Shemot (Exodus) 33:18-34:9 - Moshe in the cleft in the mountain: As close as it gets

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׃

The first half of 34:6 records that G-d passed before him (Moshe) and this records the closest encounter humankind ever had with G-d, seemingly even more than when Moshe went up to Mount Sinai for forty days. This phrase has become a very prominent part of the Selihot prayers. Yet, it is unclear what actually happened. What does it mean that G-d passed by Moshe? To try to understand this phrase, we need to understand the background to this moment, which is the conversation between G-d and Moshe starting from 33:18.

 
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.

The custom of reciting Selihot and fasting

There is a custom amongst Ashkenazim to recite selihot, prayers to ask G-d for forgiveness, at least four days prior to Rosh Hashanah and continuing through most of the ten days of repentance, excluding Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat.  Sefaridm begin reciting selihot even earlier, from Rosh Chodesh Elul.  What is the source of this custom?   

Goldschmidt (1965, pp. 6,10) writes that the custom of saying selihot began due a custom of Jews who lived in Israel approximately 1,500 years ago to fast all ten days (not at night) from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, including Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat, see also Gartner, 1972 and 1974. The idea is that these days were days of repentance, and repentance required fasting. The Geonim who lived in Bavel did not like this custom since they argued that it was wrong to fast on Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat. Gartner quotes (1972, p. 127) Pirkei ben baavu (?) from Bavel who wrote that one is not obligated to fast during the days since there is no source in the Torah or the Talmud for this fast, as the period is called ten days of repentance but not ten days of fasting. (Rav Zevin, 1956, p. 56, quotes this idea in the name of Rav Hai Gaon.) Gartner (1972, p. 132) also quotes that Rav Natronai Gaon (Bavel, 9th century) compromised between the two viewpoints, he ate on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, and then fasted the next nine days.

It seems that in the time of Geonim, some people fasted all ten days, some fasted for part of the ten days of repentance, while others did not fast at all during the ten days of repentance, (excluding Yom Kippur and Tzom Gedaliah). The custom of saying selihot developed amongst those people who fasted. What is the connection between fasting and saying selihot?

The Mishnah (Ta’anit 2:1-4) records that six extra blessings were added to the Shemoneh Esrei when there was a public fast for rain. Prior to the conclusion of each blessing, there was a statement that just as G-d had answered the prayers of people in the past (Avraham, by the crossing of Yam Suf, Yehoshua, Shmuel, Eliyahu and Yonah) so too G-d should answer the prayers for rain. These six statements would later develop into the section of anenu towards the end of the selihot, and they show that special prayers are added to all fast days. Accordingly, once there developed the custom of fasting on the days of repentance, then extra prayers were also added, and these extra prayers are the selihot.

Gartner (1974) argues that the connection between the selihot and fasting can also explain the third stage in the development of the custom of saying selihot, that of saying selihot prior to Rosh Hashanah. The customs of the land of Israel influenced Medieval Ashkenazi Jewry, which meant that they should have fasted all the ten days, of repentance,  but they were also aware of the opposition from the Geonim of fasting on Rosh Hashanah and Shabbat. In addition, the Talmud (Berakhot 8b) quotes a drasha that eating on erev Yom Kippur is equivalent to fasting, and thus one would also not fast on the erev Yom Kippur. (Gartner, 1974, p. 76, writes that this drasha was not accepted in Israel.) Accordingly, the ten day fast during the ten days of repentance was shortened to six days, as Rosh Hashanah, Shabbat and erev Yom Kippur were excluded, and then to make up the missing four days, one would fast four days prior to Rosh Hashanah, see Rama Orah Chayyim 581:2.  Of these fasts days, the most important was to fast on erev Rosh Hashanah, which was viewed as replacing the fast on Rosh Hashanah (see Tur and Shulchan Arukh Orah Chayyim 581). With the extension of the fasting to four days prior to Rosh Hashanah, then selihot also began to be recited on these fast days prior to Rosh Hashanah.

This idea only explains the saying of selihot four days prior to Rosh Hashanah, how did the custom develop both by the Ashkenazim and the Sefardim to add more days of selihot? With regard to the Ashkenazim, the Levush, (R. Mordechai Jaffe, 1535-1612, quoted by Gartner) explains that really the there was a need only to add four days of selihot, and then when Rosh Hashanah is on Thursday, one starts saying selihot on Sunday, but as not to confuse people, when Rosh Hashanah falls on other days we still always start selihot on Sunday even if this means saying selihot on days when there is no custom to fast. (The Mishnah Berurah, 581:15, turn of the 20th century, writes that the popular custom in his time is to fast on the first day of the saying of selihot.) This development of always starting selihot on Sunday breaks the connection between fasting and selihot, and to the best of my knowledge the custom of fasting for the ten days of repentance has been lost while the custom of saying selihot remains.  Also, I think this is the only custom in Judaism which is based on the first day of the week, i.e., Sunday. 

The custom of the Sefardim to recite selihot from the beginning of month of Elul appears to be based on a Persian custom. Rav Hai Geon (939-1038, quoted in Gartner, 1974, p. 75) refers to a Persian custom to say special prayers from the beginning of the month of Elul since this is when Moshe went up to get the second luhot. This would seem to indicate a separate source for selihot, but Agnon (1976, p. 19) and Goldschmidt (1965 p. 6) quote that there was also a custom to fast from the beginning of Elul until Yom Kippur, though it is unclear to me when this custom of fasting began.

The connection between selihot and fasting can explain an anomaly in the selihot. By far the longest selihot are on erev Rosh Hashanah, while the shortest selihot are on erev Yom Kippur. Why should the selihot on these days be so different than all the other days, and if there was to be a difference, one would have thought that the selihot on erev Yom Kippur would be longer than the selihot on erev Rosh Hashanah? Possibly the answer is that, as stated above, erev Rosh Hashanah became the most important fast day of the period leading up to Yom Kippur, and hence more selihot were added to the day. On the other hand, on erev Yom Kippur due the drasha mentioned above that eating is like fasting, it was considered a commandment to eat on erev Yom Kippur (Shulchan Arukh, Orah Chayyim, 604:1), which clearly counters the idea of fasting and hence the selihot are shortened.

Bibliography

Agnon, Shmuel Yosef (1888-1970), 1965, Days of Awe, New York: Schocken Books.

Gartner, Yaakov, 1972, Fasting on Rosh Hashanah: The origin of this custom and its development, (Hebrew) Hadarom, pp. 125-162.

-----, 1974, Fasting and selihot before Rosh Hashanah, Hadarom, pp. 69-77.

Goldschmidt, Daniel (1895-1972), 1965, The order of Selihot, Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.

Zevin, Shlomo Yosef (1890-1978), 1944, first edition, 1956, seventh edition, Ha-Mo'adim ba- Halakhah, Jerusalem.

Four stages in the history of selihot

Daniel Goldschmidt (1965, pp.5,6) outlines four different stages in the development of the custom of saying selihot. The first stage was that there existed a custom called maamad to say certain prayers before sunrise during the ten days of repentance. The main prayer in the maamad was the 13 middot “characteristics” of G-d (Shemot 34:6,7), which was based on the passage in Rosh Hashanah 17B that records that Rav Yochanon explained that the words vaya’avor hashem al paniv (Shemot 34:6) mean that G-d wrapped Himself like a chazzan and demonstrated the prayer service of saying the 13 “characteristics” of G-d to Moshe. Rav Yochanon also said that G-d told Moshe that when the people would sin in the future, they should say this prayer, and G-d would forgive them, and the Talmud quotes R. Yehuda that G-d even made a covenant that the prayer would be efficacious. Accordingly, there developed the concept of reciting the 13 “characteristics” of G-d in order to gain forgiveness, and initially, the term selihot just referred to the 13 “characteristics” of G-d, though relatively quickly the word selihot began to refer to the complete set of prayers. The maamad service is quoted in the Siddur of Rav Amram Gaon (9th century), and the service involved saying, ashrei, other verses from Tanakh, the 13 “characteristics,” vedui, anenu and tachnun.

The second stage, which started in the 9th century (possibly almost contemporaneous with the first stage), was that piyyutim were added in the middle of the Biblical verses, and these piyyutim even replaced some of the verses. In this stage, each chazzan would choose which piyyutim to recite.

In the third stage, selihot were also said prior to Rosh Hashanah. Machor Vitry (11th century, quoted by Jacobson, 1989, p.30) refers to saying selihot from the Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah. However, this might have been just been the custom amongst Ashkenazim, as the Rambam writes ((1135-1204, Laws of repentance, 3:4) that everybody’s custom was to say the penitential prayers during the ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and he does not mention reciting selihot before Rosh Hashanah. For sure by the time of the Rosh (1250-1327, comments end of Rosh Hashanah) the custom of reciting selihot prior to Rosh Hashanah was accepted by the Sefardim since he refers to the custom of saying selihot starting from Rosh Chodesh Elul, which is the Sefardi custom. (Goldschmidt mentions a custom in Spain of starting on the 25th of Elul and Jacobson, 1989, vol. 3, p. 29 quotes R. David Abudraham, 14th century, that there also existed a custom of starting on the 15th of Elul.)

The Rosh’s son, the Tur (1275-1340, Orah Chayyim 581) quotes his father and then adds that the custom of Ashkenazim is that if Rosh Hashanah is on Thursday or Shabbat, then one starts saying selihot in the beginning of the week (Saturday night/ Sunday), while if Rosh Hashanah is on Monday or Tuesday, then one starts saying selihot the beginning of the previous week. The Tur also presents this prayer service as a three part structure. He combines the verses from Tanakh, the 13 “characteristics,” vedui, anenu into one category of penitential prayers, and as noted by the Levush (R. Mordechai Jaffe, 1535-1612, quoted by Jacobson, 1989, Vol. 5, p.30, also see Rav Soloveitchik, 1994, p.108) this structure follows the basic structure of tefillah. The opening prayer is ashrei, songs of praise, then shemoneh esrei, which are replaced here by the 13 middot, and tachanun concludes the prayer service. (Note in the time of the Geonim, Alenu was not part of the weekday prayer, as it was included in the 14th century to the weekday prayers, see Elbogen, Dvir, 1988, p.63.)

The fourth stage began in the 15th century that amongst the Ashkenazim there began to be set piyyutim for each day. This led to distinct customs amongst different groups as different communities chose different piyyutim.