출애굽기 33:22 해설: Rashi, Bekhor Shor, Da'at Zekenim & Siftei Chakhamim

בעבר כבדי WHEN MY GLORY PASSETH BY – i. e. when I shall pass before you.

1. "When My glory passes." It shall be revealed to you as I grow distant from you; it will look like when a man sees his friend - l'havdil - from afar and behind. And thus said our sages (BT Yevamot 49b): Moses (i.e. Torah) said (Ex. 33:20), "Man shall not see Me and live," whereas Isaiah said (Is. 6:1), "I saw My Lord," and [the Talmud] reconciles them: [Moses sees] in clear view, [Isaiah,] in unclear [view]. -- Alternatively, "My back" (Ex. 33:23) refers to what has passed, even though there is no back of the neck comparable to human beings who leave behind them what they pass. This seems to me the point, that Moses did not see the Divine Presence at all, rather he saw the rays of His light that He radiates from a place where He has passed, comparably to the sun - l'havdil - when it sets beneath the Earth in the west, and the sun itself is no longer seen but the rays are still visible, continually [weakening] as the sun grows distant. "But My face may not be seen" (ibid.) as in the morning, when the sun itself still has not risen, but the rays are already coming, continually strengthening as the sun grows closer. That is to say, you can see the rays that remain after I have passed there. (The handwritten copyist's note appended adds:) The Targum (Aramaic translation)(Onkelos Exodus 33:23) favors this interpretation; copyist's note.

והיה בעבור כבודי, “it will be when one of My attributes passes;” I am placing you into the cleft in the rock in order that you will not need to look at My essence with your face (to protect you) ושכותי כפי, “I will cover you with the palm of My right hand;” this is a simile for a cloud G–d will place between Himself and Moses. We find a similar expression in Lamentations 3,41:נשא לבבינו אל כפים אל אל בשמים, “let us lift up our hearts with our hands to G–d in heaven.” In other words: “I will act as a protective cloud in front of you to prevent you from seeing ‘Me’ with your eyes.

בנקרת הצור IN A CLEFT OF THE CRAG — נקרה is similar in meaning to the verbs in (Numbers 16:14) “Wilt thou bore out (תנקר) the eyes of these men?”; (Proverbs 30:17) “The ravens of the valley shall pick it out (יקרהו)‎”; (2 Kings 19:24) “I have digged a well (קרתי) and drunk strange waters”. All these have the same derivation. נקרת הצור thus means a place dug out of the rock.

ושכתי כפי AND I WILL SHELTER [THEE] WITH MY HAND — Hence it is evident that permission has been given to the destructive agencies to wound. The Targum renders ושכתי כפי by ואגין במימרי “I will protect thee with My word” This is merely a circumlocution in a manner more respectful to the Most High God and the Targum did not translate it literally because He (God) does not need to cover a person with the hand actually in order to protect him.