשר שם ה' בקרבו, who clearly represented Hashem, the essence. as G’d Himself had said at the time כי שמי בקרבו, for My name (essence) is within him.” (Exodus 23,21) This is what Moses meant when he continued in a plaintive voice ואתה אמרת ידעתיך בשם, “and You Yourself have said to me that You had become as intimate with me as is possible, i.e. You expressed Your approval of me.” Moses indicated that he would not settle for anything less at this time.

But You did not let me know. God had told him, “I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaantes” (33:2). But this would not take place until they entered the land. In the meantime it seemed that they would be accompanied by neither God nor the angel! In the face of this prospect Moshe pleaded for continued guidance.

“By name” i.e., to recognize your importance. . . Rashi is answering the question: Does the verse not imply that God knows only Moshe as an individual, whereas His knowledge and supervision of other people is only in general, not on an individual basis? Heaven forbid we should say this! God supervises all His creatures individually, from biggest to smallest. Therefore Rashi explains that “by name” conveys that Moshe is beloved and important.

Moses quoted something G'd had said to him: וגם מצאת חן בעיני "you have also found favour in My eyes," as additional proof that he expected G'd to consult him about any new arrangements. We find in Yalkut Shimoni item 173 (on Parshat Shemot) that during the dialogue between G'd and Moses at the burning bush, G'd showed Moses part of the future including Rabbi Akiva expounding the Torah and its intricacies such as the meaning of the various "crowns" on top of some of the letters. Moses was so impressed that he suggested to G'd to send Rabbi Akiva as the redeemer of the Jewish people instead of himself. G'd had answered him at that time that He specifically wanted Moses to fulfil that role. The Midrash obviously understood this as proof that Moses more than anyone else had found favour in His eyes. The upshot of the allegorical conversation is that Moses realised that although Rabbi Akiva was superior to him intellectually, G'd preferred him for other reasons. He was correct in interpreting this as proof that he had found favour in the eyes of G'd. [I believe that the reason the author quotes the story in the Yalkut is because the Torah did not previously report G'd telling Moses that he had found favour in the eyes of G'd. Ed.] As a result of all these considerations Moses asked G'd to reveal more to him about His attributes.

ראה אתה אמר אלי. Mit der V. 1 f. an Mosche erteilten und erklärten Aufgabe war er und das Volk, wie wir dies verstehen zu müssen glaubten, für die nächste Zukunft wieder in die aus unsichtbarer Ferne vermittelte Gottesführung versetzt, wie sie den Vätern bis zur ägyptischen Erlösung geworden war. Gott hatte für die Ermöglichung der Besitznahme des Landes die ihnen vorauseilende Gottessendung zugesagt — ושלחתי לפניך מלאך — allein die ganze Weiterführung des Volkes zu diesem Ziele, in und über dies Ziel hinaus, zur Aufgabe Mosche gemacht und ihn damit ganz auf sich selbst, auf die ihm innewohnende Kraft der Erkenntnis und der Tat verwiesen. Diese völlige Verweisung auf sich selbst, glauben mir, sei durch das: ואתה לא הודעתני את אשר תשלח עמי ausgedrückt. "Du hast mir wohl gesagt, was du vor mich her, zur Überwältigung der von außen entgegenstehenden Gewalten, senden willst, nicht aber, was Du mit mir senden willst, was mir in Leitung des Volkes noch ferner beistehen soll." Du hast mich damit auf mich selbst verwiesen.

ואתה אמרת ידעתיך בשם YET THOU HAST SAID, I HAVE KNOWN THEE BY NAME — I have distinguished you from all other human beings by a characteristic (שם) which shows my importance in Thy eyes, for, see, Thou hast said to me, (Exodus 19:9) “Behold, I come unto thee in a thick cloud etc.… and also in thee they shall believe for ever”.

ואתה לא הודעתני את אשר תשלח עמי, the promise that You would send an angel with me (verse 2) was to take effect only once the people would enter the land of Canaan, at which time the promise that with the help of the angel we would dispossess the Canaanites would be fulfilled. But, in the meantime, who is going to be our protective force? How can we be without either an angel or Your personal presence? Moreover,

You said, “I know you by name.” This was an assurance that he would enjoy God’s personal providence at all times.

ואתה אמרת וגו׳ und du hast damit gesagt, du habest mich mit Namen erkannt, d. h. indem du mir einen solchen Auftrag erteiltest, hast du damit ausgesprochen, du habest mich persönlich aus den übrigen Menschen für deine besonderen Zwecke herausgehoben, וגם מצאת חן וגו׳ und zugleich, dass ich durch meine bisherige Vergangenheit deines mit Gaben und Fähigkeiten ausstattenden Wohlwollens mich nicht ganz unwürdig gezeigt (siehe Bereschit 6, 8). Indem du nämlich mir einen solchen, bloß durch meine Persönlichkeit zu lösenden Auftrag erteilt hast, hast du mich zu der Annahme berechtigt, du habest mich würdig gefunden, mich mit allen denjenigen geistigen Gaben auszustatten, deren ich zur Lösung einer solchen Aufgabe bedürfen werde.

ואתה לא הודעתני, “and You have not informed me, etc.;” in verse 5 G-d had said: “and I will know what I can do for you.” In the meantime G-d had not revealed to Moses how He would punish the surviving members of Jewish people for their share in the episode of the golden calf. More specifically, He had not revealed if He was going to send an angel to lead them, or if He were to do this Himself, personally.

ואתה אמרת ידעתיך בשם, when You paid me such a compliment, surely this did not mean that You will leave me to my own devices on this journey? Surely, such feelings as expressed in Zeacharyah 11,9 where You are quoted as saying: “I am not going to tend you, let the one that is to die die, and the one that is to get lost get lost, and let the rest devour each other’s flesh.” “Surely, You had intended for me to be the angel who leads the people of Israel.”

ועתה וגו׳ NOW THEREFORE etc. — If it is true that I have found favour in Thy eyes, הודיעני נא את דרכך LET ME KNOW THY WAY — let me know what is the reward which Thou givest to those who find favour in Thine eyes.

ועתה, since You had agreed that I should be the angel,

ואדעך למען אמצא חן, "in order that I will know You and continue to find favour in Your eyes." Seeing that it is not good manners for a servant to tell his master that he wants to get to know him better, Moses added the word למען, "for the sake of, etc.;" he explained that his request was not for his own satisfaction but in order for him to be a more effective leader of his people. This is what he meant when he referred to "finding favour in Your eyes."

הודיעני נא את דרכך, You Yourself ought to inform me of the way we should travel, by showing me the way we can follow You.

If it is so that I have found favor in Your eyes. . . Rashi is answering the question: Does the verse not imply that Moshe was unsure whether Hashem had said that he finds favor in His eyes? But earlier, Moshe told Hashem that He had said to him: “You have found favor in My eyes”! Rashi answers: Moshe surely knew it was true that [Hashem had said that] he found favor in His eyes. Moshe meant: “Is it really so that I have found favor? Perhaps when You said, “You have found favor in My eyes,” You were jesting as people have a manner of doing.

V. 13. ועתה וגו׳. Und nun, um dieses Volk in der nächsten Zukunft nach meiner eigenen Einsicht leiten zu können, bedarf ich zunächst einer Erkenntnis, die mir noch mangelt. Ich bedarf der Erkenntnis דרכך וגו׳. Es heißt nicht דַרְכֶך, auch nichtדרכין , sondernדרכך , es ist dies die Mannigfaltigkeit der Wege Gottes in ihrer Einheit begriffen. Es fehlt mir die Erkenntnis, wie du in aller Mannigfaltigkeit deiner verschiedenen Wege immer doch nur das eine Ziel verfolgst; in dem besonderen Falle: wie du auch bei der offenbar nun veränderten Leitung des Volkes doch deine ursprüngliche Absicht mit demselben nicht aufgegeben, vielmehr sicherlich dies eine Ziel auch auf diesem nun veränderten Wege verfolgst und erreicht wissen willst. Ich bedarf aber dieser Einsicht in die "Einheit der Mannigfaltigkeit deiner Wege", ואדעך, so, dass mir der Blick klar für deine Absichten bleibe, למען אמצא וגו׳, damit auch ferner ich mich deines Wohlwollens würdig zeigen, damit ich das Vertrauen, das du mir geschenkt, rechtfertigen, und die Aufgabe, die du mir gegeben und die nichts anderes sein kann, als das Volk deinen Absichten gemäß zu leiten, lösen könne. וראה וגו׳, ebenso wie oben ראה אתה וגו׳: und diese Bitte, die ich aus der Erwägung der mir erteilten Aufgabe heraus zu äußern gewagt habe, die wage ich auch ebenso auf die Erwägung der Bestimmung dieses Volkes zu begründen. הגוי הזה dieses Volk, auch wie es sich in der Gegenwart seiner Verirrung darstellt, ist ja und bleibt ja עמך, ist ja und bleibt ja die Gesamtheit, die du zu einem Volke geschichtlich geschaffen und deren Bestimmung, dein Volk zu werden, du bei ihrer Volksschöpfung ausgesprochen: ולקחתי אתכם לי לעם (siehe Kap. 32, 11). Seine Mängel waren dir bei seiner Erwählung gegenwärtig. Seiner Bestimmung ist es gewiss trotz seiner jetzt hervorgetretenen Unvollkommenheit nicht verlustig. Auch in seiner jetzt veränderten Beziehung zu dir soll es derselben Bestimmung entgegen gehen. Mir, der ich es dieser Bestimmung entgegen führen soll, tut eine Einsicht in diesen Weg zu diesem Ziele not, damit ich es diesem Wege gemäß zu diesem Ziele führen kann.

ועתה אם נא מצאתי חן בעיניך,”and now, if I indeed have found favour in Your eyes;” Moses is hinting that perhaps plans indeed to go personally in front of the Israelites again, and he wishes to be given details of where and how they are going to continue journeying from now on.

הודיעני נא את דרכיך, “please instruct me in Your ways.” Moses wished G-d to instruct Him of His attributes. Once he had been instructed in those, he would be able to determine if he wished for the Jewish people to be led by one or more of G-d’ attributes or by is essence. (B’chor Shor)

ואדעך למען אמצא חן בעיניך means, that I may know by this (by Your letting me know Your way) the nature of the reward You bestow — what is this “finding of grace” which You have granted to me (Hebrew: which I found in Your eyes). The explanation of למען אמצא חן accordingly is: that I may find out (אמצא) how great is the reward attendant on this “finding of grace”.

הודיעני נא את דרכך, acquaint me with Your two miraculous ways, 1) how simply by Your knowledge of something You can make these figments of Your will or imagination become automatically a reality as demonstrated whenever You perform supernatural miracles, and 2) how by Your unfailingly accurate knowledge of future events, such knowledge does not impair the freedom of choice of man to do what he wants.

What reward do You give. . . [Rashi knows it means this] because otherwise, why did Moshe request this here?

וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה, "and consider that this nation is Your people." Moses carried on this conversation with G'd in complete privacy. He therefore reminded G'd that the souls of the Jewish people were part of G'd Himself, as I have explained in Deuteronomy 32,9 on the words: כי חלק ה׳ עמו, "for His people are a part of G'd." G'd Himself also alluded to this in Exodus 20,20 when He said: "I am the Lord your G'd." I have explained this more thoroughly in that context. When Moses said: וראה, he referred to this as a known fact, implying that inasmuch as there was something divine about the Jewish people, how could G'd despise something that was itself divine?

If informed of these details he will be certain that he has found favour in the Lord’s eyes.

ואדעך, “so that I will know You more intimately and be able to cleave to You more closely;” As result, I will be able to find favour in Your eyes.

וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה AND CONSIDER THAT THIS NATION IS THY PEOPLE so that You should not say, as You have said, (Exodus 32:10) “And I will make thee a great nation”, whilst these (the whole people) You will abandon! Consider that they are Your nation from of old, and if You reject them, surely I cannot rely upon it that those who are born of me will endure — rather let me know through this people the reward that is to be paid me (by sparing them). Our Rabbis have given a Midrashic explanation of this in Treatise Berakhot 7a but I come (my purpose is) to explain the verses in a manner fitting to them and in their context.

ואדעך, so that I will know You, as knowledge of Your actions does convey some inkling of the considerations which resulted in such actions.

What is this “finding of favor”. . . Explanation: This [phrase in the verse] is connected to “Please let me know Your way.” The verse conveys: Let me know what reward You give to those who find favor in Your eyes. Then I will understand the meaning of this favor which I have found in Your eyes.

וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה, “and consider that this nation is Your people.”

למען אמצא חן בעיניך, by possessing such knowledge and an appreciation of Your mode of operation I will myself attain favour in Your eyes. A similar thought has been expressed in Jeremiah 9,23 “let the one who wants to boast, boast about the degree of knowledge about Me that he has acquired for I, the Lord, am fond of those who make knowing Me better their principal objective.”

So that I may appreciate. . . I.e., so I may recognize and understand what benefit this finding of favor provides. And thereby I will know the degree to which You give reward for the favor which I have found in Your eyes.

וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה, for Your name will only be recognised among this people and not among the nations of the world. Compare psalms 76,2 on this subject, i.e. נודע ביהודה אלוקים בישראל גדול שמו, “G’d is known in Yehudah; His name is great in Israel (exclusively). Seeing that this is so it is not appropriate for You to withhold from me the answer to what I have requested on account of their sin “ Moses’ argument is in line with what we were told in Sanhedrin 11 and Baba Batra 134 that there were at different times (Hillel’s students) 30 people whose personal stature was such that they deserved that the Presence of G’d rest on them. If it did not, this was only because their contemporaries did not deserve that G’d’s presence manifest itself in their lifetime.

My reward for this people. . . Explanation: Just as I requested that You let me know what reward You will give me for the favor I found in Your eyes, so do I request that You let me know what reward You will give me for my leadership of this people. [Rashi knows it means this] because otherwise, why is this phrase here? (Re”m)

ויאמר פני ילכו AND HE SAID, MY FACE SHALL GO WITH THEE Understand this as the Targum renders it: My Shechinah will go — I will no more send an angel with you, but I Myself will go. פנים here has the sense of “Self” as in (II Samuel 17:11) “and that thou go in the battle in thine own person (פניך)”.

PANAI’ (MY PRESENCE) SHALL GO. In the opinion of all commentators this means, “I myself will go.” And they brought a parallel expression to this from the verse, ‘upanecha’ (and thine own person) shalt go to battle.⁴⁷⁸II Samuel 17:11.

פני ילכו, when you are moving toward the Holy Land My presence will walk before you. The emphasis here is on the word “before” instead of G’d saying “among you” [the author is reading this into the text as G’d left the definition of where His presence would be wide open. Ed.]

ויאמר פני ילכו, "He said: 'My presence will go with you.'" Many commentators have addressed themselves to these verses. I believe the correct approach to these verses must be based on a comment in Tikkunim 18 that the Torah refers to the שכינה as פני ה׳, seeing this is the aspect of G'd visible to the Celestial Beings. This is also the allusion contained in the words of Exodus 23,15 ולא יראו פני ריקם, "they shall not see My Face (while) empty-handed." In our verse G'd is responding to Moses' arguments and informs him that He Himself will go with him as His attribute פני השם, i.e. the שכינה. Concerning the matter of Moses having reservations about such an arrangement, G'd added: והניחותי לך, "I will give you rest."

פני ילכו, I, Myself, will go, as you have requested. Compare Samuel II 17,11 where we encounter the identical expression ופניך הולכים בקרב, “You G’d personally will be along during the battle.”

פני ילכו והנחותי לך, “My Presence will go and put your mind at rest.” Nachmanides writes that the commentators agree that G’d agreed that His essence would go with the people. We find similar words with the same meaning in Samuel II 17,11 פניך הולכים בקרב, when Chushai advises Avshalom to personally lead his troops against his father David. [the word פניך, meaning that Avshalom would prove that he was serious in his rebellion, that his innermost self was involved, and knowing this his supporters would not need to fear that he might change his mind at the last moment, leaving them to appear as the rebels and having no longer a cause to fight for. Ed.]

V. 14. פני ילכו wie: ופניך הלכים בקרב (Sam. II. 17, 11): mein Angesicht wird selbst wieder mit euch gehen, d. h. den dir gewordenen Auftrag, allein, kraft der dir innewohnenden Einsicht, das Volk weiter zu führen, wirst du nicht lange mehr zu erfüllen haben. Das durch die Ankündigung: לא אעלה בקרבך hervorgetretene tiefe Trauergefühl hat bereits den Zweck dieser Ankündigung zur Hälfte erreicht, hat bereits das Volk einen Schritt über die Gesunkenheit emporgehoben, die die angekündigte Veränderung in der Führung Gottes notwendig gemacht haben würde. Dass das פני ילכו mit אעלה בקרבך, oder mindestens mit dem vielleicht eine Mittelstufe bezeichnenden אלך עמכם identisch sei, beweist die Bitte V. 15: אם אין פניך הולכים וגו׳, die V. 16 also motiviert wird: ובמה יודע וגו׳ הלא בלכתך עמנו וגו׳, wo offenbar לכתך עמנו ונפלינו וגו׳ das פניך הולכים kommentiert. Also: פני ילכו und doch: והנחתי לך. Obgleich die Voraussetzung, die du deiner Bitte zu Grunde gelegt hast, nicht dauernd eintreten wird, indem ich selber in unmittelbarer Leitung wieder walten werde, so werde ich doch deiner Bitte willfahren und dir die erbetene Einsicht gewähren.

והניחותי לך, “and I will give you rest.” I will go with you until the conquest and give you rest from all your enemies.” Moses had quoted G-d to this effect when discussing the commandment to wipe out Amalek utterly In Deuteronomy 25,19. (Rash’bam)

והניחותי לך; will give you rest from your enemies around you, so that you will bring the people into the land in safety.

והניחותי לך, My presence will remain with you until I have brought you to settlement after you have conquered the land of Canaan and you have rest from all your enemies. Moses had confirmed this promise in Deuteronomy 3,20 as well as in Deuteronomy 25,19, the wording being unmistakable והיה בהניח ה' לכם מכל אויביך מסביב, “it will be when the Lord will give you rest from all your enemies surrounding you, etc.” Anyone who translates the words והניחותי לך as G’d telling Moses that He will put his mind at rest by agreeing to his request is in error. If that could be the meaning, we would have to ask why only in this instance did G’d use such language when on the many other occasions G’d agreed to a request by Moses He never added the words: “so as to put your mind at rest?”

G'd also meant that He would allow an extra-terrestrial light to rest on Moses, one that would not fade; at the same time whatever degree of spiritual light Moses had enjoyed thus far would continue, although seen from Israel's vantage point the Divine Presence שכינה would be perceived as preceding the people on their journeys. This was an aspect of G'd's attribute of דין, Justice, as is evident from the name with which G'd identified Himself here. [I believe that having said that the expression פני השם referred to the way G'd is manifest in Heaven, the author concludes that this is an aspect of דין, seeing there is no need for the attribute of Mercy in the Celestial Regions. Ed.] Moses responded to this offer by saying: "If Your presence will not go with me," in verse 15.

‎ויאמר אליו AND HE SAID UNTO HIM — This is what I desired: for if it is to be by an angel rather do not bring us up from here.

AND HE [Moses] SAID UNTO HIM: IF ‘PANECHA’ (THY PRESENCE) GO NOT WITH ME, CARRY US NOT UP HENCE. The meaning thereof according to Rashi is as follows: “This is what I desired, for if it be by an angel, rather do not carry us up from here.” But G-d forbid! that Moses should say, If Thy presence go not, after he had already been promised, My presence shall go!
And Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra explained that G-d said to Moses: “I Myself will go, and only you will I give rest, for only with you will I go [but I will not dwell in the midst of the people].” But Moses replied: “If Your presence does not go with the whole nation, carry us not up hence.” This is why Moses used the plural, “carry us up.” But this interpretation too, does not fit the verses properly. For Moses said at first, Thou hast not let me know whom Thou wilt send with me⁴⁷⁹Verse 12. — in the singular. Now even at the time of G-d’s good-will, before the sin [with the golden calf occurred], He also said, Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee by the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared,⁴⁷³Above, 23:20. [and yet this promise too is expressed in the singular — to Moses]! And if you will say that the singular there [before ‘thee’, to keep ‘thee’ etc.] refers to Israel [as one unit], then here also it could be explained to refer to all Israel! Besides, if it is so [as Ibn Ezra interpreted], that Moses requested of G-d that He inform him who is the angel He would send with him, then we see that Moses was satisfied with the angel, concerning whom it is said, for My Name is in him,⁴⁷⁵Ibid., 23:21. and G-d answered him with a double, and redoubled, beneficence, over and above that which he had asked for — that He Himself would go!
But this section of Scripture cannot possibly be grasped by one who has not heard the secrets of the Torah. The following is its meaning by way of the Truth. Moses said, and Thou hast not let me know who is the angel Thou wilt send with me, and he requested that He fulfill two things He had said to him: firstly, that I know thee by Name, meaning [G-d said to Moses] that “I will be known to you by My [Great] Name, for your sake” [and this was now Moses’ request, that he be not divested of this highest degree of prophecy on account of the incident of the calf]. It is possible that the phrase, yet Thou hast said, [I know thee by Name], is based upon what He had said to Moses [with reference to the patriarchs], but by My Name the Eternal I made Me not known to them,⁴⁸⁰Above, 6:3. But to Moses He did reveal Himself by His Great Name, as explained there. as I have explained [there]. And secondly Moses had been told: and thou hast also found grace in My sight, meaning that he will find grace, which is the cleaving of knowledge.⁴⁸¹That G-d always be with them in the wilderness face to face (Abusaula). And Moses continued, Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight,⁴⁸²Verse 13. in the attribute of justice, show me now the paths of the ways⁴⁸³“The paths of goodness with which You conduct Your world, and by which You are known” (Bachya). even as Thou art known by Thy Name, that I may know Thee to declare Thy Unity, to the end that I may find the great grace; and consider that this nation is Thy people — Thou art their Father, and they are Thy children. It is this that Onkelos intended in translating the verse thus: “make me then know the path of Thy goodness to the end that I may know Thy mercy.” Then the Holy One, blessed be He, answered him, My presence shall go — the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in,⁴⁸⁴Malachi 3:1. for in him My presence will be seen, since it is with reference to him that it is said, in an acceptable time have I answered thee;⁴⁸⁵Isaiah 49:8. for My Name is in him.⁴⁷⁵Ibid., 23:21. ‘Vahanichothi lach’ (and I will give thee rest) through him, that he should not conduct himself towards you with the stringent attribute of justice but with the measure which is inclusive of the attribute of mercy, the usage [of the word vahanichothi] being associated with the expression, Therefore it shall be ‘b’haniyach’ (when) the Eternal thy G-d (hath given thee rest) from all thine enemies.⁴⁸⁶Deuteronomy 25:19. This is similar to that which is said, Thus shall Mine anger spend itself, ‘vahanichothi’ (and I will satisfy) My fury upon them.⁴⁸⁷Ezekiel 5:13. Then Moses answered, If Thy presence — Thou Thyself and in Thy Glory — go not, carry us not up hence, for Thou art to be with us face to face,⁴⁸⁸Deuteronomy 5:4. for such were the conditions [as mentioned] in the section of Va’eira.⁴⁸⁹Above, 6:6-8. Likewise Moses mentioned above, with great power and with a mighty hand,⁴⁹⁰Ibid., 32:11. and so now too he asked that He bring them to the Land with great power and with a mighty hand, just as He took them out with them from Egypt.

אם אין פניך הולכים, now already when we are still encamped, seeing that You have withdrawn Your presence, then You better do not bring us any further from here for it would be preferable for us to remain here in the desert than to enter the Holy Land without Your Presence among us. By staying right here, we would at least be exposed to the manifestation of Your continued Presence.

ואם אין פניך הולכים, "Unless Your face will go, etc." Moses was not satisfied with G'd's previous offer and said that unless G'd's face would go with them as of now the people would be lost, and there was no point in even beginning their ascent towards the Holy Land. His reasoning was that the only way he could be certain that he had indeed found favour in G'd's eyes was the method employed by G'd in accompanying the Jewish people. He referred to Israel's distinction of G'd relating to them as the Attribute represented by His Ineffable Name. Moses was dissatisfied that only he and not the entire people should be the beneficiaries of the "great light" which G'd had promised to bestow on Moses in verse 14. [The author appears to feel that the fact that G'd did not tell Moses in verse 14 that His Attribute would walk with the people instead of ahead of the people, made Moses refuse the offer. Ed.] He prayed for G'd to accompany the people as His attribute of the Ineffable Name, i.e. as the attribute of Mercy. G'd agreed to this request also when He said: "I will also carry out this matter which you have spoken of for you have found favour in My eyes." G'd was careful to let Moses know that His consent was due to His fondness of Moses, not because of His being fond of the people.

אם אין פניך הולכים, this is not a harping on a request already made and granted, but it is an introductory remark to an additional request by Moses. במה וודע...ופלינו אני ועמך?; Moses asks that he personally will be perceived as enjoying G’d’s special regard, by being distinguished in some visible manner. He argues that if he were to be thus recognisable as G’d’s intimate, this would reflect also on the people he is leading and would show the nations of the world the uniqueness of Israel and its relationship to its G’d.

אם אין פניך הולכים, “If Your essence will not be going…” according to Rashi these were the terms under which Moses was willing to settle for the presence of an angel. He did not mean that his previous words should have been understood as a kind of ultimatum to G’d, seeing that G’d had already assured him with the words פני ילכו, that He, personally, would accompany the people [or Moses, as became clearer in Joshua 6,14 when the angel that had first been appointed here, replaces the one whose stature had been approved by Moses who had remained with the people as long as he lived. Ed.] Ibn Ezra explains that the initial promise by G’d to personally come with him was addressed only to Moses, but not the people as a whole. Moses, in remonstrating, had in mind the people whom he also wanted to benefit from G’d’s personal Presence, rather than that of only an angel of relatively low standing in the celestial hierarchy. This is why he said to G’d: אל תעלנו מזה וגו', “do not lead us up from here” (in the plural mode). Nachmanides rejects this interpretation also, seeing that in his opening remarks Moses had spoken in the singular mode: לא הודעתני את אשר תשלח עמי, “You have not informed me whom You would send with me.” Besides, the whole argument of distinguishing between the angel being for the sake of Moses or the people respectively, is not valid, as in better times before the sin of the golden calf, in 32,20 G’d had said to Moses:הנה אנכי שולח מלאך לפניך לשמרך בדרך, “here I will send an angel ahead of you (sing.) to watch over you (sing.) on the way, etc.” If Ibn Ezra were correct in his distinction between angels for the benefit of Moses and the people, respectively, why did Moses not protest G’d’s promise already in 23,20? This whole paragraph in the Torah is so fraught with mystical aspects which only selected few are privy to, that it is not appropriate to comment on them here in such a public forum. Thus far Nachmanides. Seeing that I have not attained such insights as are required, I have only touched on the subject ever so slightly, limiting myself to the plain meaning of the text.

... As even though Moses did not need to say this, since He already promised that He, Himself, would go with them; he nonetheless wanted to make known Israel's love of His going with them. So he said that if, God forbid, He had not agreed to go with them, they would not have gone up from there until they died - them, their wives, their children, their infants and all that they had. And the wonder is about Ramban, who argued and said, "God forbid that Moses should say, "If your presence does not go," once He promised, "My presence will go!"

That is exactly what I wish. . . Although Hashem already acquiesced to Moshe and said, “My Presence will go,” nevertheless, Moshe wanted to let Him know how much the people cherished His going with them. Thus he said that if, tragically, Hashem would not acquiesce to go with them, the people would not move from there until they died: they, their children and all that is theirs.

VV. 15 u. 16. Indem Mosche die Bitte um die gar nicht zu unterbrechende Unmittelbarkeit der Gottesführung mit der Erwägung: ובמה יודע אפוא וגו׳, also damit motiviert, dass nur durch eine solche unmittelbare, dem Nexus der physischen Weltordnung enthobene ( — das ist ja ונפלינו —) Führung, der Menschheit sich die Tatsache konstatiere, יִוָדַע dass Mosche und Israel von Gott gesandt und von Gott geführt seien: so muss die Verbreitung der Anerkenntnis der Göttlichkeit der Sendung Mosche und Israels außer Israel, im Kreise der Menschheit, doch ein wesentliches Augenmerk bei der Erwählung Mosche und Israels gewesen sein. War es aber wesentliche Absicht Gottes, Mosche und Israel in Mitte der Menschheit als seinen Gesandten und sein Volk zu dokumentieren, so muss die Menschheit eben aus Mosche und Israels Händen etwas im Namen Gottes empfangen sollen, dessen göttlicher Ursprung eben durch die Göttlichkeit seiner Überbringer gewährleistet sein soll, und es kann dies eben nichts anderes als das Gesetz, als die תורה sein, für deren unmittelbaren göttlichen Ursprung eben die ganze unmittelbare Göttlichkeit der geschichtlichen Erscheinung Mosche und Israels, ihrer Überbringer, der Menschenwelt Beweis und Bürgschaft bieten soll. Es spricht hier Mosche seine und seines Volkes welthistorische Bedeutung aus. Zur Übermittelung des Gotteswortes für die Menschheit bedarf es eines Gottesboten und eines Gottesvolkes. Israels Gott offenbarende Geschichte ist das notwendige Vehikel für die Pflanzung des von Gott offenbarten Gesetzes in den Schoß der Menschheit.

ויאמר אליו, “He said to him:” this whole conversation is difficult to understand seeing that G–d had already assured Moses that He, would walk with them personally as He had said: “I will personally go with you” (33,14). Furthermore, why did Moses say afterwards in verse 16: “how can I know that both I and Your people have found favour in Your eyes, except by the fact that You will walk with us and we will be distinguished vis a vis any other nation?” G–d had already agreed to do what Moses had asked of Him! We may have to understand the whole dialogue between G–d and Moses as follows: G–d’s words: והניחותי לך, “and I will give you rest,” at the end of verse 14 are addressed to Moses personally, but are not a promise to the people. G–d did not promise that the people can feel at “rest,” i.e. reassured so that they would not have to worry about their future. They will not be able to experience the glory of My presence. When Moses heard this, he continued that unless the people can see that You have agreed to personally lead us as You have done in the past, even I do not know that I have found favour in your eyes. At that point G–d responded that He would walk with the people as before the episode of the golden calf. An alternate interpretation: after the words: פני ילכו, “I will personally go (with you),“ Moses understood that G–d’s anger had ceased, and that He now related to the people as He had done when He had said: (Leviticus 17,10) ונתתי פני , “I’ll set My face against him.” (At that time individual wrongdoing had been the subject.) Once My anger has receded from that level, G–d meant, I will give you rest, but not immediately. Upon hearing this, Moses continued pleading saying that this was not good enough for him until the relationship between G–d and Moses as well as the people had been completely restored. G–d’s response to Moses’ “ultimatum” which had been accompanied by Moses refusing to move from that place any further, was: “| have decided to go along with your conditions.”

ויאמר אם אין פניך הולכים, “he said (Moses to G-d) unless Your essence will go etc;” This is a completion of verse 12.

“do not make us leave this place.” We would rather remain in the desert than enter the Holy Land unaccompanied by Your Shechinah, for without it we would undoubtedly incur exile in just a short while.

ואתה לא הודעתני, (returning to verse 12) “and You have not informed me, etc.” first G–d had told Moses that henceforth He would send an angel ahead of the people on their journeys who would expel the Canaanites from their country (compare verse 2 in our chapter). A few verses later (verse 5) Moses had been told to divest the people of their jewelry. Even at that stage G–d had not yet revealed if He, personally, would again walk ahead of the people on their journey through the desert, even though they already had taken off their jewelry at His command. When You said to me: ידעתיך בשם, “I know you by name,” (verse 12) I assumed that You would tell me the name of the angel, i.e. his specific attribute, Moses, at that stage had still been afraid to demand from G–d that He walk with him and the people personally, as G–d had warned that if Ed.] He were to do so any infractions would result in the people being consumed by His wrath (פן אכלך בדרך, verse 3 in our chapter). This is also why he phrased verse 13 with the reference to דרכיך, “Your ways.” The reason he referred to “Your ways” in the plural, was that he did not know which of G–d’s ways (attributes) would be most advantageous for the Israelites. He therefore resolved to ask G–d to reveal all His attributes to Him so that he would know what the situation that the Jewish people found themselves in needed to be appealed to. Thereupon G–d responded by saying: פני ילכו, “I, personally will go,” as this will be most beneficial for you. This is very similar to what we read in Samuel II 17,11: ופניך הולכים בקרב, “and that you yourself will march into battle. [Chushai advised Absalom that in his revolt against his father David, he should march at the head of his troops. Our author shows that the word פנים described the essence of a person as well as the Essence of the Lord.

והניחותי לך, “I will grant you peace of mind seeing that you are in such an emotional uproar. You will now be able to make an intelligent choice. Nonetheless, Moses was still afraid of the possibility that G–d would suddenly annihilate the people if they would anger Him once more. At any rate, he now knew that the word פני G–d had used was meant in its beneficial sense of the word. He realised beyond any doubt that G–d’s personal presence among the Israelites was a great compliment for the people. When Moses realised that this was a time when G–d was very well disposed toward him, he decided to pursue requesting still more details about G–d’s attributes and what each stood for. He went as far as requesting a visual revelation of G–d’s essence. G–d answered him that while he could an experience aural revelation of this, a visual revelation is impossible as long as his soul inhabited a body.

ובמה יודע אפוא FOR WHEREIN SHALL IT BE KNOWN HERE [THAT I AND THY PEOPLE HAVE FOUND FAVOUR IN THY EYES] — i. e. wherein shall the “finding of favour” be known, הלא בלכתך עמנו IF NOT BY YOUR GOING WITH US!? And yet another thing do I ask You: that You should not let Your Shechinah rest upon the other peoples of the world (Berakhot 7a).

V’NIPHLINU’ (SO THAT WE BE DISTINGUISHED) I AND THY PEOPLE. This means that our portion be that which is unique, something which is not to be found amongst all the people that are upon the face of the earth.

ובמה יודע איפא, even though we may indeed enter the Holy Land and the angel will drive out the Canaanites, how would anyone become aware that what was happening was orchestrated by Divine forces? After all, people get driven out from their land in war all the time! There is nothing supernatural in such a phenomenon.

במה וודע...ופלינו אני ועמך?; Moses asks that he personally will be perceived as enjoying G’d’s special regard, by being distinguished in some visible manner. He argues that if he were to be thus recognisable as G’d’s intimate, this would reflect also on the people he is leading and would show the nations of the world the uniqueness of Israel and its relationship to its G’d.

I ask one more thing of You. . . Rashi so explained the phrase of, “So that we will be distinguished — I and Your people,” because this request is not like the first one. The first request was to know the reward of finding favor and of leading the people. But this request is that the Shechinah should not rest on the other nations, only on Israel.

ונפלינו אני ועמך SO SHALL WE BE DISTINGUISHED, I AND THY PEOPLE — through this very thing we shall become different from all the peoples. נפלינו is of the same root and meaning as in (Exodus 9:4) “And the Lord shall make a separation (והפלה) between the cattle of Israel etc.”

הלא בלכתך עמנו ונפלינו, Moses refers to statements such as the ones he made in his song after the Egyptians drowned in Exodus 15,13-14 נחית בחסדך עם זו גאלת נהלת בעזך שמעו עמים ירגזון; “In Your love You led the people You redeemed; in Your strength You guide them to Your holy abode.” The people hear and tremble;” the reason the people tremble is because they watch miracles happening, indicating that the Jewish nation is a nation apart. As a result, they will lose their courage to resist the conquest, as Rachav testified even almost 40 years later when she told the spies that everyone is aware of the miracle G’d had wrought on behalf of His people and that no one has any courage left which would make him fight with a chance of success. (Joshua 2,10-11)

גם את הדבר הזה THIS THING ALSO — that My Shechinah shall not rest henceforth upon the other nations of the world, אעשה I WILL DO. And thus He did, for the prophetical words of Balaam (the heathen prophet) were not uttered by reason of the Shechinah resting upon him, but, as Scripture describes it, (Numbers 24:4) “[he saw the vision of the Almighty] fallen, but with eyes uncovered” (i. e. whilst fallen into a sleep his mental eyes were open and he saw in a dream what the Almighty was to reveal unto him) in a state of mind similar to that described by Job (Job 4:12) “a word was by stealth conveyed (יגנב) to me” — they (the heathen prophets) used to hear God’s message through a medium.

I WILL DO THIS THING ALSO THAT THOU HAST SPOKEN. Perhaps this manifestation of G-d’s good-will was at the end of the second [period of] forty days, in accordance with the opinion of our Rabbis,⁴⁹¹See above in Verse 7 where Ramban quotes the Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer, that Moses went up to the mountain for forty days only twice, the second time culminating on the Day of Atonement. This is Ramban’s intent in writing here “at the end of the second forty days according to the opinion of our Rabbis.” Rashi, quoted there, holds that there were three such periods. when the Holy One, blessed be He, became completely appeased with him, and He said to him, Hew thee two Tablets of stone like unto the first.⁴⁹²Further, 34:1.

כי מצאת חן בעיני ואדעך בשם. "for you have found favour in My eyes and I have become intimate with you by My revealing to you My attribute י־ה־ו־ה." When Moses had previously referred to his having found favour in G'd's eyes he had reversed the relationship of his finding favour and his being granted an insight into the meaning of the Ineffable Name (verse 12). The Torah revealed here that the revelation of the meaning of the attribute of the name י־ה־ו־ה was the mark of the highest degree of finding favour in G'd's eyes. After all, even Noach had found favour in G'd's eyes (Genesis 6,8) but G'd's attribute י־ה־ו־ה had not been revealed to him.

גם את הדבר הזה אשר דברת, your request to distinguish you in a visible manner I will also comply with, something in addition to the fact that I, personally, will accompany you on your journeys. The result of G’d granting Moses’ request was that his face radiated light when he descended from the Mountain the third time, as we know from 34,10. I will explain this in still greater detail there.

V. 17. כי מצאת וגו׳ ואדעך בשם: seitdem ich dich erwählt, hast du dich deiner Erwählung und immer größerer Begabung würdig gezeigt.

גם את הדבר אשר דברת אעשה, “also the request you have made (now) I will fulfill;” “you have requested to take you into My confidence concerning My attributes, I will reveal them to you.” G-d did so by revealing the 13 attributes.

The Torah also wanted to make it abundantly clear that the reason G'd had revealed this most elusive attribute of His to Moses was because he had found favour in His eyes. There was a causal relationship between these two experiences. This relationship had not been recognisable when Moses referred to this in verse 12. If not for the present verse, we would have assumed that one could become privy to the revelation of G'd's supreme attribute without first having found favour in His eyes.

ויאמר הראני נא את כבדך AND HE SAID I BESEECH THEE, SHOW ME THY GLORY — Moses saw that the hour was propitious and that his petitions were being favourably received, he therefore made a further request — that God should let him behold a reflection of His Glory.

AND HE [Moses] SAID: ‘SHOW ME, I PRAY THEE, THY GLORY.’ Moses desired that he should actually see in clear sight the Glory of G-d. It is possible that Thy Glory here means the Great Glory — the clear vision.⁴⁹³See Vol. I, p. 229. And G-d answered him, I will make the measure of all My goodness pass before thee,⁴⁹⁴Verse 19. that you will comprehend and understand all My goodness more than all men, but the vision of the Presence that you have asked for, you will not be able to see.

את כבודך, how every creature, every phenomenon in this universe derives from You, even though these phenomena do not appear to be even faintly related to one another. This is what Isaiah 6,3 meant with the words מלא כל הארץ כבודו, “all the earth is filled with His glory.”

הראני נא את כבודך. "Please show me Your glory." While it is true that our sages in the Mechilta on Exodus 15,2 have said that the Israelites became privy to visions not even granted to the prophet Yecheskel when they stood on the beaches of the sea of reeds. We have already heard that G'd spoke with Moses "face to face," and these visions were only of "G'd being a consuming fire." When G'd told Aaron and Miriam that He had revealed Himself to Moses far more clearly than to them (Numbers 12,7), this referred to a level below that which Moses aspired to now when he asked to see G'd's glory in our verse. Moses perceived that the time was opportune for him to ask to be granted still further insights and this is why he now chose to ask.

הראני נא את כבודך, at first glance we must surely wonder how Moses could have had the audacity to demand to see G’d and to ask for such as a means to derive personal satisfaction from it. It is totally incompatible with the attitude Moses displayed at the burning bush when the very thought of seeing something Divine filled him with fear and he was afraid to look. (Exodus 3,6). There can be no question but that what motivated Moses to formulate the above request was only that G’d would fulfil his two wishes, 1) to distinguish him individually, and 2) to personally travel with the people. To this effect he added הראני נא את כבודך, referring to previous occasions when a covenant had been concluded between G’d and Avraham, and as a sign of this Avraham had witnessed the entire procedure of the covenant between the pieces in Genesis 15,18. Moses, as Avraham before him, asked for some sign that the covenant would endure. We read about this occurring in 34,6 and 10 where Moses has a special personal revelation which includes G’d revealing to him 13 of His attributes, each of which is of relevance when inducing forgiveness and repentance. In verse 10 in that chapter G’d promises to make this special relationship manifest by hitherto unheard of miracles. The distinction G’d provided for Moses personally was such that the people did not dare approach him as the light radiating from his forehead blinded them (34,30)

ויאמר, הראני נא את כבודך. “I said: please reveal to me Your glory.” Moses requested that G’d show him His true face in a vision, something our sages are in the habit of referring to as אספקרלריא המאירא, “a clear, unambiguous visual image.” G’d answered him that what He would do was to parade before him a number of phenomena, each of which represented some of the ways in which He demonstrated His earnest desire to be of benefit to His creatures; as a result of viewing these phenomena one after another, he, more than any other human being, would develop an appreciation of what G’d’s essence was all about; however, it was impossible to do more without terminating Moses’ life, as it was not given to mortals to get a still deeper insight into what an Eternal G’d, the Creator of the universe, was truly like.

His words were finding acceptance. . . [Rashi knows this] because otherwise, this request does not belong here.

V. 18. Dass כבוד in geistiger und sittlicher Potenz das ausdrückt, was כֹבֶד, die Schwere, in materieller Beziehung bedeutet, das es somit das bezeichnet, worin sich der ganze geistige und sittliche Gehalt eines Wesens bekundet und daher, von Gott gebraucht, jede die Wesenheit Gottes verkündende Spur bedeutet, haben wir bereits wiederholt bemerkt. Wiederholt heißt es in der וַיֵרָא כבוד ד׳ :תורה. Wenn demnach Mosche hier um die Gewährung einer Anschauung bittet, die ihm bisher nicht vergönnt war, und die ihm auch, wie die folgenden Verse zeigen, nicht in dem erbetenen Maße, ja, wie es scheint, nicht in der erbetenen Weise gewährt wurde, so muss sich die in dem וירא כבוד ד׳ dem ganzen Volke gewährte Anschauung von der von Mosche hier erbetenen, und ihm nicht einmal ganz gewährten, sehr wesentlich unterscheiden. Es kann dies in dem Grade des Schauens liegen. הֵרָאֶה אל־ heißt eigentlich nur: jemandem sichtbar werden, für jemanden aus der Unsichtbarkeit hervortreten. Schon die leiseste, das Dasein eines Wesens nur andeutende Erscheinung fiele unter diesen Begriff, während ראה את־ ein volles Schauen ausdrückt. Und wenn auch dies ebenfalls vom Volke vorkommt: בקר וראיתם את כבוד ד׳ (Kap. 26, 7), הרואים את כבודי (Bamidbar 14, 22) so bezeichnet doch offenbar כבוד in diesen Stellen nicht eine das Dasein und die Wesenheit Gottes kundtuende Erscheinung, sondern ein seine Allmacht und Fürsorge verkündendes Walten und ראה ist in beiden Stellen weniger ein Sehen, als ein Erfahren; wie dieser Ausdruck in Jesaias wiederholt vorkommt: (35, 2 und 66, 18), ebenso in den Psalmen (97. 6). Jedenfalls lehrt uns V. 20 und 23, dass diese Bitte ein unvermitteltes Schauen des persönlichen Wesens, oder doch ein einem solchen nahekommendes Schauen, wie das Erkennen eines Menschen durch Anblick seines Angesichtes, erstrebte. Es hatte Mosche VV. 12 —14 auf Grund der ihm gewordenen neuen Aufgabe das Erkennen der göttlichen Wege in der Einheit ihrer Mannigfaltigkeit erfleht, um aus dieser Erkenntnis der Gotteswege sich die Erkenntnis Gottes zu vermitteln, die ihn zu einer den göttlichen Absichten entsprechenden Weiterführung des Volkes befähigen würde: הוריעני נא את דרכך ואדעך למען אמצא חן בעיניך. Es hatte Gott ihm V. 14 die Gewährung der erflehten Erkenntnis unabhängig von der Voraussetzung zugesagt, auf deren Grund sie Mosche erbitten zu dürfen geglaubt hatte. Es hatte ihm Gott damit eine Bereicherung seiner geistigen Erkenntnisse — es ist dies das eigentlichste חן und חנן (siehe Bereschit 6, 8) — um seiner selbst willen zugesagt, und durfte Mosche daraus die Hoffnung schöpfen, es werde ihm Gott die Gewährung einer dem menschlichen Geiste möglichst hohen Erkenntnis nicht versagen wollen. Er wiederholt daher seine Bitte auf einer erhöhten Stufe. Hatte seine erste Bitte zum Gegenstande: die Erkenntnis der Wege Gottes, um daraus die Erkenntnis Gottes sich zu vermitteln, הודיעני נא את דרכך ואדעך so erhob sich die Erkenntnis seiner Wege sich von selbst ergibt, und zwar die Erkenntnis selbst auf der höheren Stufe einer Intuition: הראני, nicht הודיעני die sich zu jener Erkenntnis wie ראיה zu ידיעה verhält.

הראני נא את כבודך, “please give me visual access to Your Glory.” Moses asked for a visual appearance of G-d’s essence;

ויאמר אגי אעביר וגו׳ AND HE SAID, I WILL MAKE ALL MY GOODNESS PASS [BEFORE YOU] — The time has arrived when you shall see of My Glory so much as I will allow you to see according as I wish, and therefore I find it necessary to teach you a set form of prayer. Just now when you felt the need to pray for mercy on Israel’s behalf you besought Me to remember the merits of the patriarchs and you thought that if the merits of the patriarchs are exhausted there is no more hope — I will therefore cause all the attribute of My goodness to pass before you on the rock whilst you are placed in the cave.

AND I WILL PROCLAIM THE NAME OF THE ETERNAL BEFORE THEE. I will proclaim before you the Great Name, for you will not be able to see Him. AND I WILL BE GRACIOUS [through it] TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS, AND WILL SHOW MERCY [through it] TO WHOM I WILL SHOW MERCY. This means that by this proclamation you will know the attributes of graciousness and mercy, by which people are shown grace and mercy through My name and through My goodness. It is with reference to this [knowledge received by Moses] that G-d said of him, he is trusted in all My house,⁴⁹⁵Numbers 12:7. for a man’s goodness is in his house.

אני אעביר כל טובי על פניך, this will not be denied due to My not being unwilling to bestow these insights. As proof,

אני אעביר כל טובי על פניך, "I will make all My goodness pass before you, etc." G'd referred to all His "positive" attributes which he employs for the benefit of His creatures. When G'd added the words על פניך, this is the reason for G'd doing what He said He was about to allow Moses to perceive. Moses' פניך, is a reference to the manner in which Moses had achieved the intimacy with G'd thus far, as we explained earlier.

וחנותי את אשר אחון, there I will explain to you My attributes.

I will cause all My goodness to pass. This refers to the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. God revealed to Moshe that the moment of their proclamation would be an auspicious time to make requests of Him. And will proclaim the Name, Ad-noy. The Thirteen Attributes were to be preceded by the Divine name (see v. 6). I will be gracious … I will be compassionate. At that time God would bestow His graciousness upon those whom He deemed worthy, regardless of whether they had requested it and He would have compassion on those who sought His compassion.

וקראתי בשם ה' לפניך, “I will proclaim the name Hashem before you.” I will let you hear My ineffable Name, seeing that it is not given mortal man to view a visual imagine of My essence.

The time has come for you to see of My Glory. . . [Rashi knows this] because it is evident from the verse as a whole that even without Moshe’s request, God needed to show him and teach him the order of prayer. This is because “I will cause all My goodness to pass. . .” does not answer Moshe’s request, which was to see Hashem’s Glory. Thus Rashi says that God anyway needed to teach him the order of prayer, for it can be seen from what Moshe had said that [he thought] once the merit of the Patriarchs is exhausted, no longer is there any way for someone to make a request, Heaven forbid. For Moshe said (32:13), “Remember Avraham. . .” Therefore [said Hashem], I need to teach you the order of prayer, by which someone who makes a request can have it accepted. And when I show you this order, you will receive what you requested: seeing Hashem’s glory. This means seeing Hashem’s back, which is the tefillin knot [see Rashi on v. 23,] rather than seeing His face. [His face cannot be seen] because it says (v. 20), “For no man can see My Presence and live.” (Re”m)

VV. 19 u. 20. Die Antwort auf diese Bitte wird ihm in zwei Sätzen; V. 19 sagt ihm, was ihm gewährt werden würde, V. 20 was ihm versagt bleiben müsse. Der erhöhte Grad der Erkenntnis, die Intuition, wird ihm gewährt: אני אעביר וגו׳ על פניך וקראתי וגו׳, nicht bloß das Wort, sondern die Anschauung soll ihm werden, schauen soll er und während er schaut, soll das Wort ihm das Geschaute deuten; allein das zu Schauende ist eben nichts anderes als das, worauf sich bereits seine erste Bitte bezog: die Wege Gottes in der Einheit ihrer Vielheit. Diese Einheit, dieses Prinzipium, das in jedem Teile dieser Mannigfaltigkeit, wie das eine Licht in dem siebenfarbigen Strahlenspektrum, zur Verwirklichung kommt, heißt "טובי", ,טוב .(Ps. 25, 7) חטאות נעורי וגו׳ למען טובך ד׳ die "Güte" Gottes, wie ,טוב ד׳ gut, ist ein wesentlich relativer Begriff, es ist an sich das Heilentsprechende, allein dieses Heil selbst ist durch die Eigentümlichkeit des Objekts bedingt, dessen Heil vollzogen werden soll. Indem Gott Mosche Anschauung כל טובו vorüberführen will, soll er die ganze Mannigfaltigkeit der Erscheinungen sehen, in welchen sich die eine Güte Gottes seinen Geschöpfen, insbesondere seinem Menschen gegenüber bewährt. Es ist ja eben die durch die sittliche Freiheit des Menschen gegebene Mannigfaltigkeit seiner Erscheinungen, die die Mannigfaltigkeit der ihn zu seinem Heile erziehenden Gottesführungen bedingt. Es ist überall dasselbe Heil, überall dieselbe Güte. Das gewöhnliche Auge sieht eine gegensatz- und widerspruchsvolle Mannigfaltigkeit. Mosche Auge soll die Einheit in all dieser Mannigfaltigkeit, diese höchste Harmonie aller Harmonien, nicht nur ahnen, denken, begreifen lernen, er soll sie schauen, אעביר כל טובי על פניך, und gleichzeitig will Gott ihm das Geschaute in Worten deuten: וקראתי בשם ד׳ לפניך. Es könnte dies ganz in dem Sinne zu verstehen sein, wie wir diesen Ausdruck קרא בשם ד׳: Menschen im Namen Gottes auf- und heranrufen, bei Abraham etc. kennen. Gott will ihn lehren, wie das von ihm zu Schauende zur Gottesverkündigung an die Menschen in die Sprache der Menschen zu kleiden wäre. In der Tat wird auch (Rosch Haschana 17 b) die Ausführung dieser Zusage (Kap. 34, 5) also gefasst: אמר ר׳ יוחנן אלמלא מקרא כתוב אי אפשר לאומרו מלמד שנתעטף הכ׳׳ה כשליח צבור והראה למשה סדר תפלה, Gott lehrte ihn, wie die Menschen Ihn sich zu verkünden hätten. Allein in allen den sonstigen Stellen, die das Heranrufen der Menschen im Namen Gottes bedeuten, ist בשם und ד׳ den Akzenten nach verbunden. Hier aber und Kap. 34, 5 ist בשם mit קרא zu einem Verbalbegriff verbunden und ד׳ als Objekt beigefügt. Demgemäß hieße es: und ich werde Gott mit Namen vor dir verkünden, oder, was dem Sinne nach dasselbe ist: mit Namen vor dir nennen, d. h. ich werde die ganze Mannigfaltigkeit meiner einheitlichen Güte an deinem schauenden Blick vorüberführen, und jede Nuance dieser Mannigfaltigkeit durch einen sie bezeichnenden Gottesnamen dir zum Begriffe bringen. — וחנתי וגו׳: ich werde nämlich vor deinen Augen חנינה und רחמים üben. Ich werde dich sehen lassen, wie meine חנינה und רחמים sich verschiedentlich gestaltet nach der Besonderheit dessen, dem ich sie gewähre; ich werde dir nicht nur zeigen, wie meine einheitliche Güte sich in der Mannigfaltigkeit der רחמים ,חנינה. usw. manifestiert, sondern wie selbst diese einzelnen Manifestationen sich wieder nach der Verschiedenheit der von ihnen zu umfangenden Individualitäten verschiedentlich nuanzieren. Du sollst kennen lernen, wie individuell meine Führung ist. — Eben dieses Individuelle der göttlichen Führungen, dass Gottes חן sich verschiedentlich gestaltet nach dem את אשר יחון, sein רחמים verschiedentlich nach dem את אשר ירחם, entzieht sie ja der Einsicht des Sterblichen, die notdürftig sich zu einer Erkenntnis von Generellem zu erheben vermag, der aber jede Individualität als verschleiertes Geheimnis gegenüber steht. Daher irren wir so leicht in Beurteilung der "Wege Gottes" und vergessen, dass, wo nach unserer Beurteilung uns צדיק ורע לו und רשע וטוב לו erscheint, wir nicht nur in Erteilung der Prädikate צדיק ורשע irren können, sondern uns ganz gewiß die Fähigkeit abgeht, in jedem konkreten Falle mit Sicherheit das רע לו und טוב לו auszusprechen, da nur die tiefste Einsicht in die Individualität eines Menschen bestimmen kann, was ihm in Wahrheit רע und was in Wahrheit ihm טוב sein möge. Aus diesem Gesichtspunkte können beide Aussprüche sehr wohl neben einander bestehen, dass, wie es die Ansicht R. Joßis (Berachot 7 a) ist, Mosche die Lösung dieses Rätsels der göttlichen Waltung gezeigt worden, und dass nach der Ansicht R. Meïrs (daselbst) ihm gleichwohl dieses Rätsel Geheimnis geblieben. Selbst wenn Gott ihn die Lösung dieses Rätsels durch Veranschaulichung des Individuellen seiner Führung erschauen ließ, wie dies in וחנותי את אשר אחון וגו׳ liegt, so wird doch die immerhin menschliche Einsicht selbst eines Mosche nicht hingereicht haben, nach diesem Kanon nun einen jeden vorkommenden Fall der göttlichen Waltung zu beurteilen. — —

וחנותי את אשר אחון ורחמתי את אשר ארחם, “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful.” I will explain to you the guidelines according to which you will choose which of My attributes to use at a particular time or occasion. However, as to your request for a visual revelation of My Essence, this is not something that can be granted to any living human being at any time.

ויאמר אני אעביר את כל טובי על פניך, “I will let all My goodness pass before you (your eyes) [and identify each attribute of Mine. Ed.] This also is the completion of a subject G-d had already touched upon when He had said, (without specifying) in verse 17: (“I will also grant this wish of yours”). Concerning Moses’ plea to be granted a visual revelation of G-d’s essence, however, He told him that this wish could not be fulfilled as long as his soul was attached to a body; in other words, he would have to wait until after his death. When Moses first heard G-d say that He would not be able to make out G-d’s features, he thought that perhaps it is not clear so that he could not identify different features. In order to make clear to Moses that this was not the issue, He immediately told him what He would show him, i.e. from a safe distance when what he would see could not harm him physically; He told him that there was a “place” not far from where His essence was from which he could safely watch if not G-d’s “face” but His “back,” i.e. the result of His having visited that place. G-d’s attributes are recognisable by means of His manifest intervention in His universe and the changes that this intervention will result in. [Some of these words are mine. Editor.] Some scholars interpret this verse differently; they do not understand Moses as having asked to actually “see” G-d with his physical eyes, and they remind us that this same Moses at the burning bush had reacted to a vision of the Divine by hiding his face in fear. (Exodus 3,6) They therefore understand Moses as asking for a visual symbol that his request had been granted. This would serve as a covenant between G-d and himself. As a result, these sages understand Moses’ request as follows: “please show me Your glory by means of concluding a covenant with me, confirming what I requested and Your willingness to grant that request.” G-d consented to doing this, as we know from His saying: “I will let all My goodness pass before your eyes;” this was followed by G-d saying in Exodus 34,10: הנה אנכי כורת ברית נגד כל עמך אעשה נפלאות וגו', “Here I am concluding a covenant with you by displaying miracles in the presence of all of your people, etc. (Rash’bam) אעביר, “I shall proclaim;” We find this root in a similar context in Exodus 36,6, ויעבירו קול במחנה, “they proclaimed loudly throughout the camp, etc.;”

וקראתי בשם ה׳ לפניך AND I WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD BEFORE THEE, to teach you the formula when praying for mercy even though the merits of the patriarchs should be exhausted. And according to the manner in which you see Me doing this, cloaked — as it were — in the Talith and proclaiming the thirteen attributes of mercy, do you teach Israel to do. And because that they will make mention before Me of the attributes: “Merciful”, “Gracious!” thereby proclaiming that My mercies do not fail (even though the merits of the patriarchs are exhausted) (Rosh Hashanah 17b).

אעביר כל טובי על פניך וקראתי בשם ה' לפניך, G’d proclaims what He says using the name of Hashem, the “name” which informs people and teaches them about His existence as the G’d whose ways are those pf goodness. By saying that He will parade all of His goodness before Moses, He implies that if Moses had been capable of understanding all of the hidden aspects of G’d’s essence He would indeed have fulfilled all of Moses’ requests. Nonetheless, i.e. in spite of Moses’ or better, man’s inherent inability to understand all of this, G’d will reveal a fragment of His modus operandi; by doing this Moses would acquire a glimpse of G’d’s essence as portrayed in 34,5.

וחנותי את אשר אחון ורחמתי את אשר ארחם, “I will show grace to those to whom I choose to show grace, and I will treat with mercy those whom I deem fit to be treated with mercy.” By means of My proclaiming My Name, you will realize something about the facet of Me known as חנינה and the result of the exercise of this facet of My various characteristics you will know who has been the recipient of חנינה and who has been the recipient of mercy. The meaning of the line ולא יראני האדם וחי, is not- as many misunderstand- that as a result of man being granted a visual image of the essence of Hashem that he would die; rather, the meaning is that before a living human being would attain the spiritual capacity to view such an image his soul would depart from his body, for we know that even angels cannot experience the kind of visual image Moses requested, to wit: (Daniel 10,16) במראה נהפכו צירי עלי, “in the vision my joints shudder.” [Daniel who was shown the vision of an angel who experienced the overwhelming awe with which that angel related to his own vision. Ed.]

For My mercies are never exhausted. As opposed to the merit of the Patriarchs, where there is concern that it could possibly become exhausted.

וקראתי בשם השם לפניך, "and I will proclaim the name of G'd before you." G'd announced to Moses that He would "parade" each of His attributes before him identifying them by name; it is possible, that G'd meant that He would explain to Moses that all these attributes were in fact part of the INEFFABLE name. There is no greater revelation man can experience than to have all this explained to him by means of his sense of hearing.

Von allen den verschiedenen Nuancen, unter welchen sich die eine "Güte" der göttlichen Waltung darstellt, werden hier nur חנינה und רחמים genannt. Sie sind die allgemeinsten und umfassendsten. הנן (verwandt mit הנן ,ענן), buchstäblich ja: begaben, ausstatten mit Kräften, Fähigkeiten und Mitteln, ist die früheste, die der Zeit nach erste Beziehung Gottes zu einem Wesen, ihr verdankt es sein Dasein, in tiefem Grunde ist ja חנן: werden lassen, Zukunft geben; und רחמים ist die zweite, fortan nimmer zu verlierende, das durch Gottes חנינה gewordene Wesen durch alle Phasen seines Daseins begleitende, die nicht von dem Wesen lässt, weil es durch sie geworden, weil sie der רחם, der "Mutterschoß" seines Werdens gewesen und darum auch der "schützende und erhaltende Mutterschoß" seines Daseins bleibt. Darum geht auch überall חנון dem רחום voran, und wird es in Stellen, in welchen, wie Kap. 34. 6; Ps. 86, 15 und 103,8. רחום voransteht, nur eine Wiedergewährung der חנינה bezeichnen.

כל טובי, “all My goodness;” G-d refers to the fact that He will treat not only the righteous with a positive attribute, but even the wicked, [by rewarding them for any good they have done in this life before they die. Ed.] וקראתי בשם ה' לפניך, “I shall proclaim the name of the Tetragram in your presence;” Rashi explains this as follows: I will teach you in which order to formulate your prayers for appealing to My attribute of Mercy even if by that time the merit of the patriarchs may have been exhausted; the order in which you and your people will appeal to Me will be patterned on the order in which I am about to reveal to you, after wrapping Myself in My tallit, [to prevent you from having to endure a visual revelation of My essence Ed.] I will call out to you the 13 attributes which follow in 23,57. This “tallit ”of Hashem, is referred to again in 34,5, as well as in Job 38,9: בשומי ענן לבושו וערפל חתלתו, “when I clothed it in clouds, swaddled it in dense clouds.”

וחנתי את אשר אחון I WILL BE GRACIOUS TO WHOM I WILL BE GRACIOUS i. e. in times when I shall be disposed to be gracious,

וחנותי את אשר אחון, I will grant you the degree of insights I grant all those who find favour in My eyes. I am in the habit of being very generous in the application of this principle.

That I will wish to be gracious. This is contrary to the verse’s apparent meaning, that God will be gracious to the people He is gracious to, and will be compassionate to the people He is compassionate to. [Rashi knows it does not mean this] because one who has received God’s graciousness does not need graciousness, and one who has received God’s compassion does not need compassion. Rather, it means: “At times I will respond, and at times I will not respond. . .”

When G'd added: וחנותי את אשר אחון, "I will be gracious to whom I choose to be gracious to," this was a hint that Moses' timing to ask for such revelations was particularly appropriate.

Dass der Inhalt der hier ausgesprochenen und Kap. 34, 6 verwirklichten Gewährung dem Gegenstande nach nur das הודיעני נא את דרכך der ersten Bitte in Erfüllung brachte, ist aus Ps. 103, 7 u. 8 klar, wo auf die Kap. 34, 6 Mosche gewordene Offenbarung mit den Worten hingeblickt wird: יודיע דרכיו למשה וגו׳.

וחנותי את אשר אחון, “I shall grant grace to those Whom I deem it fit to do so.” [G-d does not write a blank cheque for Moses, but reserves for Himself the right, when He deems it appropriate to answer negatively to a prayer, or to answer positively to the prayer of those whom His creatures consider as undeserving of His mercy. Ed.] According to our author, this phrase, sounding almost like a postscript, is to be understood as referring to Moses having said in verse 16: ונפלינו אני ועמך מכל העם, “so that we are distinguished, I and Your people when compared to any other nation.”

ורחמתי AND I WILL SHEW MERCY — those times that I shall desire to show mercy (Midrash Tanchuma 3:9:27). For the time being He only gave him (Moses) the promise: At times I will answer your prayer, at times I will not answer it. But at the time this was carried out (i. e. when He proclaimed the Attributes) He said to him (Exodus 34:10) “Behold, I make a covenant…” (I make this irrevocable) — thus assuring him that they (the 13 Attributes of Mercy when invoked in time of need) will never prove ineffective (Rosh Hashanah 17b).

ורחמתי את אשר ארחם, I will use My attribute of Mercy so that you will not die during the experience, just as it is My custom to extend mercy to all those who, in My opinion, qualify for such. In practice this means that I will put My hand over you shielding you, as we read in verse 22.

And you said 'I know you by name, and also, you found favor in My eyes' - And the Or HaChayim asked the question: why did Moshe our teacher, peace be upon him, change the saying of the Holy One of Blessing regarding himself, in which he said first 'you found favor n My eyes' and then 'I know you by Name'? And there is something to be said on this, but beforehand one needs to bring first what is written in the Holy Zohar, that hints of higher lights and higher worlds without limit exist in the name of Moshe, see there. [...]

ויאמר לא תוכל וגו׳ AND HE SAID, THOU CANST NOT [SEE MY FACE] — and even when I make all My goodness pass before you I shall not allow you to see My face.

FOR MAN SHALL NOT SEE ME AND LIVE. This does not mean that man could see Him, but must immediately die; it means that before he could grasp the sight, his soul would depart from him, for even of the vision of the angels it is said, by reason of the vision my pains are come upon me, [and I retained no strength].⁴⁹⁶Daniel 10:16.

ויאמר לא תוכל לראות, your inability to see what you would like to see is not due to My depriving you, personally, of such an experience, but is rooted in man’s inability to “see” such things unless you had died first, as an eye of flesh and blood cannot “see” such things. You would be fatally blinded before understanding anything you would “see.”

ויאמר לא תוכל לראות, He said: "you are not able to see, etc." G'd meant that it was not He who withheld visual insights from Moses, it was simply that being a mortal human being, a composite of flesh and spirit, made such a thing impossible. This is why G'd added the word וחי, "and remain alive," to explain to Moses that because G'd wanted Moses to remain alive He could not grant his wish at this time. This would correspond to the thoughts expressed by the Psalmist when he said: (Psalms 84,11) "better a day in Your courtyard than a thousand (days in Your palace)."

V. 20 motiviert die Nichtgewährung der Bitte hinsichtlich ihres Gegenstandes durch die Grenze, die dem Erkenntnisvermögen des Menschen im irdischen Hiersein gezogen ist.

כי לא יראני האדם וחי, “for as long as a human being is alive, he cannot experience My essence visually.” According to Rabbi Shimon the Yemenite,” the definition of a human being is that he is alive. But even celestial creatures named חיות are named thus to remind us that though they “live” forever, they too are not able to have a visual experience of G-d’s essence (Torah Shleymah 131 on our verse.) If you were to counter that Isaiah 6,2 claimed to have experienced such a visual revelation when he said: ואראה את ה׳אדוני יושב על כסא, “I have seen G-d seated on a throne,” this did not describe what is known as a clear vision, but as something at best like a reflection from a mirror; he had been screened by a partition at the time.

Alternatively, we may understand this verse to mean that even if man were חי, i.e. a perfectly righteous individual, immortal, G'd cannot be "seen" by man. We would have to understand the word חי in the sense it is used in Samuel II 23,20 where Benayahu son of Yehoyadah is described as בן איש חי, "a perfectly righteous individual." The letter ו at the beginning of the word וחי in our verse indicates that it adds something to what had already been stated, i.e. the inability to "see."

Still another way of understanding the words כי לא יראני האדם וחי, is that even after death it is impossible for man to "see" G'd. G'd asks: How can you expect to "see" G'd while still alive? Whatever "light" the righteous will be able to "see" in the hereafter does not come close to what you Moses are asking of Me at this time.

הנה מקום אתי BEHOLD, THERE IS A PLACE BY ME — On the mountain where I am continually speaking with you there is a place prepared by Me for your sake where I will hide you that you may not be hurt by the vision. From there you will see what you will be permitted to see. A Midrashic explanation is that by the word מקום Scripture is speaking of the place where the Shechinah is and that He therefore said, “The place is by Me” and He did not say, “I am in the place”, because the Holy One, blessed be He, is the “place” of the Universe (comprises the Universe) but His Universe is not His place (does not encompass Him) (Genesis Rabbah 68:8).

BEHOLD, THERE IS A PLACE BY ME — on this mountain, where My Glory resides.

הנה מקום אתי, there does exist a place from which visions of G’d can be obtained, the place where both Moses and the prophet Elijah stood in a cave or beside a cave as described in Pessachim 54 as one the 10 items G’d created at dusk on the sixth day of creation.

In the mountain, where I constantly speak with you. . . Rashi is telling us that the verse is elliptic, and Scripture should have written, “In the mountain.” Rashi says, “In the mountain, where I constantly speak with you,” because the missing part should be understood from the verse itself. Rashi means to say that the place is assumedly in the mountain, as that is where God constantly speaks with Moshe. And since אתי seemingly implies [literally] “with Me,” not in the mountain, thus Rashi says: “I have a place prepared for your needs.” For this can be understood from אתי .

V. 21. ויאמר ד׳ וגו׳. Fast möchten wir sagen, mit didaktischer Synthese war die Antwort in den beiden vorangehenden Versen gegeben, zuerst das gewährende Positive und dann das versagende Negative zugleich mit dem Motiv der Versagung. Beides in besonderen Aussprüchen gesondert dem auffassenden Verständnis geboten. ויאמר ד׳, und, fügt Gott erläuternd hinzu: הנה מקום אתי, und — wenn wir diese Worte recht verstehen — so ist mit ihnen in prägnantester Weise der Höhepunkt, zugleich aber auch der Grenzpunkt gezeichnet, zu dem hinanzustreben dem menschlichen Geiste vergönnt ist. "Nicht Gott schauen, sondern vom göttlichen Standpunkte aus die Erde und das Irdische, den Menschen und das Menschliche zu schauen," das ist das höchste vom Menschengeiste in seinem irdischen Hiersein erreichbare, und darum das einzige anzustrebende Ziel. הנה מקום אתי: nur einen Standpunkt gibt es als höchstes Ziel des höchsten Menschengeistes, selbst für einen Mosche nur einen Standpunkt, und der heißt nicht: aus menschlicher Erdenniedere zu Gott empor Anschauung Gottes und des Göttlichen gewinnen, sondern: von Gott gehoben, aus Gott naher Höhe, "neben Gott", vom göttlichen Standpunkte aus den Menschen und das Menschliche anzuschauen, den Menschen und alles Menschliche aus der Gotteshöhe zu verstehen und zu würdigen — "nicht vor mir und zu mir hinan, neben mir ist der Standpunkt für dein Schauen; auf den Fels stelle dich, von der Höhe hinab die Erde unter der gestaltenden Macht der göttlichen Führungen zu erblicken —."

הנה מקום אתי ונצבת על הצור, “Behold there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon the rock;” the author refers to an explanation he has found in a Midrash known as Socher tov (chapter 90) in which a Rabbi Chanina queries why, i.e. to what purpose, one of the Lord’s names is מקום, “place,” (Genesis 19,27). He answers that essentially far from G–d being in any place, G–d and place are identical , i.e. anything we call “place,“ is in reality occupying part of G–d’s place as He created space. Our author feels that one could still have been in doubt whether this means that any מקום on earth or in the universe is always to be understood as secondary to Him, or if on occasion it is used as primary to anything surrounding the subject under discussion. By referring to מקום אתי, “a place next to Me,” G–d reminded Moses that any “place” is always secondary to Him.

ונצבת, “you shall stand;” the meaning of the word is to remain stationary, not advancing or planning to advance.

AND THOU SHALT STAND UPON THE ROCK — which was upon the mountain, as it is said, Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb.⁴⁹⁷Above, 17:6.

על הצור, “on the rock;” another way of sayings: “on the top of the mountain.” This has been spelled out in Exodus 34,2.

בעבר כבדי WHEN MY GLORY PASSETH BY – i. e. when I shall pass before you.

When I pass by you. [Rashi is explaining that] “My Glory” refers to God Himself. The proof is that afterward it is written, “Until I pass by,” rather than, “Until My Glory passes by.”

והיה בעבור כבודי, “it will be when one of My attributes passes;” I am placing you into the cleft in the rock in order that you will not need to look at My essence with your face (to protect you) ושכותי כפי, “I will cover you with the palm of My right hand;” this is a simile for a cloud G–d will place between Himself and Moses. We find a similar expression in Lamentations 3,41:נשא לבבינו אל כפים אל אל בשמים, “let us lift up our hearts with our hands to G–d in heaven.” In other words: “I will act as a protective cloud in front of you to prevent you from seeing ‘Me’ with your eyes.

בנקרת הצור IN A CLEFT OF THE CRAG — נקרה is similar in meaning to the verbs in (Numbers 16:14) “Wilt thou bore out (תנקר) the eyes of these men?”; (Proverbs 30:17) “The ravens of the valley shall pick it out (יקרהו)‎”; (2 Kings 19:24) “I have digged a well (קרתי) and drunk strange waters”. All these have the same derivation. נקרת הצור thus means a place dug out of the rock.

A place dug out in the rock. כריית means a place carved out in the rock, as in (21:33): כי יכרה איש בור (If a man digs a pit).

ושכתי כפי AND I WILL SHELTER [THEE] WITH MY HAND — Hence it is evident that permission has been given to the destructive agencies to wound. The Targum renders ושכתי כפי by ואגין במימרי “I will protect thee with My word” This is merely a circumlocution in a manner more respectful to the Most High God and the Targum did not translate it literally because He (God) does not need to cover a person with the hand actually in order to protect him.

Onkelos translates it, “I will protect you with My word”. . . This is the Targum of ושכותי כפי .

Who does not need to cover him actually, with His Hand. Rather, He can cover him with His word.

והסרתי את כפי AND I WILL REMOVE MY HAND — The Targum renders this by ואעדי ית דברת יקרי “I will remove the guidance of My Glory”; it means: when I shall remove the guidance of My Glory from before thine eyes — to go right away from that place,

BUT MY FACE SHALL NOT BE SEEN — meaning the clear countenance, as I have explained.⁴⁹⁸Above, Verse 18. It is possible that the word achorai (My back — and thou shalt see ‘My back’) is of similar usage as in the verse, Thou hast hemmed me in behind and before,⁴⁹⁹Psalms 139:5. in accordance with the opinion of our Rabbis.⁵⁰⁰Based on this verse in Psalms the Rabbis have said (Berachoth 61 a) that Adam was originally created with two faces (see Vol. I, p. 76). Ramban’s application here of this saying of the Sages is Cabalistic.

וראית את אחורי, where you will be able to glimpse how all the celestial forces below My level of Divinity carry out their activities; but

וראית את אחורי, "you will see My back, etc." The essence of G'd is, of course, not divisible into "front" and "back." G'd is aware of the desire of all His creatures to "see" how His light spells the continued existence of His universe. At the same time it is impossible by definition that any creature can behold this light as it would spell its doom. What did G'd do? He surrrounded His Essence with a kind of "curtain" or screen in order to diffuse the light which would otherwise have proved too blinding. The creation of such a screen created the impression in the beholder that there is something in "front" and something at the "back" of such a screen. When we look at man who is composed of spirit and body, we peceive his body as his "back," and his spirit as his "front", or "face." The "light" that G'd's Essence has made accessible to the spiritually most advanced human being is called "back," whereas the "light" He has screened out is called "front" as it is beyond the screen. This is what G'd meant when He said: "you will see "My Back" but you cannot see "My Face."

וראית את אחורי, after I shall have passed before you during the concluding of the covenant you will be enabled to see this aspect of Me. Jeremiah 34,18 describes the formality of walking between the two halves of the calf which had been cut in half as such a solemn undertaking to honour the covenant concerning releasing former Jewish slaves that he adds the warning that people not honouring the covenant would pay with their lives and not even be given burial. We have therefore several instances where the word ויעבר, passing between the two halves symbolising the two parties to a covenant, is of the essence.

ואעדי ית דברת יקרי . . . This is the Targum of והסירותי את כפי . Rashi explains that the Targum means: “When the guidance of My Glory is removed.”

V. 23. אחרי, nicht mich waltend, die Spuren von mir in meinen Waltungen kannst du und sollst du sehen.

והסירותי את כפי, “and I will remove My hand;” so that Moses’ experience will parallel someone seeing someone’s back, being unable to identify that person.

וראית את אחורי, “you will see My back;” you will see an aura of light which will linger after My essence has passed. The light which precedes Me and which is too dazzling, you will not see.

וראית את אחרי THEN THOU SHALT SEE WHAT IS BEHIND ME — He showed him the Tephillin-knot which is placed behind the head (cf. Berakhot 7a; Menachot 35b).

ופני לא יראו, but understanding of how My execution of My thoughts translates into something concrete, neither you nor anyone else will be capable of “seeing.”

It is also possible that the very mention by G'd of His "face" immediately after mention of His "back," i.e. אחורי ופני, indicated that even the part of Him that He described as "My Back" contained a "face;" however, G'd had arranged that only the rear of that two sided spirit or "light" would be visible so as to provide the prophet with some idea of when he faced a Divine presence.

The word אחורי may have been employed to indicate that Moses would be very close to perceiving G'd's Essence, that He did not "hide" behind multiple screens. If there had remained several "screens" between G'd's Essence and Moses, G'd would have spoken of Achorey Achoray, and not simply of Achoray. Any intelligent and sincere servant of G'd will make only minimum eye contact with his Creator [in other words not look at Heaven beseechingly while engaged in prayer. Ed.] when bowing down during prayer.