Tafsiran Bilangan 7:89: Tze'enah Ure'enah, Rashi, Sforno & Or HaChaim

“He would hear the voice” [7:89]. Bahya writes. The verse teaches us that the voice came from heaven, between the two birds that were in the Tabernacle. From the birds the voice came into the Tabernacle and whoever was outside did not hear it. Bahya writes. “He spoke to him” [7:89], teaches us that Moses answered God and was not frightened like the other prophets, who were frightened. Even when an angel spoke to a prophet, his soul left him out of fright. How much more so, when the Shekhinah itself spoke with a prophet, his soul left him. However, Moses Our Teacher responded to the Shekhinah immediately and was not frightened. Therefore, it is written, “between the cherubim, thus He spoke to him” [7:89]. That is to say, the voice came from the cherubim and Moses answered immediately to that voice also.⁶⁰Bahya, Numbers, 7:89.

ובבא משה AND WHEN MOSES CAME [INTO THE TENT OF MEETING … THEN HE HEARD THE VOICE SPEAKING UNTO HIM FROM OFF THE COVERING THAT WAS UPON THE ARK OF THE TESTIMONY] — When two Scriptural verses apparently contradict each other there comes a third and reconciles them. We have got such a case here: one verse says, (Leviticus 1:1) “[And the Lord called unto Moses] and spoke unto him out of the appointed tent”, which was outside the Vail, and another verse says, (Exodus 25:22). “And I shall speak unto thee from off the Ark-lid”, thus within the Vail — then this (our verse) comes and reconciles them: Moses entered the appointed tent, and there he heard the Voice which came from above the Ark-lid, from between the two Cherubim — the Voice issued from Heaven unto the space between the two Cherubim, and from there it issued into the appointed tent where it was heard by Moses. (Sifrei Bamidbar 58 1; cf. Rashi on Exodus 25:22.)

ובבא משה אל אהל מועד לדבר אתו וישמע את הקול, even though in physical terms the Tabernacle was insignificant compared to the magnificent structure Solomon had built, in terms of spiritual achievement the Tabernacle far outranked Solomon’s Temple, which in turn outranked the second Temple. During the entire period of the second Temple (420 years) not a single prophet had been able to enter the Temple and there to hear the voice of G’d at any given moment. If at this point Moses was able to do this it proved that G’d had approved the consecration and had drawn near Moses as the shepherd of the Jewish people. In spite of all this spiritual grandeur of the Tabernacle in the desert and the clear manifestation of G’d’s presence over it or in it, even this was a far cry from the presence of G’d in the Israelite camp during the period of the revelation at Mount Sinai, and the 40 days before the sin of the golden calf. Once Moses entered the Tabernacle he was able to hear the voice of G’d, something he had been able to hear all the time before the sin of the golden calf, and without the benefit of the Tabernacle and the hallowed ground it stood on.

וישמע את הקול AND HE HEARD THE VOICE — One might think it was a very low voice! Scripture, however, states “the Voice” (with the definite article — the well-known Voice) — it was that thunderous Voice with which He spoke to him on Sinai, and yet when it reached the door of the appointed tent it broke off and did not issue beyond the appointed tent (and therefore it states Leviticus 1:1 מאהל מועד from the appointed tent, and not באהל מועד, because the Voice confined itself to the Interior of the אהל מועד; see Rashi on Leviticus 1:1) (cf. Sifrei Bamidbar 58:2).