וָֽאֶתְנַפַּל֩ לִפְנֵ֨י יְהוָ֜ה כָּרִאשֹׁנָ֗ה אַרְבָּעִ֥ים יוֹם֙ וְאַרְבָּעִ֣ים לַ֔יְלָה לֶ֚חֶם לֹ֣א אָכַ֔לְתִּי וּמַ֖יִם לֹ֣א שָׁתִ֑יתִי עַ֤ל כָּל־חַטַּאתְכֶם֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר חֲטָאתֶ֔ם לַעֲשׂ֥וֹת הָרַ֛ע בְּעֵינֵ֥י יְהוָ֖ה לְהַכְעִיסֽוֹ׃
Lalu aku sujud tersungkur di hadapan Yang Mahakekal seperti semula, empat puluh hari dan empat puluh malam; roti tidak kumakan dan air tidak kuminum, karena segala dosamu yang telah kamu perbuat, yaitu melakukan apa yang jahat di mata Yang Mahakekal sehingga membangkitkan murka-Nya.
Ramban
NOW MOSES TOOK THE TENT AND WOULD PITCH IT WITHOUT THE CAMP. Rashi wrote: “This was practiced by Moses from the Day of Atonement until the Tabernacle was set up [five and a half months later — on the first day of Nisan], but not afterwards. For on the seventeenth day of Tammuz the Tablets of the Law were broken, on the eighteenth he burnt the calf and brought the sinners to judgment, and on the nineteenth he ascended the mountain and stayed there for forty days. On the first of Ellul it was said to him, and come up in the morning435Further, 34:2. to receive the second Tablets. There he spent another forty days [which terminated on the tenth day of Tishri]. On the tenth of Tishri the Holy One, blessed be He, became reconciled with Israel, and He handed over to Moses the second Tablets, whereupon Moses came down the mountain and began to command them concerning the work of the Tabernacle. This occupied them till the first of Nisan, and from that time on, since the Tabernacle was set up, G-d only communicated with him from there.” This also is the opinion of Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, that all this [narrated here in Verses 7-11] took place after Moses brought down the second Tablets [the account of which is narrated further on in 34:1-10], there being no strict chronological order in the narrative of the Torah.
But it does not appear to me to be correct, for what reason is there to mention this [practice of Moses] here in the middle of the section? The words of our Rabbis in all Midrashim are also to the effect that Moses did this on account of their sin with the calf. Thus they explained436Shemoth Rabbah 45:3. [that Moses said], “One who is excommunicated from the master, is also excommunicated from the disciple,” and as Rashi mentioned [that G-d said to Moses], “I am angry and you are angry; if so, who will bring them near to Me?” Now if the removal of the Tent was after the Day of Atonement [as Rashi and Ibn Ezra have it], the Holy One, blessed be He, as well as Moses, was already in [complete] reconciliation with them! Rather, it appears that on the day that he came down from the mountain — on the seventeenth of Tamuz — he burnt the calf and punished the worshippers.437And not, as Rashi has it, that the burning of the calf and the punishing of the sinners took place on the eighteenth of Tammuz. On the next day, [i.e., on the eighteenth of Tammuz] he told them that he would go up to G-d to seek atonement for them,438Above, 32:30. and so he went up to the mountain where the Glory was. This is the sense of the verse, And Moses returned unto the Eternal,439Ibid., Verse 31. and prayed briefly: Oh, this people have sinned a great sin,439Ibid., Verse 31. and G-d answered him, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, etc.;440Ibid., Verse 33. And now go, lead the people,441Ibid., Verse 34. and the plague began.442Ibid., Verse 35. Then He commanded him, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people etc.,443Verse 1 here. and Moses told this to Israel, and they mourned, and stripped themselves of the ornaments.444Verses 4-6. Then Moses realized that the matter was a very long one, and did not know what the end thereof would be, therefore he took the tent and pitched it outside the camp so that the Divine Glory would communicate with him from there, for it was no longer dwelling in the midst of the people, and if the tent were to be in the midst of the camp, He would not communicate with him from there. Scripture continues, and it came to pass, that every one that sought the Eternal…,445In Verse 7 here. meaning that everyone who sought the Eternal used to go out to him.446Ramban interprets the Hebrew yeitzei (the imperfect — “was going out”) as yotzei (a participle — taking of the nature of both a verb and an adjective — “used to go out”). Rashi explained it likewise. Then Scripture [in Verse 8-11] completed the narrative of all that happened whilst the tent was there until the Tabernacle was set up, which was, according to the opinion of our Sages, from the Day of Atonement until the first day of Nisan.447See Ramban further, 40:2.
I have seen in Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer [the following text]:448Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 46. “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha says: “[After the Revelation] Moses spent forty days on the mountain, studying the Written Law at daytime, and the Oral Law at night. After the forty days he took the Tablets and came back to the camp. On the seventeenth of Tammuz he broke the Tablets and killed the sinners of Israel, and then stayed in the camp forty days until he burnt the calf and ground it like dust of the earth. Thus he eliminated idolatry from Israel, and established each tribe in its place. On the first of Ellul the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, come up unto Me into the mount449Deuteronomy 10:1. [to be given the second Tablets]. Then the ram’s horn was sounded throughout the camp, announcing to the people that Moses was going up the mountain, so that [they might not be alarmed by his absence] and not be misled anymore after idols. [On that day] the Holy One, blessed be He, was exalted by the sound of that ram’s horn, as it is said, G-d is gone up amidst shouting, the Eternal amidst the sound of the horn.450Psalm 47:6. “For by the sound of this horn Israel vowed eternally never again to be deceived by the idols” (R’dal; see my Hebrew commentary, p. 518). And thus likewise the Sages ordained that we blow the horn every year on the first day of Ellul.”451The Shofar is now sounded in the synagogue every morning during the whole month of Ellul, except on the Sabbaths and on the day before the New Year. Thus far are the words of this Agadah. And if this is so, then the whole section from: Moses took the tent, applied to the time from the eighteenth of Tammuz till the end of the forty days [i.e., up to the first of Ellul], and from the Day of Atonement till the first of Nisan [when the Tabernacle was set up]. But this exposition does not fit in well with what Scripture says, And I fell down before the Eternal, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread etc.,452Deuteronomy 9:18. and it is further written there, So I fell down before the Eternal the forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because the Eternal had said He would destroy you,453Ibid., Verse 25. and it is impossible that all this refers to the last forty days [i.e., between the first of Ellul and the Day of Atonement], since He told him, Hew thee two Tablets of stone… and come up unto Me into the mount,449Deuteronomy 10:1. thus these last forty days were already those of G-d’s good-will, after He had already nullified the decree that He would destroy you!454From all this it is thus obvious that there was an intervening period of forty days [i.e. from the eighteenth of Tammuz to the twenty-ninth of Ab] when Moses was on the mountain interceeding for Israel. So how could the Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer hold that there were only two ascents of forty-day periods of Moses? — In his commentary to that Midrash, Rabbi David Luria answers Ramban’s question by suggesting that the phrase He would destroy you does not refer to the beginning of that verse, so I fell down before the Eternal, but reverts to the very beginning of the incident of the calf, when G-d had said He would destroy them. The verse itself can still apply then to the final forty days, which culminated on the Day of Atonement.
But it does not appear to me to be correct, for what reason is there to mention this [practice of Moses] here in the middle of the section? The words of our Rabbis in all Midrashim are also to the effect that Moses did this on account of their sin with the calf. Thus they explained436Shemoth Rabbah 45:3. [that Moses said], “One who is excommunicated from the master, is also excommunicated from the disciple,” and as Rashi mentioned [that G-d said to Moses], “I am angry and you are angry; if so, who will bring them near to Me?” Now if the removal of the Tent was after the Day of Atonement [as Rashi and Ibn Ezra have it], the Holy One, blessed be He, as well as Moses, was already in [complete] reconciliation with them! Rather, it appears that on the day that he came down from the mountain — on the seventeenth of Tamuz — he burnt the calf and punished the worshippers.437And not, as Rashi has it, that the burning of the calf and the punishing of the sinners took place on the eighteenth of Tammuz. On the next day, [i.e., on the eighteenth of Tammuz] he told them that he would go up to G-d to seek atonement for them,438Above, 32:30. and so he went up to the mountain where the Glory was. This is the sense of the verse, And Moses returned unto the Eternal,439Ibid., Verse 31. and prayed briefly: Oh, this people have sinned a great sin,439Ibid., Verse 31. and G-d answered him, Whosoever hath sinned against Me, etc.;440Ibid., Verse 33. And now go, lead the people,441Ibid., Verse 34. and the plague began.442Ibid., Verse 35. Then He commanded him, Depart, go up hence, thou and the people etc.,443Verse 1 here. and Moses told this to Israel, and they mourned, and stripped themselves of the ornaments.444Verses 4-6. Then Moses realized that the matter was a very long one, and did not know what the end thereof would be, therefore he took the tent and pitched it outside the camp so that the Divine Glory would communicate with him from there, for it was no longer dwelling in the midst of the people, and if the tent were to be in the midst of the camp, He would not communicate with him from there. Scripture continues, and it came to pass, that every one that sought the Eternal…,445In Verse 7 here. meaning that everyone who sought the Eternal used to go out to him.446Ramban interprets the Hebrew yeitzei (the imperfect — “was going out”) as yotzei (a participle — taking of the nature of both a verb and an adjective — “used to go out”). Rashi explained it likewise. Then Scripture [in Verse 8-11] completed the narrative of all that happened whilst the tent was there until the Tabernacle was set up, which was, according to the opinion of our Sages, from the Day of Atonement until the first day of Nisan.447See Ramban further, 40:2.
I have seen in Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer [the following text]:448Chapters of Rabbi Eliezer, Chapter 46. “Rabbi Yehoshua ben Korcha says: “[After the Revelation] Moses spent forty days on the mountain, studying the Written Law at daytime, and the Oral Law at night. After the forty days he took the Tablets and came back to the camp. On the seventeenth of Tammuz he broke the Tablets and killed the sinners of Israel, and then stayed in the camp forty days until he burnt the calf and ground it like dust of the earth. Thus he eliminated idolatry from Israel, and established each tribe in its place. On the first of Ellul the Holy One, blessed be He, said to him, come up unto Me into the mount449Deuteronomy 10:1. [to be given the second Tablets]. Then the ram’s horn was sounded throughout the camp, announcing to the people that Moses was going up the mountain, so that [they might not be alarmed by his absence] and not be misled anymore after idols. [On that day] the Holy One, blessed be He, was exalted by the sound of that ram’s horn, as it is said, G-d is gone up amidst shouting, the Eternal amidst the sound of the horn.450Psalm 47:6. “For by the sound of this horn Israel vowed eternally never again to be deceived by the idols” (R’dal; see my Hebrew commentary, p. 518). And thus likewise the Sages ordained that we blow the horn every year on the first day of Ellul.”451The Shofar is now sounded in the synagogue every morning during the whole month of Ellul, except on the Sabbaths and on the day before the New Year. Thus far are the words of this Agadah. And if this is so, then the whole section from: Moses took the tent, applied to the time from the eighteenth of Tammuz till the end of the forty days [i.e., up to the first of Ellul], and from the Day of Atonement till the first of Nisan [when the Tabernacle was set up]. But this exposition does not fit in well with what Scripture says, And I fell down before the Eternal, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread etc.,452Deuteronomy 9:18. and it is further written there, So I fell down before the Eternal the forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because the Eternal had said He would destroy you,453Ibid., Verse 25. and it is impossible that all this refers to the last forty days [i.e., between the first of Ellul and the Day of Atonement], since He told him, Hew thee two Tablets of stone… and come up unto Me into the mount,449Deuteronomy 10:1. thus these last forty days were already those of G-d’s good-will, after He had already nullified the decree that He would destroy you!454From all this it is thus obvious that there was an intervening period of forty days [i.e. from the eighteenth of Tammuz to the twenty-ninth of Ab] when Moses was on the mountain interceeding for Israel. So how could the Pirkei d’Rabbi Eliezer hold that there were only two ascents of forty-day periods of Moses? — In his commentary to that Midrash, Rabbi David Luria answers Ramban’s question by suggesting that the phrase He would destroy you does not refer to the beginning of that verse, so I fell down before the Eternal, but reverts to the very beginning of the incident of the calf, when G-d had said He would destroy them. The verse itself can still apply then to the final forty days, which culminated on the Day of Atonement.
Rav Hirsch
VV. 9-11. Nicht Gott oder Göttliches wohnte im Zelt. Es war Mosches Wohnzelt, daher ja auch sein Diener immer darin blieb. Er war darin als נער, als erst noch werdender Mann. Ihn suchte dort die Gottesgegenwart nicht auf. Nur wenn Mosche ins Zelt eintrat, ließ sich die die Gottesgegenwart ankündigende Wolke nieder. Dewarim Kap. 9 u. 10 erfahren wir, daß Mosche dreimal vierzig Tage vor Gott zugebracht habe, zweimal zum Empfang der Gesetzestafeln (9, 9 und 10, 10) und einmal zwischen beiden zur Erlangung der Vergebung für die Egelsünde (9, 18). Bei diesen mittleren vierzig Tagen heißt es nicht, daß er sie auf dem Berge zugebracht habe, sondern ואתנפל לפני ד׳ וגו׳ er habe vierzig Tage fastend und betend vor Gott zugebracht. Wir glauben daher, daß diese mittleren vierzig Tage im Zelte außerhalb des Lagers verlebt wurden. Dann bliebe die Erzählung in ganz chronologischer Folge. Am 17. Tamus wurden die Tafeln zerbrochen. Am 18. Vernichtung des Kalbes und Hinrichtung der Schuldigen. Vom 19. Tamus bis zum 1. Elul liegt alles von Kap. 32, 10 bis Kap. 33, 23 Erzählte. Es waren das vierzig Tage, die von Mosche Bemühen ausgefüllt waren, dem Volke Gottes volle Gnade wieder zu erwirken. Und פסל לך Kap. 34, 1 ward am 1. Elul gesprochen, an welchem Mosche wieder den Berg bestieg, um am 10. Tischri mit dem wiedergeschenkten Zeugnis des Gesetzes dem Volke das Unterpfand der wiedergewonnenen Gnade wieder zu bringen. Man muss dabei nur einräumen, daß das ואתנפל לפני ד׳ כראשנה ארבעים יום וגו׳ (Dewarim 9, 18) nicht ausschließt, daß während dieser vierzig Tage Mosche von Zeit zu Zeit zur Belehrung des Volkes in das Lager zurückgekehrt sei, worauf sich dann die V. 8-10 berichteten Ein- und Ausgänge bezögen.
Da'at Zekenim
וישמע ה' אלי גם בפעם ההיא, “the Lord listened to me also on that occasion;” he completed the process of completely pardoning the people. On the Day of Atonement He uttered the words: סלחתי כדבריך, “I have forgiven in accordance with your words.” This is why this day has been designated annually as Yom Kippur, the anniversary of the original forgiveness, and the completion of the process of forgiving our sins which commences on New Year’s day. Moses had to wait on the Mountain for forty days, and by Yom Kippur it had been one hundred and twenty days since the day that the people had danced around the golden calf. The first time Moses ascended Mount Sinai was on the seventh day of Sivan, the day after G–d had revealed the Ten Commandments. He ascended in order to receive the Ten Commandments in Tablet form, and he was taught the whole Torah during the forty days that he spent on the mountain. He descended on the seventeenth day of Tammuz, on the day he smashed the Tablets. On the following day he ascended again in order to plead for forgiveness for the people. (Compare Deut. 9,18) These 40 days were completed on the twenty eighth day of the month of Av. G–d then instructed him to hew out the stones for the second set of Tablets, and he ascended again on the twenty ninth day of that month. At that time Moses told the people that the following day would be the 30th day of Av, and that it would already be considered as the Rosh Chodesh for the month of Ellul, combined with the day following, officially known as the first of Ellul. On that day the people were to start blowing the shofar daily so that they would not miscalculate the day on which he would return from the mountain as they had done the first time which resulted in the catastrophe of the golden calf. The Jewish people, in commemoration of this, still blow the shofar starting on the first day of Ellul, i.e. actually the thirtieth day of the month of Av, for a total of forty days. The forty days are made up as follows: 1 day in the month of Av, 29 days in the month of Elull and 10 days in the month of Tishrey, concluding on Yom Kippur, the tenth day of that month. It became the norm ever since that the Rosh Chodesh of the month of Ellul is observed for two days. It was on the tenth day of Tishrey that G–d said to Moses that He had forgiven the sin of the golden calf, so that Moses descended from the mountain on the following day. The seventeenth day of the month of Tammuz during that year had occurred on a Thursday. Passover and the seventeenth day of Tammuz always occur on the same day of week. In the Talmud, tractate Shabbat folio 87, Rabbi Akiva is on record as having said that that the original Passover on which the Jewish people left Egypt also occurred on a Thursday. In light of this, the first set of Tablets had been given to Moses on a Thursday and New Year’s day was on the Sabbath, which means that Yom Kippur was on a Monday. In other words the first set of Tablets was given on a Thursday and the second set on a Monday, so that both these days of the week share the same distinction. This may have been the reason why Ezra decreed that there be a public reading of the Torah on both of these days of the week. This may also have been hinted at in Isaiah 55,6 in the first two letters of the word בהיותו, i.e. בה, these letters symbolising the second and fifth day of the week, respectively The prophet in that verse speaks about when it is especially appropriate to offer prayers, i.e. when G–d is closer to us than usual. On these days the court is also in session. Rabbi B’chor Shor sees in Leviticus 19,15: בצדק תשפוט עמיתך, “but in righteousness shall You judge your fellowmen,” an allusion to the planet Jupiter, tzedek, which is prominent in both the mazzalot during the night from Sunday to Monday and during the first hour of Thursday according to an explanation in the Talmud tractate Shabbat, folio 119. [My almost total ignorance of astrology and how it dominates the fates of the gentile nations, cautions me not to go into greater detail about this. Suffice it to say that the fate of Jews is not dependent on such constellations at any time. Ed.]
Rashi
ושב אל המחנה .( AND HE RETURNED INTO THE CAMP — After God had conversed with him, Moses used to return to the camp and teach the elders what he had learned. This Moses practised from the day of Atonement until the Tabernacle was set up, but no longer. For on the seventeenth of Tammuz the tablets were broken, on the eighteenth he burnt the calf and punished the of fenders, on the nineteenth he ascended the mountain, as it is said (Exodus 32:30) “And it came to pass on the morrow (the day after he had punished the wrongdoers; cf. vv. 26—29), that Moses said unto the people”, [Ye have sinned a great sin and now I will go up to the Lord]”. There he spent forty days and sought mercy for the people, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 9:18) “And I threw myself down before the Lord [as at the first, forty days and forty nights]”. These terminated on the last day of Ab (there were 11 days from the 19th to the 29th of Tammuz therefore 29 days in Ab complete the forty) and he then returned to the people. On the first day of the New Moon of Ellul it was said to him, (Exodus 34:2) “And be ready in the morning] and go up in the morning unto mount Sinai” — to receive the second tablets. He again spent there the forty days of which it is stated, (Deuteronomy 10:10) “[And I stayed in the mountain, according to the first, days, [forty days and forty nights]”. The words כימים הראשונים, “like the first days”, cannot refer to the number of days for this is stated immediately afterwards; they are to be joined with עמדתי — I stayed in the same state as on the first days: How were the first forty days passed? In God’s good-will (because the Israelites had not yet sinned)! So, too, the last forty days were passed in God’s good-will — from which you must admit that the intervening forty days were passed in God’s anger. On the tenth of Tishri God became reconciled with Israel in joy and perfect affection and said to Moses: “I have forgiven!” and handed him over the second tablets, whereupon Moses went down and began to command them concerning the work of the Tabernacle (cf. Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 31; Seder Olam 6; Rashi on Exodus 18:13, Deuteronomy 9:18 and also Taanit 36b). They were occupied in its construction until the first of Nisan and from the time when it was set up God did not converse with him any more except from the tent of meeting.
Rashi
ויהי ממחרת AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE MORROW — This was really the day after the Day of Atonement: so have we learnt in Siphré (Mekhilta). Since the Day of Atonement is not mentioned anywhere in this section that deals with the Giving of the Law what is the force of ממחרת? i. e. in relation to what particular day in the history of the Law-giving is the term ממחרת, “on the morrow”, used? It means the morrow after he (Moses) descended from the Mount Sinai, and you must admit that it is impossible to say that this was any other day but the morrow after the Day of Atonement because, before the giving of the Torah, one could not say, (v. 16) “and I do make them know the statutes [of God and His laws]” (which are part of the Torah), and from the day when the Torah was given until the Day of Atonement Moses did not sit down to judge the people, since immediately after the Torah was given he ascended the mountain and descended only on the seventeenth of Tammuz when he broke the tablets in pieces. On the next day he again ascended the mountain early in the morning and stayed there eighty days, descending on the Day of Atonement (cf. Tanchuma כי תשא, Rashi on 33:11, Deuteronomy 9:18 and 10:1). Consequently this section is not written (placed) in its chronological order, for this paragraph commencing with ויהי ממחרת and ending with “Moses let his father-in-law go and he (Jethro) went his way into his own land” was not said before the second year after the Exodus. For even according to the view of one who says that Jethro came to Moses before the giving of the Torah (Avodah Zarah 24a) his dismissal into his own land did not take place until the second year, for it is stated here (v. 27) “Moses let his father-in-law go”, and we find in the account of Israel’s journey through the wilderness beneath their banners (which according to Numbers 10:11 began in the second year) that Moses said to him, (Numbers 10:29, 31) “We are journeying etc…. Forsake us not, I pray thee”. Now if this incident happened before the giving of the Torah (including Jethro’s departure) where do we find it related that he returned after he had let him go and he had taken departure? And if you object that there (in the section in Numbers which Rashi has quoted as evidence that Jethro’s departure took place in the second year) it does not mention Jethro at all but Hobab, and that the latter was not Jethro but the son of Jethro, then I reply that Hobab is identical with Jethro and not his son, because it is written, (Judges 4:11) “of the sons of Hobab, the father-in-law of Moses”.