The end of Shemot chapter 24 records two revelations of G-d. Towards the end of the ceremony to establish the covenant, Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and 70 of the elders of the people went up on the mountain (presumably Mount Sinai), 24:9. This going up on the mountain means that the ensuing vision was only for them and not for the entire nation. 24:10 then records, “And they saw the G-d of Israel: under His feet there was the likeness of a pavement of sapphire tiles, livnat ha-saphir, like the very sky for purity” (JPS translation in Sarna, 1991, pp. 152,153). 24:11 also records that the group of 74 people saw G-d. Afterwards, 24:17 records that the entire nation saw the glory of G-d.
The Rashbam (on 24:11 and 33:18, see also Ramban on 24:10) explains that the revelation of G-d is part of the establishment of the covenant. Possibly the idea is that when a covenant is made both parties to the covenant have to agree and the revelation was G-d’s way of telling the people that G-d accepted the covenant. Still, what did the 74 people see?
With regard to the saphir, it seems to have been a type of rock, but there is a disagreement as to what was its color. Ibn Ezra (on 24:10) notes that R. Saadiah Gaon thinks it was a white rock (see also Rashbam on 24:10), while he says it was red, as he argues that the word livnat refers to bricks. Sarna (p. 153) writes that it was a blue stone, lapis lazuli, or it could have been a blue sapphire. The last phrase of the verse “like the very sky for purity” would seem to be referring to the livnat ha-saphir, and this would support the idea that the saphir was the color blue.
The more difficult aspect of 24:10,11 is that the verses seem to record that the group of 74 people saw G-d. Is that possible? The Rambam (Mishnah Torah, Laws of Repentance 3:7) maintains very strongly that G-d is incorporeal, but even for those people who do not follow the Rambam (the Raavad on the Mishnah Torah(?), Rashi (?, see his comments on Shemot 7:4, and many Jews who lived prior to the Rambam?), how could the people see G-d if 33:20 records that if a person saw G-d he/ she would die? What did Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and the 70 elders see, why did they not die, and why does the Torah describe what was beneath G-d?
Onkelos, followed by Rabbenu Saadiah Gaon (both on 24:10), explains that Moshe, Aharon, Nadav and Avihu and the 70 elders saw the glory of G-d, and the description of the floor beneath G-d was the throne of the glory of G-d. This glory of G-d is also unclear, but since the glory of G-d is not G-d, the glory of G-d allows for Moshe, Aharon, Nadav and Avihu and the 70 elders to have seen something, and the difficulty from 33:20 is also solved since Moshe, Aharon, Nadav and Avihu and the 70 elders did not see G-d. Note, I think the idea of G-d or the glory of G-d having a throne is difficult, see our discussion on Shemot 17:16, “In the right time in the future.”
A second approach is from Ibn Ezra, followed by the Ramban (both on 24:10), that the seeing here was a prophetic vision, and this would make this seeing different than 33:20 where Moshe wanted a "real" vision of G-d. Both commentators explain that this seeing was similar to the vision of the chariot of Yechezkel. This approach markedly reduces the significance of this vision here since many people in the Torah have prophetic visions.
The Rambam offers a third approach. He refers to 24:10 in five different chapters in the Moreh Nevuchim, (Moreh 1:4,5,28; 2:26; and 3:4), and as the Rambam believes that G-d has no body, then according to the Rambam, Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and the 70 elders did not see anything. Instead, the Rambam argues that the verse is referring to an intellectual apprehension of G-d, and G-d’s relationship to matter in the world. This intellectual apprehension was an understanding how created the world as the Rambam (Moreh 1:28) writes that saphir was symbolic of the first material in the world.
Hirsch (1989, p. 423) offers a fourth approach. First, he writes, “Who would be presumptuous enough to try to specify what it was that they saw!” However, then he also tries to explain what Moshe, Aharon, Nadav, Avihu and the 70 elders saw. He writes that the revelation was "the phenomenon by which G-d announces his presence in the world." If I understand this correctly, it means that whenever the Torah records that G-d appeared to somebody or was seen this would mean the person saw G-d’s powers in some way. For example, 3:6 records that Moshe turned away from seeing the burning bush since he was scared to look upon G-d, as Moshe had been seeing the powers of G-d in the burning bush.
What then were these powers of G-d that the group of 74 people saw? Rambam, in the end of chapter 1:5 in the Moreh Nevuchim, writes that if an individual of insufficient capacity understands seeing G-d as the sensual perception of created lights then there is no harm in this thinking. Following this idea maybe the seeing of G-d's power here was that G-d created a light that appeared in a vertical direction, which was only seen by the 74 people, and when the light hit the ground (G-d’s feet in the verse) it turned the ground into a geometric pattern (the idea of bricks) of blue lights. The 74 people were mesmerized by this sight, and this is what 24:11 records that they stared at G-d, i.e., they stared at this geometric pattern of blue lights. This was a peaceful and very impressive demonstration of G-d’s powers to signal G-d’s partnership in the covenant with the Jewish people.
With this idea, the 74 people were not killed since they had only seen G-d’s power and not G-d, but it is possible that still they were negatively affected by this vision similar to the story of the four ta’anaim who entered “Pardes” (Tosefta Hagigah 2:3,4; Talmud Hagigah 14b-15b). Moshe, like R. Akiva, was unaffected, but Aharon would help build the golden calf, 33:4, Nadav and Avihu would sin by the dedication of the outer altar, Vayikra 10:1,2, and the seventy elders are not heard from again, as the seventy people in Bemidbar 11:16 seem to be a new group of seventy people. This is especially poignant by Hur, who likely was one of the elders since when Moshe went up to Mount Sinai, he told the elders, “Hur is with you,” 24:14. Hur was an important person prior to this event, 17:12, 24:14 (also 31:2?), but he is not heard from him again. Note even if this idea is correct, then Yehoshua would not have been part of this group since he would not have been considered as being an elder, see 33:11. Also, if this idea is correct, then we see the great danger of people having a vision of G-d.
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