EE & R, 3_7: Between the Torah and the Prophets: The Impossibility of Knowledge
(For the previous installment of "Exodus, Exile and Redemption," click here. For ToC, click here.)
The ideal of knowing Hashem, so often championed in the Prophets, is notably absent from the Torah, which does not advocate for knowledge of Hashem. To understand why, we turn to a pivotal moment when Moshe requested to know Hashem – but was ultimately denied:
Moshe said to Hashem, “…let me know Your ways that I may know You…” (Exodus 33:13)
Moshe requested to know Hashem’s ways and thereby know Him. Hashem is known through His ways, through all of creation and existence itself; the one who understands the moral quality of the universe gains familiarity with Hashem’s character.1 Essentially, Moshe’s request was to understand the deeper rationale for all that occurs in the world. Many events in life appear just, yet many do not. Good things happen to good people, but so do bad things. Wicked people often suffer, but they also frequently prosper. Moshe sought to understand the sense of it all, asking, in the words of the Sages: “Why is there a tsaddik that prospers and a tsaddik that suffers, a wicked person who prospers and a wicked person who suffers?” (Talmud, Berachos 7a).
As part of his quest,2 Moshe further asked to see Hashem’s glory – that is, to gain, through perfect understanding of His ways, intimate familiarity with Hashem:
However, the request to know Hashem face to face was ultimately denied:
And He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you My name, ‘Hashem,’ and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. But,” He said, “you cannot see My face, for no man shall see Me and live… you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen” (ibid, 19-23)
Perfect knowledge was withheld from Moshe. He was granted a vision of Hashem’s back, but not His face, together with knowledge of His merciful and gracious ways,3 but with a certain unresolved arbitrariness: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.” As the Sages say further regarding Moshe’s unanswered request to understand why the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper: “One [request] was not granted to him, as it is said: ‘I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious’ – even though he is not worthy; ‘And I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy’ – even though he is not worthy” (Talmud, Berachos 7a).
The intricacies of this partial theophany – where Moshe was shown only a glimpse, rather than the full face of divine understanding – will be explored more fully further in this work. For now, we note this: The Torah never exhorts us to know Hashem simply because, from Moshe’s perspective, this was deemed impossible: “For no man shall see Me and live.”
(For the next installment of "Exodus, Exile and Redemption," click here.)
That Moshe’s request to see the glory of Hashem is understood as synonymous with his request to know His ways is evident in the Talmud, Berachos 7a, which enumerates Moshe’s three requests of Hashem and counts only one as relating to knowledge of Hashem: “He requested that the ways of the Holy, blessed be He, be revealed to him.” The Midrash (Shemos Rabbah, 45:5) further clarifies this by interpreting the verse “Please show me Your glory” as a reference to understanding the just fates of the righteous and the wicked: “He sought to comprehend the reward of the righteous and the tranquility of the wicked… the reward of the righteous is called ‘glory’… the tranquility of the wicked is called ‘glory’ …”
See Exodus 34:6-7: “And Hashem passed by before him, and proclaimed, ‘Hashem, Hashem, merciful and gracious God, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children unto the third and to the fourth generation.’”