שמות לד:ה,ו - וַיֵּרֶד ה בֶּעָנָן וַיִּתְיַצֵּב עִמּוֹ שָׁם וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם ה׃ וַיַּעֲבֹר ה עַל־פָּנָיו וַיִּקְרָא, ה, ה קל רַחוּם וְחַנּוּן אֶרֶךְ אַפַּיִם וְרַב־חֶסֶד וֶאֱמֶת׃
33:18 records that Moshe asked to see G-d’s glory. 33:19 records G-d’s response to Moshe, that G-d would pass His goodness in front of Moshe and that G-d would call out to Moshe. It is not clear what G-d’s goodness means. Maybe it is referring to the words that G-d would call out when passing Moshe. Or, as suggested by Rabbenu Saadiah Gaon (on 33:19), the word goodness could refer to G-d’s glory. In any event, 33:20 then records G-d's explanation to Moshe of His statement in 33:19, as 33:20 records that G-d explained to Moshe that a human being could not see G-d and live. Thus, G-d’s action of passing His goodness in front of Moshe (33:19), which would give Moshe just a very limited view or experience of G-d, was the most that G-d could do for Moshe.
33:21 then records G-d’s instructions to Moshe to prepare for G-d’s goodness to pass in front of him. 33:21 records that Moshe was to stand on a tzur to be near G-d. This word tzur is a large rock, and from 34:2 we see that it refers to a mountain. 34:2 also implies that Moshe was to be on the top of the mountain. I doubt this means the literal peak of the mountain since then it would not have been simple to have a cleft in the mountain (as mentioned in the next verse), but maybe the idea was for Moshe to go to some rocky part on the upper levels of the mountain. It could even have been that Moshe was to go to a cliff near the top of the mountain, see Even-Shoshan, 1981, p. 1128.
33:22 then records G-d telling Moshe what was going to happen when Moshe was on the tzur. The beginning of 33:22 explains that G-d’s glory would pass by Moshe. This reference to G-d’s glory teaches us that when G-d stated in 32:19-21 that He would pass by Moshe, that a person could not see G-d, and that Moshe was to be on the mountain near G-d, that the reference to G-d refers to the glory of G-d, see Rabbenu Saadiah Gaon on 33:19 and 33:22. This follows the idea that the glory of G-d symbolizes G-d's presence. This same correspondence occurs by Vayikra 9:4,6. In Vayikra 9:4, Moshe said the people would see G-d, and then in Vayikra 9:6, Moshe explained that to see G-d means to see G-d’s glory, which is what happened on that day, Vayikra 9:23.
33:22 continues and records that G-d told Moshe that when the glory of G-d would pass by, G-d would put Moshe in a cleft in the mountain. Cassuto (1967, p. 437) suggests that G-d was saying that G-d would put Moshe in a cave in the mountain, but it is not clear if there are any caves on the top of a mountain. I think the idea is that G-d was going to carve out a cleft in the rock around Moshe which would serve as a protection for Moshe from G-d’s glory. It could be that it was the glory of G-d that would form this cleft through its great power. This creation of a cleft accords better with the idea that Moshe was to be on a cliff near the top of the mountain.
The second half of 33:22 then records that G-d’s palm would shield Moshe from the glory of G-d when the glory of G-d passed by him. R. Saadiah Gaon (on 33:22, also Beliefs and Opinions, 2:12, also see Midrash Leckah Tov, 33:155 and 33:157 in Torah Shelamah) suggests that G-d's palm is referring to the cloud of G-d. I doubt this since I believe that during this process, G-d would remove the glory of G-d from its encasing in the cloud of G-d. I also wonder if the cloud of G-d would have been sufficiently strong enough to protect Moshe from the glory of G-d. Also, why not refer to the cloud directly instead of using the term palm of G-d? Instead, the term G-d’s palm is a metaphor for some powerful action from G-d, like the phrase G-d’s hand in 14:31. Maybe this powerful action was that G-d would create a type of force-field? (Too much Star Trek?) It remains a mystery what this action was, but whatever it was, the action would create a type of shield to stop Moshe from seeing G-d’s glory, which would enable him to survive this experience.
The second half of 33:22 records that the palm of G-d would cover Moshe, ve-sakoti, until G-d’s glory finished passing by Moshe. The word, ve-sakoti, suggests that this shield (G-d’s palm) enwrapped Moshe. The idea being that even though Moshe was in the opening of a cleft in a mountain, which might suggest that the upper part of the rock protected Moshe from the glory of G-d, this was insufficient protection for Moshe. Thus, this shield enwrapped Moshe that he was hermitically sealed off from G-d’s glory with the shield connecting in some way with the cleft to cover Moshe from all possible angles, including over his head.
33:23 then records that at some point, G-d would remove his palm that is to say the shield around Moshe, and then Moshe would be able to see G-d’s back but not G-d’s front. Again, this seeing of G-d is the glory of G-d, as explained by Rabbenu Saadiah Gaon on 33:23. This understanding accords with Moshe’s request in 33:18 to see G-d’s glory, and G-d’s statement in 33:22, that G-d’s glory would pass by Moshe. 33:23 means that when G-d would remove the shield around Moshe, Moshe would see the residue of G-d's glory departing (G-d's back), but not the full force of G-d's glory up close (G-d's face).
34:1-3 then record other instructions to Moshe concerning the tablets, and that Moshe was to ensure that nobody could go up with him or be on the mountain. Even no animals could be on the mountain since the glory of G-d was going to appear on the mountain, and the animals could get killed. 34:4 then records that Moshe fulfilled G-d’s instructions to take the tablets and went up the mountain.
34:5 then records G-d’s movement towards Moshe and the beginning of the fulfillment of G-d’s statement in 33:19. 34:5 can be split into three parts. The first part records that G-d came down in the cloud. This probably means, that the glory of G-d that was within the cloud of G-d came down from somewhere in the sky above the mountain or it appeared as if it came from the sky.
The second part of 34:5 records that "he stood with him." While the idea appears to be that Moshe and the glory of G-d were “face to face,” it is not clear who is standing? Is the standing referring to the cloud of G-d, which was level with Moshe (see R. Saadiah Gaon and Rashbam on 34:5), who was on or near the top of the mountain, or it could be that Moshe was standing facing the glory of G-d that was within the cloud. Or, it could be that at this point, the cloud of G-d had moved on and G-d’s palm from 33:22 was protecting Moshe from G-d’s glory. It this is true, then at this point G-d had already made the cleft in the cliff and/ or placed Moshe there, and this action might be the reference to the phrase “he stood with him.”
The third and last part of 34:5 records that "he called out in G-d's name." It is not clear who is calling out. If Moshe was doing the calling, then this could also imply that the standing in the second part of 34:5 is referring to Moshe. However, if the calling out was by G-d, then this implies that the standing in 34:5 is referring to either the cloud of G-d or G-d’s “palm” being stationary. 33:19, which records that G-d would call out His name when G-d’s goodness would pass by Moshe, might imply that the end of 34:5 means that G-d called out His name, as both 33:19 and 34:5 have the phrase “called in the name of G-d,” but it could be that 33:19 was just referring to G-d calling out His name in 34:6.
(In any event, why would G-d call out to Him own name? A possible answer is that this would be similar to the beginning of the Decalogue, 20:1, which records a self-identifying introduction, as here also G-d stated a self-identifying introduction before G-d would reveal His ways to Moshe in the following two verses.)
34:6,7 then record that G-d passed by Moshe and that G-d stated His ways, what are commonly referred to as the 13 attributes of G-d. These verses are the fulfillment of the 33:19.
What does it mean in 34:6 that G-d passed by Moshe?
The situation prior to 34:6 was that either the glory of G-d was within the cloud of G-d or that Moshe was enwrapped in G-d’s “palm,” and with both possibilities the glory of G-d was facing Moshe, who was on the mountain. If one believes that by the end in 34:5, the cloud of G-d was still covering G-d’s glory, then it could be that prior to 34:6, the cloud of G-d moved away, presumably upwards, without the glory of G-d moving, and then Moshe would have been facing the glory of G-d, which would have meant instant death. However, at that same instant, G-d protected him with a shield, as 33:22 recorded. This stopped Moshe from dying, and also from seeing G-d’s glory, the “face of G-d.” Or, it could have been that the cloud of G-d did not move, and instead the glory of G-d “moved out” of the cloud, which again this would have necessitated G-d shielding Moshe from the glory of G-d. Or, if already by the end of 34:5, Moshe was enwrapped in G-d’s “palm,” then no new action by G-d was needed prior to 34:6.
During the time when G-d (or Moshe) called out His name (the end of 34:5) and G-d told Moshe His ways, the middle of 34:6 and 34:7, the glory of G-d began to move away from Moshe, the beginning of 34:6, presumably upwards. This is my understanding of the meaning of the phrase that G-d passed before Moshe, that G-d's glory was initially facing Moshe (34:5) and then it moved upwards (34:6). Note, if 34:5 refers to G-d calling out His name to Moshe, then this double calling out, in 34:5 and in 34:6, form a type of bookend to the beginning of 34:6, that G-d passed by Moshe, to indicate that G-d's calling out His name in 34:5 and His attributes (34:6,7) and the passing of G-d's glory occurred exactly at the same time.
At some point, when G-d's glory had moved sufficiently away from Moshe that it would not kill Moshe, G-d removed the shield surrounding Moshe, 32:23. At this point, Moshe was able to see G-d's glory moving away. This was the residue of G-d's glory or G-d's "back," as recorded in 33:23. Once G-d finished reciting His ways, then Moshe, who was no longer being shielded, called out to G-d as recorded in 34:8,9.
It is not clear how long it took for G-d's glory to pass by Moshe. Did the glory of G-d move fast, like a swoosh, or did the glory of G-d move slowly? However, long this process took, a minute, a second, a split second, this was the closest humankind ever came to G-d.
Bibliography:
Cassuto, Umberto (1883-1951), 1967, A commentary on the book of Exodus, Jerusalem: The Magnes Press.
Even-Shoshan, Avraham, 1981, A new dictionary (Hebrew), Jerusalem: Kiryat Sefer Publishing House.
Bibliography:
Cassuto, Umberto (1883-1951), 1967, A commentary on the book of Exodus, Jerusalem: The Magnes Press.
Even-Shoshan, Avraham, 1981, A new dictionary (Hebrew), Jerusalem: Kiryat Sefer Publishing House.
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