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February 21, 2003/Adar1 19 5763, Vol. 55, No. 26
God's face key to intimacy
Torah study
RABBI NEIL GILLMAN
Ki Tissa/Exodus 31:11-34:35
Why was Moses not permitted to see God's face? Why could he see God's back, but not God's face?
The broader context of the issue in this week's Torah portion is the story of the golden calf. The people demand that Aaron make them a god that they can see, which he does, and which Moses proceeds to destroy.
But in the aftermath, when Moses demands to see God's "presence," God replies, "you may not see My face, for man may not see Me and live." (Exodus 33:20) God then tells Moses that God's "presence" will pass by him, but God's hand will shield Moses' eyes. God's face cannot be seen, even by Moses.
What I never noticed until this week is a strange echo of this episode at the end of the Torah portion. There we are told that Moses veiled his face when he spoke God's words to Israel, but when Moses spoke to God, he removed the veil. Strange. I would have expected the reverse: Moses should veil his face when speaking to God, but uncover his face when he spoke to the people.
Two other biblical references to God's face are significant. First, in the priestly blessings (Numbers 6:22-27), we pray that God's face shine upon us and be gracious to us. There we want to behold God's face. Second, note the multiple biblical references to hastarat panim, "the hiding of God's face," typically as a sign of God's anger at Israel.
Since we know that God does not literally have a face, and that attributing a face to God is part of our very human need to lend a measure of concreteness to our experience of God - the very impulse that led to the building of a golden calf - the only way to understand these multiple references to God's face is to extrapolate from our own interpersonal experiences.
The face is the person. To see someone's face is to begin to know that person's identity, who that person is distinctively. Seeing someone's face is the beginning of a relationship. That's why, in the priestly benediction, we pray that God's face shine upon us, and, note well, "be gracious to us."
We yearn for intimacy with God. And we dread God's hidden face, because that indicates a turning away. To turn away from a person, to "see through" another person, is to ignore that person. It's a way of saying, "you don't exist for me."
What Moses seems to yearn for above all is an intimate relationship with God. That's why, when Moses was speaking to God, he did not veil his own face. He wanted to be exposed, open to God, and he also wanted God to be open, exposed, accessible to him. If so, God's refusal to be seen by Moses may be God's way of saying, "we are not equals, you and me."
Moses may see God's back, possibly a reference to God's limited accessibility to human beings, but not God's face. That may also explain Moses' veiling his own face when speaking to Israel. The people and Moses are not equals.
But we also know that on this issue, God's behavior is not always consistent. For in Exodus 24:10-11, we are told that Moses and others did see God, and did not die. And after Moses' death, we are told that Moses was unique among the prophets, for God singled him out, "face to face." (Deuteronomy 34:10)
This inconsistency may indicate different biblical traditions, or it may reflect an inherent tension in God's interaction with human beings. God is both totally transcendent, and at the same time, very near to us, very accessible to our human yearnings for intimacy.
God lives with that tension, and so must we.
Rabbi Neil Gillman is professor of Jewish philosophy at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
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