Shabbos Parashas Ki Tisa - 5781

Shabbos Parashas Ki Tisa - 5781

Rabbi Hal Miller

He said, My Face will go and I will provide you rest. He said to Him, if Your Face

does not go along, do not bring us forward from here. [Shemos 33:14-15]

If God promised Moshe in verse 14 that He would go along, why did Moshe then

demand in verse 15 that God goes along? What exactly does it mean that God's

Face will go along with the people?

Onkelos, who always tries to remove anthropomorphisms--words that make God

appear to be human--here changes Face to Shechina, meaning Presence. He

also notes an interesting, albeit problematic point, that "will go" is in the plural, so

he changes it to singular as the Torah has it in the second of our verses. Is God

somehow separable from His Presence? By definition, God cannot be separated

from anything as that would mean He has borders. Why does the Torah use the

plural? Rashi explains that God will no longer send angels but will go along

Himself. If we modify Rashi a bit to say that God intends to go with His angels, then

the plural makes sense, as does Moshe's reply demanding that God go Himself,

leaving the angels. This would be a possible answer to our question: Moshe is

not just asking God to do what He promised, Moshe is asking for a modification,

that He not bring the angels.

Rav Hirsch has a different view. He also understands the "will go" in the singular,

but applies it to God going with Moshe rather than the nation. With the phrase, "I

will provide you rest", God is saying, I took away My Presence from the nation,

but I plan to restore it so that you will not need to continually carry the burden of

the nation on your back. Moshe's reply is that God should restore His leadership

now, without any delay, a cross between a request and chastising God. No wonder

God was not pleased with Moshe from this!

Sforno and others see Moshe's reply here as demanding that God "dwell among"

the people. This is not much different than the opinions above unless we take it

to refer to "in" each individual. Then the lesson here is that Moshe wishes God to

take an active personal interest in each member of the nation, which would be a

complete reversal of what happened after the Calf incident where God withdrew. Moshe was not repeating what God said immediately before, he was asking for

something more.