ציטירנדיקער פּירוש אויף שמות 34:5

He went alone. For if not so, why does the Torah write “Hashem descended in a [pillar of] cloud”? Surely it had already stated “Hashem said: Come out, all three of you,” thus it should have merely said “and He stood at the entrance of the Tent…” However in Parshas Ki Sisa where it is written “Hashem descended in a cloud” (Shemos 34:5), at the beginning of the revelation of the Divine Presence to Moshe in the morning, there one may say that it comes to inform of the revelation of the Divine Presence to Moshe, but not to teach that He descended alone with the pillar of Cloud as Rashi expounds here.

פנים אל פנים, “literally: “face to face,” an obviously incorrect translation, seeing that G-d does not possess physical attributes; Our author takes it for granted that the reader is aware of this, and does not spell it out. He does, however, indulge in presenting the reader with another insoluble problem, that of that either G-d or Moses must have changed position in order to speak to one another as if on the same level. He therefore tells us, his readers, that he does not know if the expression means that G-d had raised Moses closer to His level, or vice versa, i.e. that G-d had descended to Moses’ level. He had done so in Exodus 34,5, after the third forty days after the revelation at the Mountain had expired, i.e. on the Day of Atonement.

A Midrashic approach (Tanchuma Ki Tissa 27). The expression פנים אל פנים denotes anger. G’d said to Moses: “have I not told you that whenever I am angry with the Jewish people it is your task to defend them and to be well-disposed towards them, whereas whenever you are angry with them I will demonstrate that I am well-disposed towards them? Now we have reached an impossible situation when both I and you are angry at the people.” G’d therefore instructed Moses to return to the camp of the Israelites forthwith. When the Torah writes in verse 11 concerning Moses that ושב אל המחנה, we have to read it as if it were spelled ושוב אל המחנה, “and return to the camp!” The reason for all this is that if both G’d and the Jewish people’s leader are angry, who will bring them back closer to G’d?
Rabbi Yoshua ben Levi said that we are not able to judge if in our relationship with G’d we experience an elevation on our part or a deliberate effort on G’d’s part to “lower” Himself to our level. At the revelation at Mount Sinai the Lord definitely “lowered“ Himself as the Torah writes that “G’d descended in a cloud” (Exodus 34,5).