The Torah says the Lord spoke with Moses "face to face, as a man speaks with his friend." Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, the Aramaic paraphrase of the Torah, refuses to let the metaphor mislead and rewrites the line with theological precision.
"The Lord spoke with Moses word for word. The voice of the Dibbura, the Word, was heard, but the Majesty of the Presence was not seen, in the way that a man converses with his companion. After the speaking voice had ascended, he returned to the camp, and delivered the word to the congregation of Israel. But his minister, Joshua bar Nun, a young man, removed not from the tabernacle" (Exodus 33:11).
Two clarifications matter. First, "face to face" in the Targum becomes "word for word." God is invisible. The voice arrives, but the divine face is never literally seen. Jewish theology refuses corporeal anthropomorphism even in its most intimate moments. The friendship is real. The face is metaphor.
Second, when Moses left the tabernacle, Joshua stayed. The future leader of Israel was already apprenticing himself to the tent of instruction, refusing to return to the camp. A generation was being trained in the empty tabernacle to become the one who would lead Israel into the land.
Leadership, the Targum is hinting, is made in the hours after the cloud ascends, when no one is watching but the apprentice who refuses to leave.
Takeaway: God's friendship is audible, not visible. The one who becomes great is the one who stays in the tent after the voice has gone.