Antiquitopia

In Exod. 33:20, the LORD famously tells Moses, "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live." Moses then is allowed to see God's backside (v. 23). One might compare Exod. 3:6 where Moses is afraid to look at God. Recently I was asked if I would write up a little piece on seeing God in late antique Judaism. It is quite a broad topic, and, of course, should I take up the task I will be looking at some of the Hekhalot texts. But my mind also began buzzing about something else--I wonder how Rabbinic literature, particularly the Targumim and the Midrashim, handle these passages of seeing God and living or not living. That is, even though we have this passage of God telling Moses no one can see the LORD's face and live (although perhaps God's backside), there are plenty of passages where people do see God's face and live--even Moses himself. God says he speaks to Moses face-to-face in Num. 12:8 (as opposed to everyone else to whom he speaks in dr...

A little over Jordan, As Genesis record, An Angel and a Wrestler Did wrestle long and hard. Till morning touching mountain, And Jacob waxing strong, The Angel begged permission To breakfast and return. "Not so," quoth wily Jacob, And girt his loins anew, "Until thou bless me, stranger!" The which acceded to: Light swung the silver fleeces Peniel hills among, And the astonished Wrestler Found he had worsted God! Dickinson sensitively interprets the ambiguity between the "man" Jacob wrestles and the culminating verse where Jacob names the place of the wrestling match Peniel, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved" (Gen. 32:30), turning the ambiguity of the ancient text into a moment of delayed realization by Jacob--it is here, I think, that the astonishing impact of the poem lies. She leaves out, however, the impact, import, and perhaps transformative aspect of naming in the passage as Jacob, the swindler who grabs at the ...