וָאֵ֗פֶן וָֽאֵרֵד֙ מִן־הָהָ֔ר וְהָהָ֖ר בֹּעֵ֣ר בָּאֵ֑שׁ וּשְׁנֵי֙ לֻחֹ֣ת הַבְּרִ֔ית עַ֖ל שְׁתֵּ֥י יָדָֽי׃
Lalu aku berbalik dan turun dari gunung itu, sementara gunung itu masih menyala dengan api, dan kedua loh perjanjian itu ada di kedua tanganku.
Akeidat Yitzchak
As mentioned in the introduction in the statement of Rabbi Berechyah, Moses took these rays of glory to show that he had become G-d’s partner, as indicated by the dimensions of the tablets. (12) Possibly, when he had come down with the first set of tablets, the people were even more terrified of him. However, circumstances at that time made any comment about that fact irrelevant. Supporting evidence for such a thought can be found in Moses’s own words when he describes the first descent. (Deut.9, 15) "I turned around and descended from the mountain, the mountain being burning fire, and the two tablets of the covenant in my two hands." This means that the rays of glory at that time were like "consuming fire." When Moses saw the sin, the fire went out as the letters on the tables "flew away," and he smashed the tablets. Do not think that the purpose of the veil was to enable the Jewish people to approach him, since in that event, Moses should have worn the veil when speaking with them, removing it when he finished speaking. We see that he did exactly the reverse. The matter of the veil seems to have worked as follows. When G-d would address Moses, he removed the veil to increase his receptiveness to the Divine message. When Moses spoke to the people, he removed the veil to impress the people even more with the fact that his message was Divine. Only on the infrequent occasions when Moses neither communicated with the people nor G-d with him, did he actually wear the veil. A careful analysis of the verses describing all this, will confirm this interpretation. The veil, in other words, indicated when Moses was preoccupied with the mundane tasks of life.