“They shall craft an Ark of acacia wood: its length shall be two and a half cubits, and its width a cubit and a half, and its height a cubit and a half” (Exodus 25:10). “They shall craft an Ark of acacia wood,” that is what is written: “The Almighty, we cannot find Him; He is exalted in power” (Job 37:23). Our great rabbi1Rabbi Yehuda HaNasi. said: We must give credit to Job, as everything that Elihu said, he came and added to his statements.2Elihu praised God in an ambiguous manner, such that his words can also be understood as blasphemy.
Job expressed the praise of God in a clear manner (Etz Yosef). Job said to his comrades: ‘What do you think, that everything you have said is all His praise? Who can relate all the praise and mighty deeds of the Holy One blessed be He. All the statements that you stated “Behold, these are but the tips of His ways”’ (Job 26:14).
Elihu came and said: “The Almighty, we cannot find Him; He is exalted in power.” One who hears this verse says: Perhaps it is curses, God forbid. But this is what Elihu was saying: We have not found the [full] strength of the might of the Holy One blessed be He [displayed] toward His creations, as the Holy One blessed be He does not overly exert His creations; He engages a person only in accordance with his strength.
You find when the Holy One blessed be He gave the Torah, had He come upon them with the full extent of His strength, they would not have been able to withstand it, as it is stated: “If we continue to hear [the voice of the Lord our God, we will die]” (Deuteronomy 5:22). Rather, He came upon them only in accordance with their strength, as it is stated: “The voice of the Lord is with strength” (Psalms 29:4).
“With His strength” is not said, but rather, “with strength,” in accordance with the strength of each and every one. Another matter, “the Almighty, we cannot find Him; He is exalted in power.” When the Holy One blessed be He said to Moses: ‘Craft a Tabernacle for Me,’ he began wondering and saying: ‘The glory of the Holy One blessed be He fills the upper and the lower worlds, and He says to me: Craft a Tabernacle for Me?’
Moreover, he was looking3This means that he saw prophetically. and saw Solomon arising and constructing the Temple, which is larger than the Tabernacle, and saying before the Holy One blessed be He: “For will God indeed dwell on the earth? [Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, certainly not this House that I have built]” (I Kings 8:27). Moses said: ‘If Solomon said so regarding the Temple, which is much, much greater than the Tabernacle, how much more so regarding the Tabernacle?’
That is why Moses said:4Psalms 90 is attributed to Moses (see Psalms 90:1), and the following ten psalms are also assumed to have been authored by him (Rashi on Psalms 90:1). “One who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, [who abides in the shadow of the Almighty]” (Psalms 91:1). Rabbi Yehuda bar Rabbi Simon said: The One who dwells in shelter, He is exalted over all His creations. What is: “In the shadow of the Almighty”?
In the shadow of God, in the shadow of the Merciful, in the shadow of the Gracious are not written here, but rather, “in the shadow of the Almighty” – in the shadow that Betzalel crafted.5Had the verse referred to a righteous person sitting in the shadow of God, it would have used a term for God that denotes His mercy. The fact that it refers to God as Almighty indicates that the verse does not mean “in the shadow of the Almighty,” but rather, “the Almighty [dwells] in the shadow” of the Tabernacle crafted by Betzalel (Etz Yosef).
See also Maharzu. That is why it says: “Who abides in the shadow of the Almighty.” The Holy One blessed be He said: ‘You do not think as I think;6You cannot fathom My Presence confined within a physical space, but I can. but rather, twenty boards in the north, twenty in the south, and eight in the west. Moreover, I will descend and minimize My Divine Presence within one cubit by one cubit.’7God spoke to Moses from between the two cherubs (see Exodus 25:22), a space of one square cubit..