"...You may see My back, but My face will not be seen." (Ex. 33:23)
Scripture says: "The wise child brings the parent joy" (Prov. 15:20). We are also taught, "Wisdom comes from ayin [Nothing]" (Job 28:14). The essence of wisdom is brought forth when a person looks into the Nothing. When you do so, you realize that you lack reality on your own but that the life-force within you comes from that Nothing. You then come to cleave to your root in the Source of life. This attachment of the self to the Creator offers a "garment" to the Creator; this is called by the prophet "covering the Ancient One" (Is. 23:18). The rabbis refer to this when they say that "Israel sustain their Father in heaven" (Zohar 3:7b), since clothing is a form of sustenance. That too is why wisdom is called "the returning light," for it is by wisdom's light that you return and attach yourself to your Root. This is hinted at in "I will teach you/'aleph you' wisdom" (Job 33:33). Switch around the letters of aleph and you get pele, "wonder." Your whole life, when you are attached to the root, is one of wonder, beyond comprehension.
So this is the meaning of You may see My back, but My face will not be seen. When you look into the Nothing, you become negated. How, then, could your eye be seeing, when you yourself do not exist? Therefore you may see My back--when you are on this level of looking into Nothingness, this is what you will see.
But the ayin that causes anyone who looks into it to be negated is called Y-H-W-H. The power to look into that ayin is called Ehyeh, "I shall be." When Israel were in Egypt [as slaves, they had no access to the future; Ehyeh represents the future tense] they had not yet gained the ability to gaze at ayin. [Therefore the name Ehyeh is revealed only at the Exodus.]
Scripture says: "The wise child brings the parent joy" (Prov. 15:20). We are also taught, "Wisdom comes from ayin [Nothing]" (Job 28:14). The essence of wisdom is brought forth when a person looks into the Nothing. When you do so, you realize that you lack reality on your own but that the life-force within you comes from that Nothing. You then come to cleave to your root in the Source of life. This attachment of the self to the Creator offers a "garment" to the Creator; this is called by the prophet "covering the Ancient One" (Is. 23:18). The rabbis refer to this when they say that "Israel sustain their Father in heaven" (Zohar 3:7b), since clothing is a form of sustenance. That too is why wisdom is called "the returning light," for it is by wisdom's light that you return and attach yourself to your Root. This is hinted at in "I will teach you/'aleph you' wisdom" (Job 33:33). Switch around the letters of aleph and you get pele, "wonder." Your whole life, when you are attached to the root, is one of wonder, beyond comprehension.
So this is the meaning of You may see My back, but My face will not be seen. When you look into the Nothing, you become negated. How, then, could your eye be seeing, when you yourself do not exist? Therefore you may see My back--when you are on this level of looking into Nothingness, this is what you will see.
But the ayin that causes anyone who looks into it to be negated is called Y-H-W-H. The power to look into that ayin is called Ehyeh, "I shall be." When Israel were in Egypt [as slaves, they had no access to the future; Ehyeh represents the future tense] they had not yet gained the ability to gaze at ayin. [Therefore the name Ehyeh is revealed only at the Exodus.]
Here Levi Yitshak offers a striking personalization of the primal Creation process as described by Kabbalah. You bring wisdom forth from your own inner "Nothing," thus giving to God an embodied ("garbed") presence in the material world. This is effected by the power of human wonder, the ability to marvel at the modest degree of vision we are granted in this life. As we delve deeply into that wonder (pele), we are transported back to the realm of cosmic oneness (aleph).