Rabbi Yossi gave a teaching that startles the ear. The Shechinah, he said, has never descended below, and Moses and Elijah never truly ascended on high. Heaven and earth keep a small, permanent distance between them.
How could he say such a thing? Isn't the whole Torah a story of God coming down and prophets going up?
Rabbi Yossi anchored his claim in a single verse: "The heavens, even the heavens, are the Lord's, but the earth hath He given to the children of men" (Psalms 115:16). The spheres belong to one side of the divide, the soil to the other. They meet at the edge, but they do not cross.
Someone challenged him: Exodus 19:20 says plainly, "Vayered Adonai al har Sinai" — "And the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai." Rabbi Yossi answered: yes, but the descent stopped ten handbreadths above the summit. The Presence bent toward the mountain. It did not press against it.
Another challenge: Zechariah 14:4 promises, "And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives." Rabbi Yossi answered again: ten handbreadths above it. A hand's span of reserved mystery.
So too, he said, when Moses ascended to receive the Torah and when Elijah rose in the fiery chariot, they halted ten handbreadths short of heaven itself (Sukkah 5a). The tallest prophet still leaves a gap between his head and the ceiling of the world.
In Judaism, the finite and the infinite meet without merging. Even in the most intimate revelation, a sliver of mystery remains.