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1. Exodus 33:7: "And Moses would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far from the encampment.

   Rashi Ex.33:7: "And Moses": From that sin onward. "Would take the tent": He said, "ostracised by the Master is ostracised by the pupil."
   Rashi Ex.33: "And he turned back to the camp": After (G-d) speaking to him, Moses returned to the camp to teach the elders what he learned. Moses did this only from Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) until the erection of the Tabernacle since on 17th of Tamuz the Tablets were broken (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 Moses said to the people…", he stayed there forty days and pleaded for the people, as it is stated (Deut.9:18), "And I fell down before the Lord etc." and on the New Moon of the month of Elul he was told: "And come up in the morning to Mount Sinai" (Ex.34:2) to receive the second Tablets, and stayed there forty days, as it is stated (Deut.10:10), "And I stayed on the mountain , 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 10th Tishre G-d forgave Israel joyfully and with all His heart, and said to Moses: "I have pardoned according to your word" and gave him the second Tablets and he descended and (G-d) began to give him instructions regarding the building of the Tabernacle which was concluded by the first day in Nisan. After it was erected G-d spoke to him always from the Tent of Meeting (Tabernacle/Sanctuary).
   

   Ibn Ezra Ex.33:7: "The tent" – his tent, as in, "And they came into the tent" (Ex.18:7). Moses separated himself from Israel out of deference for G-d Who would speak to him. This took place after he brought the second Tablets from the mountain when Israel began to make the Tabernacle, and he called his tent the "Tent of Meeting" because G-d spoke to him there until the Tabernacle was ready, and the Torah is not written in chronological order.
   

   Ibn Kaspi v.7: "And Moses would take the tent": Because of their sin of the golden calf and in order to follow G-d's example Who said, "For I will not go up in te 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 the Lord.
   

   Cassuto Parag.7: "Tent of Meeting" – 33:7-11: … Since Moses saw that G-d did not permit the building of the Tabernacle 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 Tabernacle until the Lord's anger has abated. He could not meet with the Divine Presence within the Israel camp after it had been defiled by the sin of idolatry, and G-d did not want to rest His Presence on it. Hence Moses took his tent and pitched it it outside the camp in order that it might serve as a place of meeting with the Lord. This is the gist of this paragraph.

   R'em (R.Eliyahu Mizrahi) comments on Rashi's above words: Rashi's statement that Moses did this only from Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) until the erection of the Tabernacle refers only to the study since before Yom Kippur he could neither learn nor teach because he was occupied with the affair of the golden calf… but who says that he pitched his tent outside the camp only after Yom Kippur!!!

   1.Can you prove from Rashi's own words that R'em is right?

   2.How many views are expressed by the above four regarding the period of this "Tent of Meeting" and Moses's going out to outside the camp?

   3.What is the difference between R.Yosef Ibn Kaspi's and Cassuto's explanation of Moses's wish to leave the camp?

   4.Compare Cassuto's words with Rashi's and Abrabanel's.

   Rashi: Ex.31:18: "And He gave to Moses": There is no chronological order in the Torah, the golden calf episode preceded by many days the instructions concerning the Tabernacle, since on 17th Tamuz the Tablets were broken and on Yom Kippur G-d forgave Israel, and on the next day they began to contribute towards the Tabernacle and it was erected on the first of Nisan.
   

   Abrabanel: Jeremiah 7:22: "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 Mount Sinai and heard the Torah and the Commandments G-d 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 G-d 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 which 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 Mount Sinai, to receive the Commandments as stated in Parashat Yitro and Mishpatim, in which there is no instruction "concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices", but did command them: listen to My voice so that I be your G-d and you be My people and you walk in all the way I shall command you. The quotations are from the Teruma 5718/1958 Gilayon.

   What is the basic difference between them?

2. Ex.33:8:"When Moses went out to the tent all the people rose up and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses until he was gone into the tent": v.10: "And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the door of the tent, and all the people rose up and bowed low, every man at his tent door".
   

   Jerusalem Talmud Bikkurim 3:3: "When Moses went out to the tent all the people rose up": Two Amoraim (Talmudic Sages)(differ on the interpretation of "and looked after Moses") one in a positive and the other in a negative way. The one in a positive way: Look at this pious man who has merits and causes others to have merits; the one in a negative way: Look at his fat thighs, look at his fat legs because he eats from Jews and drinks from Jews and all that he has is from Jews.
   

   Midrash Rabba Ex.ch.51 section 6:"And looked after Moses" and what did they say? R.Yohanan says: Happy 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 the Lord, this is the meaning of "and they looked after Moses". R.Hama says, they said, Look at Amram's son's neck, and his friend says to him: Do you not expect a man who supervised the construction of the Tabernacle to be rich?! When Moses heard this, Moses said to them: I swear that I shall render accounts when the Tabernacle is finished, he said to them, come and let us make the accounts – "These are the accounts of the Tabernacle" (38:21).
   

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

   Malbim v.8: "When Moses went out": We are told that in their yearning for G-d'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 G-d and themselves), Moses was their respected saintly man who was close to G-d, 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 Moses until he … The expression hibitu (looked) denotes contemplation, since they contemplated Moses's ways and qualities, to learn to be like him, as our Sages have said that people said, "happy who gave birth to him…"
   

   Cassuto seventh paragraph: "Tent of Meeting – 33:7-11: … verses 8-10 describe the behavior of the children of Israel, that they respected Moses very highly and that they related to G-d's revelation with admiration and humbleness. It was a sign that they were imbued with a spirit of repentance and total faith in their G-d and His servant Moses. This description is in the right place, to let us know that it was because of their disposition towards repentance they merited total forgivenness, as related later.
   

   Avraham Kahana, Scientific commentary on the Bible; verse 8: How much suffering and mental dismay we find here! Those who were used to see the Divine Presence dwell among them now see it established outside the camp. Woe to the renegade people that rid themselves of their G-d!

   1.Explain why Rashi decided in favor of the positive interpretation and does not cite both opinions.

   2.What is the difference between Malbim and Cassuto in the interpretation of "looking after Moses"?

   3.Which of the commentators helps us to understand the interruption which verses 7-11 constitute here?

3. Ex.33:11: "And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend…"

   Tractate Berakhot 63b: "And the Lord spoke to Moses face to face" – R.Yitzhak said: The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: "You and I will propound view (faces) on the halakha". Some say that the Holy One, blessed be He, said thus to Moses: "Just as I have turned to you a cheerful face, so do you turn upon Israel a cheerful face and restore the tent to its place."
   "And would return to the camp" – the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: Now they will say, "the Master is angry and the disciple is angry, what will happen to Israel?! If you will restore the tent to its place, well and good, but if not, Joshua, son of Nun, your disciple, will minister in your place!" Therefore it is stated: "He would return to the camp".
   

   Tanna debe Eliyahu Part 2. Ch.4 (Seder Eliyahu Zuta ch.4): VII Jahresbericht… 1900, M.Friedmann ed., (p.180): Moses took the tent during the intermediate forty days and went outside the camp, as it is stated: "And Moses would take the tent and pitch it outside the camp" (Ex.33:7). Israel mourned all those days, until the King of the kings 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 Moses: "Moses, what are those wretched people doing? Ostracised by the Master and ostracised by the disciple, ostracised by Me and ostracised by you, return and enter the camp!" And so it is stated: "And the Lord spoke to Moses 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 (Moses) took the tent into the camp.
   

   Haktav Vehakabala v.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 entance to the tent, and bowed down from great shame. So also Tanna debe Eliyahu – "they bowed down" teaches that they repented. Verse 11: "And the Lord spoke to Moses": 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 Moses not to treat them as ostracised and reprimanded and not to turn his back on them and 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 debe Eliyahu (Part 2, ch.3). "Ostracised by Me, ostracised by you, go back and take your tent into the camp". Those versed in the science of speechcraft and know the difference between the languages of reason and emotion, and will imagine an exclamation mark after "face to face as .." to draw attention, 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.

   x 1. Explain the words in bold print (especially the question, why he does not know what this verse says).
   

   2.How does Tanna debe Eliyahu explain our verse and how does Haktav Vehakabbala explain it (punctuate the verse in accordance with Haktav Vehakabbala's interpretation).

The questions marked x are difficult, those marked xx are particularly difficult.
Every person should answer according to his/her ability.

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