Parsha Point
At the end of the Parsha, we read:
And the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel (Ex. 24:17).As a trained Talmudist, I see a miyyut at work here. The next verse states:
And Moses entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount; and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights (Ex. 24:18).We have a few options here. Moses possibly also saw the fire on top of the mountain but was able to overcome the normal human reaction and ascend anyway. Alternatively, we might posit that Moses did not perceive the Divine presence on the mountain as a fire like the rest of the Israelities. Thoughts?
1 Comments:
We already had this last week; In yitro, BNY don't go up the mountain when they (probably) are supposed to (see end of mishpatim and the recount of Sinai in va'etchanan for further explanation), and aharon and the z'keinim don't ascend when they are definitely supposed to, because (at least according to va'etchanan) they "feared because of the fire."
Since Moshe himself is making this accusation, it seems unlikely he was unaware of the fire...
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