Direct Encounter

 The way I learned Tanakh in terms of divine encounter is the way I think most people have: That, yes, the Children of Israel had a direct encounter with G-d at Sinai - an encounter which rings through the generations and through eternity and which still fuels our study and connection to H' to this day.  And as the interpretation goes, Bnei Yisrael heard the first two Sayings directly but either literally died and were brought back to life or simply became scared and overwhelmed (or one of any other million number of interpretations as to what happens - as the Aish Kodesh believes, they saw past each others' and their own bodies as physical manifestations and simply saw their existence as the Divine Letters) - and as a result asked Moshe to hear and then convey the remaining eight Sayings.  That was, I had heard, perhaps the first and last direct encounter the masses had with H'.

Then along comes Shemot 29:43 - a verse which, along the next several verses, jumped out at me from the page.  Specifically, after discussing that the Ohel Mo'ed is the place where H' shall meet with Moshe, H' goes on to say something that simply blew my mind, which is that in addition to meeting with Moshe:

I shall meet there with the Children of Israel and it shall be sanctified through My Glory.

A few verses later, G-d continues:

I shall rest My presence in the midst of the Children of Israel and I shall be to them as God.  They shall know that I am H', their G-d, who took them from the land of Egypt to rest My Presence in their midst.  I am H', their G-d.  

If G-d says that He is commanding Moshe to built the mishkan so that, in part, He can "meet there" with Israelites other than Moshe, why doesn't the Torah discuss any other encounters - at least any that I can remember - ever?  I don't think there are any encounters described with the major other leaders of the day, including, for example, Calev or Yehoshua - although one incident in which random prophecy sprung up in the camp may satisfy this example.  But we still don't know anything from the text itself (although the Midrash attempts to fill in the details) as to why these specific individuals were picked for prophecy and why it only affected "the tens" as opposed to "the thousands."

At the same time, the Torah never explicitly says that such daily, direct, divine encounters with other members of Bnei Yisrael did not occur.  In fact, the verses just prior to these talk about how the encounter - through sacrifice - shall be daily and constant (specifically, twice a day for sheep, flour mixed with oil, and wine).  

My only conclusion, for now at least, is that we are left to fill in the details.  To state the obvious, but as a reminder, G-d is reliable and always keeps His Word - if he says He is ordering the mishkan built so that He can meet with us, then He will meet with us - so long as we want to meet with Him.  And if G-d says that he is resting His Presence in our midst, then indeed we can consider his Presence in our midst as objectively true and "really there" - if only we allow such Presence to dwell.

In all, despite my previous learning, it is refreshing and life-giving to read - directly from our Holy Torah - that even if Bnei Yisrael did not directly receive the remaining Eight Sayings (and, candidly, I have to say that I'm not sure they didn't based upon a simple reading of this encounter) - such declination was not an eternal decision and, if we want, we can always meet and encounter G-d and let His Presence dwell amidst ourselves, our families, and all of Creation to this day.