Musar sur L’Exode 19:3

Moses' level of intimacy with G–d was such that he had what our sages call אספקלריא מאירא, a clear vision. G–d enlightened Moses with this clear vision and he acted as G–d's agent. G–d in His Essence, however, performed these miracles, using Moses as a "filter" i.e. עבר. This is the true significance of Exodus 12,12: ועברתי בארץ מצרים בלילה הזה, "I shall pass through the land of Egypt during that night, etc." Moses was called איש האלוקים, which our sages have interpreted to mean that his upper half was אלוקים, whereas the lower half of his body was איש, human. This simply means that Moses had not commenced his career on the same level as he completed it. Once he had ascended to Sinai, to אלוקים in Exodus 19,3, he became not only איש האלוקים but אלוקים. Shemot Rabbah 3 describes Moses as a טירון, "a private," in G–d's army in terms of his prophetic powers at the beginning of his career. Later on he rose to a level where he was described as אלוקים.

Chronologically, Abraham preceded Moses in this area of self-propelled upward spiritual motion. He did so so persistently that G–d revealed Himself to him to an extraordinary extent. When it came to the attachment, דבקות, to G–d and His ways, Moses excelled over Abraham. This is why G–d paid him the compliment recorded in Numbers. The ultimate compliment it is possible to pay a human being is to describe him as a fully fledged member of G–d's "household."

The reason that Moses separated from his wife, i.e. from family life and the fulfilment of the commandment to be be fruitful and multiply, is that משה עלה אל האלוקים, "Moses ascended to G–d" (Exodus 19,3). Having reached such a stage, further "upward" motion was not necessary. This is the deeper significance of someone becoming איש האלוקים, as described in the Zohar^{Author's comment}If Ben Azzai refused to marry and procreate because "his heart cleaved to the Torah," this may have been due to his being descended from a root such as that of Moses (cf Yevamot 63)..