Panim El Panim Related Sources

“This figurative language is intended to convey the pre-eminence and uniqueness of Moses as a prophetic figure who experiences a special mode of revelation. His experience is personal and direct, not mediated through visions or dreams, and the message always is plain and straightforward, free of cryptic utterances.”

So Jacob named the place Peniel, meaning,”I have seen a divine being face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”

But Jacob said, “No, I pray you; if you would do me this favor, accept from me this gift; for to see your face is like seeing the face of God, and you have received me favorably.”

“The idiom ‘face to face’, used only of divine-human encounters, may describe either an adversarial experience or one of extraordinary intimacy. Here the deliberate ambiguity reflects the menace and the promise inherent in the furious struggle. This is the biblical way of expressing the intensity of an encounter with the divine presence- the overwhelming nature of the mysterious contact with God.”

“This is the distance between “speaking to God, face to face, as one speaks with one’s fellow” (33:11) and “seeing God’s face” (33:20). To encounter God’s face is possible only with language, in a “speaking with” Him that respects difference. The difficulty of this encounter is in its humbling effect: the only union possible is in relationship, which means separateness.”

Face to face the Lord spoke to you on the mountain out of the fire.

Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses-whom the Lord singled out, face to face.

“The power of Moses’ prophecy exceeded that of all the prophets who followed…And yet the Torah itself hints at Moses’ limitations. The text does not read “who knew the LORD face to face” but rather “whom the LORD knew face to face. The LORD knew and saw Moses face to face; Moses did not know or see God face to face.”

“Levinas highlights aspects of the Bible and transforms our understanding of them. He makes us see the face anew. He exposes the larger and deeper meanings of those key passages where panim el panim occurs… he places ethics as the first philosophy and interprets ethics in a distinctly biblical way, as the obligation to the one who commands me, the Other whom I face.”

By Marge Piercy
Knopf; 1st edition, 1999, page 144.

Shabbat Moment

This is the time
For letting go
like a released balloon
dwindling.
Tilt your neck and let
your face open to the sky
like a pond catching light
drinking the darkness