A word of Torah:
The Israelites, even after experiencing God at Mt. Sinai, seem uncertain about God only forty days later. They ask for something tangible that they could proclaim as their God. The Golden Calf is the response. It is a disaster. In the aftermath of the Golden Calf incident, the relationship between God and the Jewish people seems shattered. God tells Moses and the people that they should go on with the journey to the promised land but God won’t accompany them. The people are in despair. Moses pleads for God to accompany them on their journey in the desert. God agrees and Moses responds “Oh, let me behold Your Presence--kavod!” (Ex. 33:18).
After all that has happened, it seems odd that Moses asks to be reassured by seeing God! Wasn’t it the mistake of that episode to seek reassurance of God’s existence by making a way to “see” God? Aaron and the people made the Golden Calf, a finite physical representation of an infinite and changing God. Apparently, we all want reassurance. Like the Israelites, we want to feel that God is with us on our journey.
In response to this request, God explains to Moses that a human being cannot see God and live. Therefore, God says, “I will place you, Moses, in the cleft of a rock and shield you with My hand until I pass by and then when I remove My hand and you will see My back but not My face” (Ex. 33:22-23).
What did Moses actually see? God says “I will pass tuvi— ‘My goodness’ before you…and the grace and compassion that I show.” (Ex. 33:19) Moses doesn’t see a being but rather how God acts in the world with grace and compassion. The essence of God is described by the word tov---goodness. At the end of each day of creation, God says “it is good”. It is a moral universe; God is about goodness. Much of the universe is amoral. A plant doesn’t choose to act in good or bad ways. Humans do. It is our responsibility to bring more goodness into the world. In the language of the mystics, it is up to humans to redeem the sparks of holiness that are scattered throughout the world. We are the force that makes for redemption. Moses can’t see God literally, but can experience God’s compassion toward the world and thereby “see” God.
Some commentators suggest that Moses doesn’t see God’s “back” but God’s ahorei—the aftermath of God’s passing by. Or more radically, Moses sees the world through God’s “back,” meaning Moses sees the world from God’s perspective. It is as though Moses sees the world through God’s eyes. In that moment, Moses sees the world in its vastness and its suffering, in its struggles and its strivings, and in its love. It is that vision of God’s goodness that gives Moses the strength to continue on the journey ahead. Perhaps that moment of vision is the “God” that will accompany Moses and the Israelites on the long journey ahead.
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