All the Measure of God's Goodness Passing By

When Moses asked to see God's glory, the answer reshaped the possibility of what a human being can experience of the Divine.

Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, renders the response in ritual language. "I will make all the mishchat tuvi, the measure of My goodness, pass before you, and I will give utterance in the good name of the Word of the Lord before you. I will have compassion upon whom I see it right to have compassion, and will be merciful to whom I see it right to have mercy" (Exodus 33:19).

Note what God offers and what He withholds. He does not offer Himself. He offers a measure of His goodness. The Hebrew kol tuvi becomes in the Targum a specific quantity, a portion, as if divine goodness could be measured and a dose released to pass before Moses' eyes.

He also offers the shum tav di-Memra, the good name of the Word, proclaimed aloud. This is the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy that will be recited in the next chapter, the liturgical formula that Jews still chant during Selichot and on Yom Kippur.

Finally, the sovereignty clause. Mercy is not mechanical. God reserves the right to distribute compassion according to His own wisdom. Even Moses, the chief advocate, cannot dictate who receives what.

Takeaway: The greatest gift Heaven can give a human being is a glimpse of the measure of divine goodness. Not all of it. A measure. That is already more than any of us can carry.