Commentaire sur L’Exode 33:22

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.