Musar su Esodo 12:23

I have already pointed out that Moses was appointed אלהים over all the שרים in the Celestial Regions, and that the Ineffable Name is reserved for The deity who controls and suspends laws of nature at will. We pay tribute to this fact in the Haggadah shel Pessach, where we describe G–d's interference in the line: "I, and not an angel, I, and not a Seraph, I, and not any agent." In view of the above, how are we to understand the verse in Numbers 20,16: וישלח מלאך ויוציאנו ממצרים, "He sent an angel and took us out of Egypt?" Clearly the "angel" was Moses. G–d transferred His power העבר, as the Torah says in Exodus 12,23: "ועבר ה' G–d will pass through Egypt to strike, but will see the blood, etc." We have a similar verse in 12,12: ועברתי בארץ מצרים בלילה הזה, "I shall pass through the land of Egypt during this night." The expression עבר, is a way of transferring power. This explains the threefold statement תדע which we quoted at the very beginning of our commentary (page 409). All three verses describe that there is no one like the Lord our G–d. The first one emphasizes His existence, whereas the second one emphasizes that He exercises control everywhere in His universe. The third statement features the word בעבור תדע, instead of למען תדע. The expression בעבור must be understood as העברה, transfer of His authority via Moses.

When we keep this in mind we can understand the Midrash Rabbah 3,1 on Song of Songs 3,9 אפריון עשה לו המלך שלמה, that "King Solomon made for himself a canopy," as referring to the construction of the Tabernacle. Rabbi Yehudah bar Ulla explains this by means of the following parable: A king had a young daughter. As long as she did not reach the age of puberty, he would meet her in public and speak with her both in public and private. Once she reached the age of puberty the king said to himself that it was no longer seemly that he should converse with his daughter in public. He therefore constructed a pavilion for her so that whenever he felt the need to converse with his daughter he could do so within this pavilion. We find an allusion to this in Hoseah 11,1: "For when Israel was still a child I fell in love with Israel." As long as the people of Israel were in their national infancy in Egypt, they saw manifestations of G–d all around them such as when G–d smote the Egyptians both in Egypt and later on when He drowned them in the sea. This was a public manifestation as testified to in Exodus 14,31: "Israel saw the great hand of the Lord and what He did to Egypt". Even infants would point with their fingers declaring "This is my G–d I shall glorify Him" (Exodus 15,2). At Sinai they beheld G–d "face to face," as we know from Deuteronomy 33,2: "He (Moses) said The Lord came from Sinai, He shone upon them from Se-ir; He appeared from Mount Paran." At that point Israel received the Torah and declared כל אשר דבר ה' נעשה ונשמע, "All that the Lord has said, we shall do and hear." As a consequence Israel became G–d's nation in the fullest meaning of the word. G–d next said Himself that it was no longer seemly that He should speak to them in public, without the benefit of privacy, so He instructed them to build a Tabernacle so that whenever He wished to speak to them, He would do so from the interior of the Tabernacle. This is the meaning of Numbers 7,89: "Whenever Moses went into the Tent of Meeting to speak with Him, he would hear the voice of G–d addressing him from above the cover that was on top of the Ark of the Covenant between the two cherubim; thus He spoke to him." Thus far the statement of Rabbi Yehudah bar Ulla.