INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA

PARASHAT KI TISA

When Moshe Moved the Tent

By Rabbi Yaakov Beasley

If we attempt to identify the major turning points in Jewish history, our parasha would certainly constitute one of the principal stations.  The sin of the Golden Calf not only led to the delay of the march of the Jewish People to Eretz Yisrael; it destroyed the pristine relationship that they created with Hashem at the giving of the Torah at Har Sinai.  Not once, but three times Moshe Rabbeinu stood in prayer before Hashem in an attempt to placate Him and achieve a greater level of forgiveness for his people.

This week, we will examine the verses in chapter 33 between the second and third prayers, which describe how Moshe left the camp and the construction of the Tent of Meeting discussed in Parashat Tetzaveh.  Perhaps this section is a parenthetical statement that interrupts the flow of the narrative, which is generally centered on Moshe’s attempts to achieve atonement for his people.  Alternatively, these verses serve an additional purpose, containing another stage in Bnei Yisrael’s repentance.

Let us begin by reading the section in question:

7 Now Moshe used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, afar off from the camp; and he called it the Tent of Meeting. And it came to pass that every one that sought Hashem went out unto the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp.

8 And it came to pass when Moshe went out unto the Tent that all the people rose up and stood, every man at his tent door, and looked after Moshe, until he was gone into the Tent.

9 And it came to pass when Moshe entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the Tent; and [Hashem] spoke with Moshe.

10 And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door.

11 And Hashem spoke unto Moshe face to face, as a man speaks unto his friend. And he would return into the camp; but his minister Yehoshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent.

Three questions arise from these verses.  When did Moshe decide to move the Tent outside of the camp and how long did it remain there?  Second, what purpose is served in the description of the people’s staring at Moshe as he leaves?  Finally, the description of Hashem’s intimate conversations with Moshe “face to face” appears out of place.  Why is it necessary to describe how Hashem communicated with Moshe?

The question of when Moshe chose to move the Tent outside of the camp is closely linked to the larger question of when the previous event – the sin of the Golden Calf - occurred.  Here we find a dispute between Rashi and Ibn Ezra:

"And Moshe": From that sin onward. "Would take the tent": He said, "ostracized by the Master is ostracized by the pupil." (Rashi, Shemot 33:7)

"And he turned back to the camp": After [Hashem] spoke to him, Moshe    returned to the camp to teach the elders what he learned. Moshe did this only from Yom Kippur until the erection of the Mishkan, since the luchot were broken on the 17th of Tammuz (Ta'anit 28), on the 18th he burnt the [Golden] Calf and judged the sinners, and on the 19th he went up, as it is stated, "The next day Moshe said to the people…" He stayed there forty days and pleaded for the people, as it is stated (Devarim 9:18), "And I fell down before Hashem, etc." On Rosh Chodesh Elul he was told, "And come up in the morning to Har Sinai" (Shemot 34:2) to receive the second luchot and stayed there forty days, as it is stated (Devarim 10:10), "And I stayed on the Har, like the first time etc.;" just as the first were in good grace, so also were the later ones in good grace. That means that the intermediate ones were in anger. On the 10th of Tishrei, Hashem forgave Israel joyfully and with all His heart, and said to Moshe, "I have pardoned according to your word," and He gave him the second luchot and he descended and [Hashem] began to give him instructions regarding the building of the Mishkan, which was concluded by the first day in Nisan. After it was erected, Hashem spoke to him always from the Tent of Meeting [Mishkan]. (Rashi, Shemot 33)

"The tent": His tent, as in, "And they came into the tent" (Shemot 18:7). Moshe separated himself from Israel out of deference for Hashem, Who would speak to him. This took place after he brought the second luchot from the Har when Israel began to make the Mishkan, and he called his tent the "Tent of Meeting" because Hashem spoke to him there until the Mishkan was ready, and the Torah is not written in chronological order. (Ibn Ezra, Shemot 33:7)

According to Rashi, Moshe remained outside the camp from the 17^th of Tammuz until the construction of the Mishkan on Rosh Chodesh Nisan (a period of almost ten months). According to the Ibn Ezra, however, he remained outside the camp only from Yom Kippur, when Moshe descended with the second set of luchot, even though the text records that they were brought down from Sinai later. 

Why did Moshe move the tent outside the camp?  According to the commentator Ibn Kaspi, Moshe had positive motives:

"And Moshe would take the tent": Because of their sin of the Golden Calf, and in order to follow Hashem's example, Who said, "For I will not go up in the midst of you" (33:3), he also moved his tent and pitched it far from their camp. He did all this in order to make them repent and find their way back to Hashem. (Ibn Kaspi v.7)

Ibn Kaspi views Moshe’s motivations as pedagogic; by symbolically moving his tent outside the camp, he physically demonstrated to the people how their actions led to the departure of the Divine Presence from their camp.  Hopefully, this exhibition would inspire the people to repent.   

However, not all commentators understood Moshe as acting out of positive motivations.  According to Professor Umberto Cassuto, Moshe acted only out of a sense that the people were no longer worthy and the inherent necessity to move away from them:

"Tent of Meeting" (33:7-11): … Since Moshe saw that Hashem did not permit the building of the Mishkan in accordance with His original plan because the children of Israel were not worthy of it, he thought to prepare something that could temporarily substitute the Mishkan until Hashem's anger abated. He could not meet with the Divine Presence within the Israelite camp after it had been defiled by the sin of idolatry, and Hashem did not want to rest His Presence on it. Hence, Moshe took his tent and pitched it outside the camp in order that it might serve as a place of meeting with Hashem. (Cassuto, parag.7)

In Cassuto’s view, Moshe’s action was punitive in nature, not pedagogic. What makes his interpretation interesting is his understanding that Moshe was searching for a substitute for the yet unbuilt Mishkan. 

This touches upon a larger question: whether the command to build the Mishkan was a reaction to the Golden Calf or was an ideal independent of the people’s error.  Let us look at two commentators who hold the first view, Rashi and Abarbanel:

"And He gave to Moshe": There is no chronological order in the Torah. The Golden Calf episode preceded by many days the instructions concerning the Mishkan, since on the 17^th of Tammuz the luchot were broken, on Yom Kippur Hashem forgave Israel, and on the next day they began to contribute towards the Mishkan and it was erected on the first of Nisan. (Rashi, Shemot 31:18)

"For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices": The meaning of this verse seem to me to be that when Israel left Egypt and came to Har Sinai and heard the Torah and the Commandments, Hashem did not did not command them anything concerning sacrifices, but did command them about faith and worthy deeds that they should perform. However, when they made the Golden Calf and Hashem saw their stubborn and evil heart and that they sin every day, it was necessary to provide balsam and medicine for their illness and evil. The commandments regarding the sacrifices came, therefore, from the burnt offerings that bring atonement for innermost [sinful] thoughts and sin- and guilt-offerings to all other kinds of offerings, which they would not have been commanded if they had not sinned. That is meant by, "For I did not speak… on the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt," which alludes to the event on Har Sinai to receive the Commandments, as stated in Parashat Yitro and Mishpatim, in which there is no instruction "concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices," but he did command them: listen to My voice so that I will be your God and you be My people and you will walk in all the way I shall command you. (Abrabanel, Yirmiyahu 7:22)

According to Rashi and Abrabanel, the idea to construct of the Mishkan was the direct consequence of the sin of the Golden Calf. Cassuto, on the other hand, believed that the idea was independent of the people’s failing. For Cassuto, the idea of the Mishkan symbolizes the dwelling of the Divine Presence among Israel, and Moshe was therefore desperate to create a substitute. According to the approach of Rashi and the Abrabanel, the sin of the Golden Calf proved that humans need something tangible in order to express themselves in their worship, but according to Cassuto, the idea of the Mishkan preceded the sin and was intended to symbolize the dwelling of the Divine Presence among Israel.

Understanding Moshe’s motivations enables us to appreciate why the people’s reaction becomes important to the story.  The midrash provides two possibilities as to the people’s thoughts: 

"And looked after Moshe" What did they say [when he walked by]? R. Yohanan says: Happy is the one who gave birth to him. And what does she see in him? All his life the Holy One, blessed be He, speaks to him, all his life he is perfect before Hashem. This is the meaning of "and they looked after Moshe." R. Hama says: They said, Look at Amram's son's neck [a reference to excessive weight – a sign of riches], and his friend said to him: Do you not expect a man who supervised the construction of the Mishkan to be rich?! When Moshe heard this, he said to them: I swear that I shall render accounts when the Mishkan is finished. He said to them: Come and let us make the accounts – "These are the accounts of the Mishkan" (38:21). (Midrash Rabba, Shemot 51:6)

According to the midrash, Moshe’s walking to and fro brought out the best and worst in the people.  Some stood in admiration; others cynically suggested that he was less then honest in his financial management of the people’s donations. 

The negative reading of the people’s reaction disappears from the commentators that came after the midrash:

"All the people rose up": Rose before him and did not sit down before he was out of sight. "And looked after Moshe:" praising him. Happy is the one born of a woman who was assured that the Divine Presence would enter the door of the tent after him. (Rashi, Shemot 33:8)

"When Moshe went out": We are told that in their yearning for God's grace to have some holy thing towards which to direct their worship (which yearning led them to commit the error of the Golden Calf, since they thought they needed an intermediary between God and themselves), Moshe was their respected saintly man who was close to God, so much so that when he went out to his tent, all the people stood reverently at the entrance of their tents in order to receive the spirit of holiness and purity in the same way as one stands in front of a prophet in order that the spirit of holiness may rest on him, and even after he had passed they did not return to their tents but looked after Moshe … The expression hibitu (looked) denotes contemplation, since they contemplated Moshe's ways and qualities to learn to be like him, as our Sages have said that people said, "Happy is the one gave birth to him…" (Malbim, Shemot 33:8)

"Tent of Meeting” (33:7-11): … Verses 8-10 describe the behavior of the children of Israel, that they respected Moshe very highly and that they related to God's revelation with admiration and humbleness. It was a sign that they were imbued with a spirit of repentance and total faith in their God and His servant Moshe. This description is in the right place, to let us know that it was because of their disposition towards repentance they merited total forgiveness, as related later. (Cassuto, parag. 7)

It is contextually difficult to state that the people were watching Moshe with a covetous, resentful eye.  Verse 4 already stated that “… when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned; and no man did put on him his ornaments.”  Clearly, the mood of the people was to look for inspiration and guidance as to how to repent.  What precisely the people received from their viewing is disputed. According to the Malbim, the people looked after Moshe in order to contemplate his ways and conduct in order to learn from them; they wished to receive the prophet's inspiration. According to Cassuto, however, the looking after denotes reverence and honor for the prophet.  Either way, the people’s looking was an important stage in their repentance for the sin of the Golden Calf.

With this in mind, we can answer our final question. Why was it necessary to describe how Hashem communicated with Moshe “face to face”?  According to the midrash, this type of communication signified the final stage in their repentance:

Moshe took the tent during the intermediate forty days and went outside the camp, as it is stated, "And Moshe would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp" (Shemot 33:7). Israel mourned all those days, until the King, King of kings, may His great Name be blessed to all eternity, revealed Himself and opened for them the gate of mercy. And the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moshe: "Moshe, what are those wretched people doing? Ostracized by the Master and ostracized by the disciple, ostracized by Me and ostracized by you; return and enter the camp!" And so it is stated, "And Hashem spoke to Moshe face to face" (v.11). I do not know what this verse says! When it is stated, "And he would return to the camp," we learn that He absolved him from his vow and [Moshe] took the tent into the camp. (Tanna de-Bei Eliyahu, part 2, ch.4 [Seder Eliyahu Zuta, VII Jahresbericht 1900, M.Friedmann ed., p.180])

According to the midrash, the purpose of the Divine communication was to inform Moshe that the time had come for his to return to the camp; he should not dwell away from his people.  A creative reading that accentuates this interpretation comes from R. Yehuda Tzvi Mecklenberg in his commentary, the Ketav Ve-Ha-Kabbala:

Verse 10:"And bowed low": Broken-spirited by the loss of that great gift and having repented of the evil they had perpetrated, they humbled their hearts when they saw the revelation of the Divine Presence in the cloud at the entrance to the tent and bowed down from great shame. So also the Tanna De-Bei Eliyahu – "they bowed down" teaches that they repented. Verse 11: "And Hashem spoke to Moshe": When He Who can read man's thoughts, his contrite spirit and subdued heart directed to Him, He in His great compassion took mercy on them and told Moshe not to treat them as ostracized and reprimanded and not to turn his back on them in anger by distancing his tent and not looking at them, but, on the contrary, he should be friendly towards them like one who receives his friend cordially and to talk to them with a happy expression as one speaks to one's dear friend, as our Sages say (Berakhot 63b): "The Master is angry and the disciple is angry. What will happen to Israel?! Be friendly to Israel and return the tent to its place." So also Tanna De-bei Eliyahu (part 2, ch. 3). "Ostracized by Me, ostracized by you; go back and take your tent into the camp." Those versed in the science of speech know the difference between the languages of reason and emotion and will imagine an exclamation mark after "face to face as..." to draw attention. They will understand that this is a full independent sentence (since it would have been appropriate to state "reveals Himself face to face") and no other word is necessary to complete it, since when saying something of extreme importance one is wont to omit words that are self-understood.

According to the Ketav Ve-Ha-Kabbala, the words "face to face" do not describe how Hashem spoke to Moshe; they were the message itself:  Moshe, let yourself be seen by the people face to face!! R. Mecklenberg suggests that in his excitement, a speaker may be brief and sometimes omit the verb, as Hashem spoke to Moshe here. Hence, "and no other word is necessary to complete it" – it is unnecessary to add the verb in order to understand the sentence.  The time had come for Moshe the leader to return to his flock.