You shouldn’t look – B’midbar
Why is it such a serious offence to gaze at the vessels?
Abravanel says that a human, “on approaching that which is holy, yearns to see beyond the boundaries that are permitted to him. Therefore you must cover up and conceal so that they shall not die as a result of breaking through to see”.
Though others interpret the verse differently, Abravanel stresses that there are some things beyond our grasp, and we have to recognise our limitations. Even Moses, who reached a higher understanding of God than any other human being, was told when he asked to see God’s glory, “No man can see Me and live” (Ex. 34:18-20).
There are realms that are not for everyone. The Talmud tells of four sages who entered the garden of mystical knowledge. One died, one went mad, one became a heretic and only one emerged in peace (Chagigah 14b).
Like them, there are questions we may never be able to answer, answers we may never understand, truths we may never grasp, realms we may never succeed in entering. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things are ours and our children’s for ever” (Deut. 29:28).
There is enough work to do studying the things that we are capable of grasping.
