AND TO MOSES HE SAID, COME UP UNTO THE LORD. Who said this? The Shekinah. “Come up unto the Lord”: as it is written, “And Moses went up to God” (Ex. 19, 3). And for what other purpcse was Moses called up? To establish the covenant, for until that time it had not yet been completed because of the incomplete circumcision of the Israelites, as it is written: “There (at Marah) he made for them a statute and an ordinance” (Ex. 15, 25), these referring to the two acts connected with circumcision; “and there he proved them” (Ibid.), that is, when the holy sign of the covenant was manifested in them. Then the covenant was established through Moses, as it is written: “And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant…”.(/bid. 24, 8).

R. Isaac drew attention to the verse: “And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins; and half of the blood he sprinkled upon the altar” (/bid. 5, 6). ‘The “upon” ‘, said he, ‘is of special significance, indicating that the covenant was made with the highest grade.’ AND WORSHIP YE AFAR OFF. The words afar off contain the same indication as in the verses, “The Lord appeared to me from afar” (Jer. 31, 2), and “and his sister stood afar off’ (Ex. 2, 4): namely, as R. Abba pointed out, that until that time the Moon (that is, the Shekinah) was on the wane, for Her light was obscured from before the eyes of the Israelites; but when that hour was arrived they were made more worthy of their holy portion, and established a holy covenant with Her and with the Holy One in all His aspects.

Why did the Shekinah say to Moses, “Go up to the Lord”? In order that “Israel and I may now, through thy mediation, participate as one being in the Divine perfection, which has not been the case hitherto”. So what did Moses do? He divided the blood into two parts: “half of the blood he sprinkled upon. the altar”-according to the significance which we have already revealed-and the other half he sprinkled upon the people and said: “behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath made with you” (v. 8).HE PUT THE BLOOD IN BASINS. This is an allusion to the words: “Thy navel is a round basin” (S.S. 7, 7), which is applied to the Shekinah.

AND MOSES ALONE SHALL COME NEAR TO THE LORD. Happy was the lot of Moses in obtaining a privilege vouchsafed to no other mortal! The Israelites, too, attained to more exalted heights than ever before. In that hour they were established in the holy covenant, and given the glad tidings that a sanctuary should be erected in their midst, as it is written: “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (xxv, 8).

AND THEY SAW THE GOD OF ISRAEL, AND THERE WAS UNDER HIS FEET AS IT WERE A PAVED WORK OF A SAPPHIRE STONE. Said R. Judah: ‘It is written: “This thy stature is like to a palm tree” (S.S. 7, 8)..What love, indeed, has the Holy One bestowed upon the Community of Israel in that He never separates Himself from her, but is perpetually and perfectly united with her, even as a palm tree in which male and female are one in complete and continual union!

See now. When Nadab and Abihu and the seventy elders.”saw”, what did they actually see? “They saw the God of Israel”, that is to say, the Shekinah manifested Herself unto them.’ But R. Jose interpreted the demonstrative pronoun eth in this verse (“and they saw*.eth* the God of Israel”) as denoting something more, over and above R. Judah’s exposition, a kind of extra quality of enlightenment, as it were-although what they saw they saw from a distance.

R. Isaac asked: [It says here, “Under his feet was as it were a work of sapphire stone, but Ezekiel said] “This is the living creature (Hayah) which I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar” (Ezek. 10, 20). Now, which Hayah is here indicated?’ R. Jose replied in the name of R. Hiya that the reference is to the little Hayah.¹ ‘But is there then such a little Hayah?’ ‘Yes, assuredly there is. There is a little one and a superior one,² and there is also a very little one.³

footnotes: ¹ Metatron. ² Malkuth. ³ Sandalphon.

As for the last part of the verse which is being treated, namely: “And under His feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone”-what was this which they saw? They beheld the precious stone with which the Holy One will build the future Sanctuary, as it is written: “I will lay thy stones with fair colours and lay thy foundations with sapphires” (Isa. 54, 11).’