God; our intention here is solely to show that" high and exalted" in the passage quoted denote elevation in rank, not in space.
CHAPTER XXI
IN its primary signification the Hebrew 'abar," to pass," refers to the motion of a body in space, and is chiefly applied to living creatures moving at some distance in a straight line, e.g.," And He passed over ('abar) before them" (Gen. xxxiii- 3):" Pass ('abor) before the people" (Exod. xvii. 5). Instances of this kind are numerous. The verb was next applied to the passage of sound through air, as" And they caused a sound to pass (va-ya'abiru) through out the camp" (Exod. xxxvi. 6):" That I hear the Lord's people spreading the report" (ma'abirim) (I Sam. ii. 24).
Figuratively it denoted the appearance of the Light and the Divine Presence (Shechinah) which the prophets perceived in their prophetic visions, as it is said," And behold a smoking furnace, and a burning lamp that passed ('abar) between those pieces" (Gen. xv. 17). This took place in a prophetic vision, for the narrative commences," And a deep sleep fell upon Abram." The verb has this latter meaning in Exodus xii. 12," And I shall pass (ve-abartz) through the land of Egypt" (denoting" I shall reveal myself," etc.), and in all similar phrases.
The verb is next employed to express that a person has gone too far, and transgressed the usual limit, in the performance of some act, as" And as a man who is drinking wine has passed ('abarv) the proper limit" (Jer. xxiii. 9).
It is also used figuratively to denote: to abandon one aim, and turn to a different aim and object, e.g.," He shot an arrow, causing it to miss the aim (leba'abiro)" (I Sam. xx. 36). This is the sense, it appears to me, of this verb in" And the Lord passed by (va-ya'abor) before his face (Exod. xxxiv. 6). 1 take" his face" to mean" the face of God: our Teachers likewise interpreted" his face" as being identical with" the face of God." And, although this is found in the midst of Agadic interpretations which would be out of place in this our work, yet it is some support of our view, that the pronoun" his" is employed in this passage as a substitute for" God's" -and the whole passage could in my opinion be explained as follows: Moses sought to attain to a certain perception which is called" the perception of the Divine face," a term occurring in the phrase" My face cannot be seen": but God vouchsafed to him a perception of a lower degree, viz., the one called," the seeing of the back," in the words," And thou shalt see my back" (Exod. xxxiii. 23). We have mentioned this subject in our work Mishneh Torah. Accordingly, it is stated in the above-mentioned passage that the Lord withheld from Moses that perception which is termed" the seeing of the Divine face," and substituted for it another gift, viz., the knowledge of the acts attributed to God, which, as I shall explain (chap. liv.) are considered to be different and separate attributes of the Supreme. In asserting that God withheld from Moses (the higher knowledge) I mean to say that this knowledge was unattainable, that by its nature it was inaccessible to Moses: for man, whilst able to gain perfection by applying his reasoning faculties to the attainment of what is within the reach of his intellect, either weakens his reason or loses it
