Ten Minutes of Torah

with

Rabbi Chaim Weiner

Ki Tisa- 5766

שמות פרק לד

וַיְכַל מֹשֶׁה מִדַּבֵּר אִתָּם וַיִּתֵּן עַל פָּנָיו מַסְוֶה:

Exodus 34:33

34:33 And when Moses finished speaking to them he put a veil over his face.

Abravenel asks: If the Holy One wanted Moses' face to be radiant, then why did he place a veil over his face? Was this not contradictory to the will of God?

Ralbag

After this it is reported that Moses stood on the mountain an additional forty days and forty nights without food or drink, and there is no doubt that this was a great wonder, like all of the other wondrous deeds that occurred in the desert. In an equally wondrous manner - and as a result of his great solitude - it occurred that his face was radiant, meaning, that his mind continued to radiate also when he returned to the people at the foot of the mountain , to such an extent that people came up to him and he didn't even notice. When Israel saw that this was the case, they were afraid to approach him until Moses called out to them and told them to approach. After this they approached him, and he told them all that he had to say, but only after he had covered his face with a veil. This meaning: he made a concerted effort to abandon his solitude so that he would be able to speak to Israel.

Abravanel

What is meant by Moses being unaware of the glow emitted by him is that he felt that it was not right for him to use this glow in ordinary everyday matters such as eating and drinking and sleeping and when talking to his wife and household on matters not connected with the Torah and the commandments. But when he was engaged in imparting the message of the Torah to Israel he did not veil his face so that they would feel the full spiritual impact of his personality.

Haemek Davar

The reason for the veil that Moses put over his face, was to keep people from staring at him so that he could concentrate on Godly thoughts and not be confused by the people.

QUESTIONS

1. How do each of the commentators answer the question? Pay attention to the difference between the opinion of Abarvenel and Haemek Davar.

2. How does Ralbag interpret the radiance of Moses' face?

3. In what is Ralbag's commentary not the simple meaning of the verses.

1. What grammatical difficulty in the verse are the commentaries trying to explain?

It is not clear whether the clause ‘and did not fear God’ relates to the beginning of the verse or the middle of the verse. This would depend on the punctuation of the verse – which is lacking in the Torah.

The two ways of punctuating the verse are:

1. and struck at your rear: all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary and did not fear God.

2. and struck at your rear - all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary - and did not fear God.

The Sifri and the Michilta understand the clause as relating to the middle of the verse (option 1 above) – i.e. it was Israel who did not fear God.

2. Why didn't Rashi adopt the approach of the Mechilta?

The explanation of the Michilta follows the normal rules of grammar. A clause usually relates to the subject which immediately precedes it.

Rashi does not accept this explanation because it goes against the broader context of the verse. The whole paragraph condemns Amalek. It does not make sense that the Torah would add at this point grounds to justify Amalek’s actions. By adopting the less usual grammatical structure (option 2 above), Rashi’s explanation is a better fit with the wider context.

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Ten Minutes of Torah was prepared by Rabbi Chaim Weiner, based on the methods of Prof. Nechama Leibowitz. Rabbi Weiner studied and corresponded with Prof. Leibowitz for several years.

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