פירוש על שמות 34:29

ויהי ברדת משה AND IT CAME TO PASS WHEN MOSES WENT DOWN [FROM MOUNT SINAI] — when he brought the second tablets on the Day of Atonement.

ויהי ברדת משה, "It occurred while Moses descended," The Torah uses the word ויהי which portends something painful because all the righteous people in the camp of the Israelites were "burned" when they observed that Moses' face emitted rays of light.

כי קרן, an expression denoting majesty. The word occurs in this sense also in Chabakuk 3,4 קרנים מידו לו, “which gives off rays from every side.” Anyone who compares the meaning of the words קרן עור פניו in Deuteronomy 33,17 וקרני ראם לו, “having horns like the reem,” .is completely foolish. It is quite normal for words in the Torah to have more than one meaning, depending on the context in which they are used.

When he brought the Second Tablets. . . When he brought the First Tablets on the seventeenth of Tammuz, it is also written that “Moshe went down from the mountain with the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand” (Shemos 32:15), like it is written here. Nevertheless, [Rashi knows that the verse here speaks of the Second Tablets because] all the following incidents took place only with the Second Tablets.

ויהי ברדת משה, “it happened that when Moses was descending, etc.” This was on a Tuesday the tenth day of Tishrey, after Moses having been on the Mountain for the third time for forty days;

כי קרן עור פניו THAT THE SKIN OF HIS FACE BEAMED — קרן is an expression connected with the word קרנים “horns”, and the phrase, קרן אור, the light-“horned” , is used here because light radiates from a point and projects Like a horn. And whence was Moses privileged to have the rays of glory? Our Rabbis said that they originated at the time when he was in the cave, for the Holy One, blessed be He, then put His hand upon his face, as it is said, (Exodus 33:22) “And I will shelter thee with My hand” (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 37).

From where was Moshe privileged for these rays of splendor. . . I.e., why was he privileged to them with the Second Tablets, and not with the First Tablets?

ברדת משה מהר סיני, when Moses descended from Mount Sinai, etc. I am not sure why these words appear at this point, neither do I know why the Torah repeated ברדתו מן ההר, "when he descended from the Mountain." Besides, why did the Torah have to emphasise that Moses was unaware of the rays his face gave off before even having told us that his face did radiate light? Furthermore, who did finally tell Moses that his face emitted rays of light? If the people told him, why did the Torah not mention this?

ושני לוחות העדות, “and the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand, etc.;” what is missing here is a reference to the ark within which these Tablets were to be placed. This has been included in Moses’ report in Deuteronomy 10,3. Moses had constructed an ark for the Tablets in which they were kept from the tenth day of Tishrey until the first day of Nissan, when the Tabernacle was erected and the Tablets were transferred to the Holy Ark that had been constructed by Betzalel, and the Ark and the Tablets were placed in the Holy of Holies, in the westernmost section of the Tabernacle.

The whole subject becomes clearer when the Torah reports that Moses wore a veil over his face at all times except when he taught the Torah. The question therefore should have been: "why did Moses not wear a veil over his face at the time he descended from the Mountain?" The Torah answers this question by stating that Moses was unaware that his face emitted rays of light. This is why he had not put on his veil as usual prior to descending from the Mountain. This led to Aaron and the children of Israel observing that his face gave forth a beam of light. This still leaves us with the strange phenomenon that a human being should be unaware that his face emits rays of light. This is especially so if we assume the source of these rays to have been some kind of horn-like protuberance on his forehead? Surely Moses must have noticed that he suddenly possessed such an additional feature? This is why the Torah explained the reason of Moses' unawareness by stating that all of this occurred while he descended from the Mountain and held the Tablets in his hand(s). As long as he had been on the Mountain, Moses had assumed that any radiation of light he noted had originated with G'd who was speaking to him. This light which Moses had assumed to originate with G'd disappeared during his descent. The reason Moses still did not notice that these rays originated in his own face was that he carried the Holy Tablets while descending from the Mountain. He therefore assumed that the light he was still conscious of was emitted by the Tablets. He had no idea that he himself had become a permanent source of such light. When the Torah writes: "he did not know that the skin of his face emitted rays," this does not mean that he was unaware of these rays of light. He was only unaware that the source was neither G'd nor the Tablets but the skin of his own face. This is why he did not cover his face with the veil when Aaron saw him. We may now understand the meter of the verse as follows: "The reason that both Aaron and the children of Israel saw Moses' face emit rays of light was that Moses was unaware of his face being the source of that light; he had therefore neglected to cover his face with the veil he normally wore." As soon as he deposited the Tablets and he became aware that the light had not departed, he realised that he himself was the source of the light and he immediately covered his face with the veil. Moses' wearing the veil corresponds to the mystical dimension of Proverbs 25,2: "It is the glory of G'd to conceal a matter."

ומשה לא ידע כי קרן עור פניו, Moses was not aware that the skin of his face radiated light. When G-d had placed His hand on his face to shield him when His glory passed and he stood in the opening of a cave in the rock (compare 33,22), he merited this reminder of that encounter. The reason that he merited this reminder which he had not merited when he carried the first set of Tablets, was that the first set of Tablets had been given publicly for everyone to see, whereas at the introduction to his ascent to receive the second set the Torah had expressly warned that that no one was to accompany him even at the bottom of the Mountain (verse 3). Seeing that the giving of the firsts set of Tablets was accompanied by so much publicity, if there had been no visible evidence that Moses had received a second set some people might have thought that he himself had written on the Tablets seeing that the raw material had been taken up on the Mountain with him, also. An alternate explanation: Seeing that prior to Moses’ return with the first set of Tablets the people had been prepared to accept another leader in Moses’ place, his emitting rays of light on his descent from the Mountain this time made a repetition of such an attempt quite unlikely.

Shemot Rabbah 47,6 discusses the source of the light Moses' face emitted, and Rabbi Yehudah bar Nachman claims that after Moses had completed writing down the Torah there was a little ink left over on the quill. Moses touched his forehead while holding the quill. The ink which spilled on to his forehead turned into the rays of light. This is a most enigmatic Midrash. Perhaps the rabbis wanted to teach us that the virtue of humility transcends all other virtues. Compare Shir Hashirim Rabbah 1,9 where "wisdom" is described as fashioning a crown for its head, and that "crown" is understood to be "reverence" for G'd, as per Psalms 111,10: ראשית חכמה יראת השם, "the 'head' of wisdom is fear of the Lord." Thereupon "humility" made a heel for its sandal as it is written (Proverbs 22,4) "the heel" i.e. the consequence of humility is fear of the Lord." We note that the Torah testified (Numbers 12,3) that Moses was the most humble man ever. When G'd asked him to write these words, Moses found himself unable to spell the word עניו as it should have been spelled and he omitted the letter י. Moses was rewarded for this act of humility with the rays of הוד, glory. Seeing that Moses had excelled in pleasing the Lord over and beyond what could be expected of him, G'd in turn performed kindness with him over and above what Moses could ever have expected. We believe that when Rabbi Yehudah bar Nachman in the name of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai spoke of "left over" ink, he referred to the ink which had been intended for writing the letter י in the word עניו.