Parshat Vayakel: Masking and Seeing

And Moses said to the Israelites: See, the LORD has singled out by name Bezalel, son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.

After Moses descended, he said to the Israelites: “The Holy One, blessed be He, told me how to build a Sanctuary, an altar, and a table for Him.” They asked: “Who will do all this?” “Bezalel,” he replied. The Israelites began to complain against Moses, crying out: “The Holy One, blessed be He, did not tell Moses that Bezalel would build the Sanctuary, Moses made that decision by himself because he is related to him; Moses is king, and his brother, Aaron, is the high priest; his sons are officials of the priesthood, Eleazar is chief of the Levites and the sons of Kohath are the bearers of the Tabernacle. Now this one is being given the authority to build the Sanctuary! Moses seeks to elevate him by giving him this great honor.” Moses attempted to explain. He said to them: “I have done nothing on my own; the Holy One, blessed be He, told me what to do.” And he showed them the words: See, the Lord hath called by name Bezalel. He did this to fulfill what is stated: So shalt thou find grace and good favor in the sight of God and man (Prov. 3:4). In the sight of God alludes to Bezalel, as the Holy One, blessed be He, said: See, the Lord hath called by name Bezalel. And man refers to Israel, as it is said: And ye My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, are men (Ezek. 34:31).

The people were maligning him [Moshe], saying that he appoints his relatives to the high positions just as the congregation of Korah claimed… And this is the reason Moshe said “ See the Lord has called Bezalel by name”… for Moshe wanted to vindicate himself. By saying “see” Moshe was basically saying, if you look with a kind eye (ayin tova) [upon the workmanship of Bezalel] you shall see that the will of G!d is that Bezalel should be the mainstay of the tabernacle’s construction. If you take a curtain produced by Bezalel and compare it to a curtain produced by others, you will see that the one produced by Bezalel possesses a grace and a beauty greater than all the others, even though the two curtains are identical in their workmanship. This certainly proves that G!d’s will desires him more than anyone else. This is the meaning of the use of the term “see,” in order to denote understanding, i.e. that you should understand that Bezalel is G!d’s chosen.

This situation was true of Moshe as well. Even though the inner beauty of Moshe was not manifest on the surface, one who would look upon Moshe with a kind eye would comprehend his inner beauty/splendor.

The meaning of the veil (masveh) is in numerical value equivalent to the name YXVX and the name Elohecha …

ויאמר, הראני נא את כבודך. “I said: please reveal to me Your glory.” Moses requested that G’d show him His true face in a vision, something our sages are in the habit of referring to as אספקרלריא המאירא, “a clear, unambiguous visual image.” G’d answered him that what He would do was to parade before him a number of phenomena, each of which represented some of the ways in which He demonstrated His earnest desire to be of benefit to His creatures; as a result of viewing these phenomena one after another, he, more than any other human being, would develop an appreciation of what G’d’s essence was all about; however, it was impossible to do more without terminating Moses’ life, as it was not given to mortals to get a still deeper insight into what an Eternal G’d, the Creator of the universe, was truly like.

And He has filled him with the spirit of God (Exod. 35:31). You must not believe that He did this only for Bezalel. The Holy One, blessed be He, instilled understanding and knowledge in all who were occupied in the construction of the Mishkan, as it is said: And every wise-hearted man among them that wrought the work (ibid. 36:8). And you must not think He did so for human beings alone. The Holy One, blessed be He, instilled wisdom, as it is said: In whom (bahemah) the Lord hath put wisdom and understanding (ibid. 36:1). “In whom,” which may be understood as behemah (“animal”), indicates that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave wisdom to man and beasts but only Bezalel was designated by name.

The whole subject becomes clearer when the Torah reports that Moses wore a veil over his face at all times except when he taught the Torah. The question therefore should have been: "Why did Moses not wear a veil over his face at the time he descended from the Mountain?" The Torah answers this question by stating that Moses was unaware that his face emitted rays of light. This is why he had not put on his veil as usual prior to descending from the Mountain. This led to Aaron and the children of Israel observing that his face gave forth a beam of light. This still leaves us with the strange phenomenon that a human being should be unaware that his face emits rays of light. This is especially so if we assume the source of these rays to have been some kind of horn-like protuberance on his forehead? Surely Moses must have noticed that he suddenly possessed such an additional feature? This is why the Torah explained the reason of Moses' unawareness by stating that all of this occurred while he descended from the Mountain and held the Tablets in his hand(s). As long as he had been on the Mountain, Moses had assumed that any radiation of light he noted had originated with G'd who was speaking to him. This light which Moses had assumed to originate with G'd disappeared during his descent. The reason Moses still did not notice that these rays originated in his own face was that he carried the Holy Tablets while descending from the Mountain. He therefore assumed that the light he was still conscious of was emitted by the Tablets. He had no idea that he himself had become a permanent source of such light. When the Torah writes: "he did not know that the skin of his face emitted rays," this does not mean that he was unaware of these rays of light. He was only unaware that the source was neither G'd nor the Tablets but the skin of his own face. This is why he did not cover his face with the veil when Aaron saw him. We may now understand the meter of the verse as follows: "The reason that both Aaron and the children of Israel saw Moses' face emit rays of light was that Moses was unaware of his face being the source of that light; he had therefore neglected to cover his face with the veil he normally wore." As soon as he deposited the Tablets and he became aware that the light had not departed, he realised that he himself was the source of the light and he immediately covered his face with the veil. Moses' wearing the veil corresponds to the mystical dimension of Proverbs 25,2: "It is the glory of G'd to conceal a matter."