Translated by David Strauss
Now Moshe used to take the tent and to pitch it outside the camp, afar off from the camp; and he called it the Tent of Meeting. And it came to pass, that every one that sought the Lord went out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp. And it came to pass, when Moshe went out to the Tent, that all the people rose up, and stood, every man at his tent door, and looked after Moshe, until he was gone into the Tent. And it came to pass, when Moshe entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent; and [the Lord] spoke with Moshe. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door. And the Lord spoke to Moshe face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return into the camp; but his minister Yehoshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the Tent. (Shemot 33:7-11)
It seems from the parasha that Moshe leaves the camp, because the Shekhina also departed from the rebuked camp of Israel. But when did Moshe leave the camp for the distant Tent of Meeting? The Midrashim and commentators answered this question in different ways. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, Tanna de-Vei Eliyahu, and Rabbi Yosef Kara all claim that Moshe left the camp for his forty-day prayer, which was immediately after the sin of the golden calf.[1]
Let us clarify this approach. The book of Shemot mentions two forty-day periods during which Moshe was on the mountain:
And Moshe entered into the midst of the cloud, and went up into the mount; and Moshe was in the mount forty days and forty nights. (24:28)
And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten utterances. (34:28)
The first period began immediately after the revelation at Sinai, and, according to the tradition of Chazal, this was between the 7th of Sivan and the 17th of Tammuz. During this ascent, Moshe received the first set of tablets, and broke them on the 40th day when he saw the golden calf. The second period began, according to the tradition of Chazal, on the 1st of Elul and ended on Yom Kippur, and in it Moshe received the second set of tablets.
The book of Devarim also mentions two forty-day periods. The first one:
When I was gone up into the mount to receive the tablets of stone, even the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I dwelled in the mount forty days and forty nights; I did not eat bread nor drink water. And the Lord delivered to me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God; and on them was written according to all the words, which the Lord spoke with you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly. (Devarim 9:9-10)
And the second period:
And I fell down before the Lord, as at the first, forty days and forty nights; I did neither eat bread nor drink water; because of all your sin which you sinned, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him. For I was in dread of the anger and hot displeasure, with which the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But the Lord hearkened to me that time also. (Devarim 9:18-19)
So I fell down before the Lord the forty days and forty nights that I fell down; because the Lord had said He would destroy you. (Devarim 9:25)
Now I stayed in the mount, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights; and the Lord hearkened to me that time also; the Lord would not destroy you. (Devarim 10:10)
The first forty days in the book of Shemot and in the book of Devarim are identical. These are the first forty days, which were immediately after the revelation at Sinai and the receiving of the first set of tablets. But the second periods of forty days described in the two books are apparently different. The book of Shemot describes the last forty days, from the first of Elul until Yom Kippur. But the book of Devarim describes Moshe's prayer to God, and it stands to reason that this closely followed the sin of the golden calf and its burning, and therefore those forty days were marked by anger and wrath. This prayer was offered in the forty-day period between the 18th of Tammuz and the end of the month of Av,[2] and thus we have three consecutive series of forty days each. The first and third deal with the receiving of the tablets of the covenant and the Torah, and the second with the prayer of atonement for the sin of the golden calf. According to the aforementioned Midrashim and Rabbi Yosef Kara, the prayer in Devarim is identical to the description of Moshe's seclusion with God in the Tent of Meeting, far from the camp, in our parasha.
But we find several difficulties with this approach:
The book of Shemot mentions Moshe's seclusion with God, but does not say that it was on Mount Sinai, nor does it say that it was for the purpose of prayer, nor does it say that it was for forty days. We learn all three of these things only from the verses in Devarim.
Moreover, from the description of the forty days of Moshe's prayer in Devarim, it is clear that the people of Israel were in danger of annihilation until God accepted Moshe's prayer, whereas in the book of Shemot, Moshe's going to the Tent of Meeting is described after he was already told to lead the people to the Land of Israel, and the punishment was not the annihilation of the people, but "only" the removal of the Shekhina from the camp: "For I will not go up in the midst of you; for you are a stiff-necked people; lest I consume you in the way" (33:3).
It is also clear from the verses that we are not dealing with one extended period during which Moshe was outside the camp, but rather with many exits of Moshe from his tent to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp: "And it came to pass, when Moshe went out to the Tent…." In addition, it seems that the Tent of Meeting described here was not on the mountain but at its foot.
We will therefore follow the approach of Rashi and the Ibn Ezra, that Moshe's seclusion in the Tent of Meeting does not appear in its proper chronological place. Moshe's removal of his tent took place only after the three sets of forty days – in other words, after Yom Kippur, when Moshe returned to the camp with the second set of tablets. According to this approach, even after Yom Kippur and the descent of the second tablets, the people of Israel were still rebuked by God and rebuked by Moshe Rabbeinu. During this period, the Shekhina did not dwell in the camp of Israel (apparently until the construction of the Mishkan), and only those who sought God on a personal basis could go outside the camp, to the Tent of Meeting. This approach is supported by the account below of Moshe's descent after receiving the second set of tablets:
And it came to pass, when Moshe came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the testimony in Moshe's hand, when he came down from the mount, that Moshe knew not that the skin of his face sent forth beams while He talked with him. And when Aharon and all the children of Israel saw Moshe, behold, the skin of his face sent forth beams; and they were afraid to come near him. And Moshe called to them; and Aharon and all the rulers of the congregation returned to him; and Moshe spoke to them. And afterward all the children of Israel came near, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moshe had done speaking with them, he put a veil on his face. But when Moshe went in before the Lord that He might speak with him, he took the veil off, until he came out; and he came out; and spoke to the children of Israel that which he was commanded. And the children of Israel saw the face of Moshe, that the skin of Moshe's face sent forth beams; and Moshe put the veil back upon his face, until he went in to speak with Him. (34:29-35)
The verses indicate a barrier between Moshe and the people that grew higher and higher. Moshe, whose face sent forth beams, appeared without the veil as an angel, and Aharon and the people of Israel were afraid to approach him, and could not stand in his presence beyond the limited time during which he commanded them the words of God. The Torah, therefore, may be offering two different solutions to the chasm that has opened between the people and Moshe: First, the veil that is placed over Moshe's face when he is not speaking with God and when he is not commanding the words of God to the Israelites, and second, Moshe does indeed separate himself from the people in the Tent of Meeting outside the camp, where he removes the veil and his face sends forth beams, and where he asks God to return the Shekhina to the camp. All this, as mentioned, occurs after Yom Kippur. In the month of Nissan of the second year, the Shekhina returned to the camp with the erection of the Mishkan.
Let us, therefore, summarize the four periods between the giving of the Torah and the erection of the Mishkan:
a. During the forty days from the 7th of Sivan until the 17th of Tammuz, Moshe receives the Torah and the first tablets. He breaks the tablets at the time of the sin of the golden calf;
b. During the forty days between the 18th of Tammuz and the 1st of Elul he ascends the mountain again and prays, at the time of the anger and wrath, that God not destroy Israel;
c. During the forty days between the 1st of Elul and Yom Kippur he again receives the Torah and the second tablets;
d. During the almost six months until the 1st of Nissan, Moshe withdraws from the people to the Tent of Meeting outside the camp and prays for the return of the Shekhina to the camp of Israel. Only seekers of God can come to the Tent of Meeting. And Moshe returns to the camp from time to time to convey God's words to the people, and then puts the veil over his face until his next entry into the Tent of Meeting outside the camp to pray and to hear the continuation of God's words. On those days, God spoke to Moshe face to face, as a man speaks to his friend, and this, too, explains the radiance of Moshe's face.[3]
Let us add more about the aforementioned Tent of Meeting. It would seem that the tent continued in its function even after the erection of the Mishkan and the return of the Shekhina to the camp. This would seem to be the case from the verses in the story of Miriam's words about Moshe's Cushite wife:
And the Lord spoke suddenly to Moshe, and to Aharon, and to Miriam: Come out you three to the Tent of Meeting. And they three came out. And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud, and stood at the door of the Tent, and called Aharon and Miriam; and they both came forth. And He said: Hear now My words: if there be a prophet among you, I the Lord do make Myself known to him in a vision, I do speak with him in a dream. My servant Moshe is not so; he is trusted in all My house; with him do I speak mouth to mouth, even manifestly, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord does he behold; why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant, against Moshe? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and He departed. (Bamidbar 12:4-9)
The Tent of Meeting mentioned here is also outside the camp – "Come out... to the Tent of Meeting" – and it is also described regarding it how God speaks to Moshe mouth to mouth, i.e., face to face. It was not clarified in the Torah why a Tent was needed after the Shekhina dwelt in the Mishkan within the camp of Israel. Even in the Mishkan, as in the Tent outside the camp, Moshe came to speak with God – "And when Moshe went into the Tent of Meeting that He might speak with him, then he heard the voice speaking to him" (Bamidbar 7:89) . Perhaps Moshe's seclusion with God in the Mishkan was for speech for the needs of Israel, whereas his seclusion with God in the Tent of Meeting outside the camp was for matters that pertained exclusively to Moshe, and on his personal level.
The Last Forty Days
According to the accepted understanding, Moshe ascended the mountain on the first of Elul to receive the second set of tablets, remained on the mountain for forty days, and received the tablets on Yom Kippur. In commemoration of these forty days, the days from the beginning of Elul until Yom Kippur were established as days of repentance and atonement. The period reaches its climax and essence on the last day – Yom Kippur.
Rashi and the Midrash point out the difference between the middle forty days and the last forty days:
"As at the first time" – of the first tablets. How was it with those? They were passed in God's goodwill! So these, too, were passed in God's goodwill. But the intervening forty days when I remained there to pray for you were passed in God's anger. (Rashi, Devarim 10:10)
The matter is explained in greater detail by the author of Seder Olam, according to whom the forty days began on the 29th of Av:
He went back up on the 29th of Av and the Torah was repeated to him a second time. "As at the first time" – Just as the first ones were passed in God's goodwill, so the second ones were passed in God's goodwill. Say from this that the middle ones were passed in God's anger. He came down on the 10th of Tishrei, which was Yom Kippur, and announced to them that they had found favor before God, as it is stated: "And pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for Your inheritance" (Shemot 34:9).
Therefore it was established as a fixed day and a remembrance for all generations, as it is stated: "And this shall be an everlasting statute to you" (Vayikra 16:34). (Seder Olam, chap. 6)
We will also quote the words of the Tur:
It is taught in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer: On Rosh Chodesh Elul, the Holy One, blessed is He, said to Moshe: "Come up to Me into the mount" (Shemot 24:12), for then he ascended to receive the second tablets, and they sounded the shofar in the camp, that Moshe ascended the mount, so that they should not stray again after idolatry… Therefore, Chazal instituted that we should blow the shofar on Rosh Chodesh Elul every year and throughout the month in order to admonish Israel to repent, as it is stated: "Shall the shofar be blown in a city, [and the people not tremble]?" (Amos 3:6), and in order to confuse the Satan... And there are those who recite many selichot and supplications from Rosh Chodesh Elul and on. (Tur, Orach Chaim 581)
Let us examine the connection between the day of Yom Kippur, which was the fortieth day of Moshe's third ascent to the mountain, and the Yom Kippur with which we are all familiar (apart from being the climax of the fast that Moshe was observing, a third fast of forty consecutive days, a fast that our Yom Kippur may remind us of in some way).
A deeper connection between these Yom Kippurs can be found if we compare Moshe's ascent to the mountain to the High Priest's entry into the Holy of Holies, as part of the Yom Kippur service. Indeed, the Ramban compares the Holy of Holies in the Mishkan to Mount Sinai at the time of the giving of the Torah:
The secret of the Mishkan is that the Glory which rested upon Mount Sinai [openly] should rest upon it in a concealed manner. For just as it is stated there: "And the glory of the Lord rested upon Mount Sinai" (Shemot 24:16)… so it is written of the Miskhan: "And the glory of the Lord filled the Mishkan" (Shemot 40:34)… Thus Israel always had with them in the Mishkan the Glory which appeared to them on Mount Sinai. And when Moshe went into the Mishkan, he would hear the Divine utterance being spoken to him in the same way as on Mount Sinai. Thus, just as it is stated at the giving of the Torah: "Out of heaven He made you to hear His voice, that He might instruct you; and upon earth He made you to see His great fire" (Devarim 4:36), so it is written of the Mishkan: "And he heard the voice speaking to him from above the ark-cover…from between the two cherubs; and He spoke to him" (Bamidbar 7:89). (Ramban, Shemot 25:1)
When Moshe ascended the mountain, emphasis was placed on the cloud, whose function it was to cover the glory of God from before Moshe as he stood before the Shekhina:
And He said: You cannot see My face, for man shall not see Me and live. And the Lord said: Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand upon the rock. And it shall come to pass, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand until I have passed by. (Shemot 33:20-22)
And the Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. (Shemot 34:5)
And so, too, when the High Priest enters into the Holy of Holies on Yom Kippur:
And the Lord said to Moshe: Speak to Aharon your brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the ark-cover which is upon the ark; that he not die; for I appear in the cloud upon the ark-cover. (Vayikra 16:2)
And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the Lord, that the cloud of the incense may cover the ark-cover that is upon the testimony, that he not die. (Vayikra 16:13)
However, a distinction can be made between the two situations regarding Moshe's position vis-à-vis the Shekhina, the people of Israel, and the cloud. In the situation described here, the Shekhina is on one side of the cloud, and Moshe is on the mountain, with the people of Israel behind him at the foot of the mountain, on the other side of the cloud.
But during the middle forty days, when God was angry with Israel, it is said according to the Midrashim and Rabbi Yosef Kara:[4]
And it came to pass, when Moshe entered into the Tent, the pillar of cloud descended, and stood at the door of the Tent; and [the Lord] spoke with Moshe. And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud stand at the door of the Tent, all the people rose up and worshipped, every man at his tent door. And the Lord spoke to Moshe face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.
During the middle forty days, the cloud at the entrance of the Tent separates between Moshe and the Shekhina – which stands before him face to face without a barrier – and the people – who are outside the Tent and outside the cloud. It would seem that the change in the last forty days was the result of Moshe's request-demand of God: "If your presence go not with me, carry us not up from here" (Shemot 33:15). Moshe demanded that God go not only with him, but with the entire people. The price of his demand to be with the people was that the cloud – instead of separating between the Shekhina and Moshe on the one hand and the people on the other – separated between the Shekhina on the one hand and Moshe and the people on the other. From then on, God did not speak to Moshe "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend" (ibid. 11), but only – "You shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen" (ibid. 23).
Let us return to Yom Kippur. The Pharisees and Sadducees differed as to the manner in which the incense was to be burned on Yom Kippur.[5] The Pharisees held that the cloud of incense on Yom Kippur was to function as did the cloud during the last forty days of Moshe's stay on Sinai. On Yom Kippur the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies, and there he would burn the cloud of incense between himself and the Ark and the cover. The cloud of incense separated the place of the Shekhina from the High Priest and the people behind him outside the Sanctuary. But the Sadducees claimed that the High Priest would burn the cloud of incense at the entrance to the Holy of Holies and outside it, but he himself would cross the line of the cloud and enter inside. The cloud served as a barrier between him – together with the Shekhina inside – and the people, standing outside the Sanctuary.
In light of our discussion, the dispute between the Pharisees and the Sadducees reflects the question of whether Yom Kippur is similar to the middle forty days during which Moshe merited a sublime and special closeness to God, but the cloud separated him from the people, so that the entire people were at a great distance from God; or whether Yom Kippur is similar to the last forty days, in which the leader represents the entire people, and although he entered the innermost chamber, there is a certain limitation to his closeness to the Shekhina, inasmuch as it is a level appropriate for the entire people, and not just for Moshe or the High Priest.
The Thirteen Attributes of Mercy
The main comparison between Moshe's ascent to the mountain and our Yom Kippur emerges from the recitation of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy.
And the Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed: The Lord, the Lord, God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy to the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, to the third and to the fourth generation. (Shemot 34:6-7)
The recitation of the Thirteen Attributes is the essence of Yom Kippur. This is evident from the content of the Ne'ila service, in which we repeat the Thirteen Attributes seven times.[6]
Let us discuss the meaning of the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy. The expectation in the verses at the time of God's revelation is that God will again tell Moshe the Ten Commandments. For Moshe had ascended the mountain in order that God would give him anew what was written on the tablets that he had broken. But, to our surprise – instead of the Ten Commandments, God tells him the Thirteen Attributes.
There is a connection between the Thirteen Attributes and the Ten Commandments. The Attributes of Mercy begin with the words "The Lord, the Lord, God," paralleling the first commandment, "I am the Lord, your God." It is stated in the Attributes: "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children," similar to what is said in the second commandment: "You shall have no other gods before Me... for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children" (20:3-5). In the Thirteen Attributes it is stated: "He will by no means clear the guilty" (34:7), as in the third commandment, where the reason is given: "For the Lord will not clear him who takes His name in vain" (20:7).
Despite the similarity and parallelism between the attributes and the commandments, there is a fundamental difference between them. While the Ten Commandments are the pillar of the Torah, and in them God commands His people what they must do, the Thirteen Attributes are the pillar of prayer, and through them the people of Israel ask God to act with His attributes of mercy towards them.
There is another difference between the Ten Commandments and the Thirteen Attributes. The Ten Commandments are spoken by God in the presence of the people, as a king commands his servants. But the Thirteen Attributes are spoken to Moshe alone in private. Not only are the attributes not directly stated to the people, but the concealment in the manner in which they are stated finds expression even in relation to Moshe: "And you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen." This involves a measure of concealment which follows in the wake of the sin of the people with the golden calf. But it also involves a measure of elevation, as Chazal have formulated it:
"And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed." Rabbi Yochanan said: Were it not written in the text, it would be impossible for us to say such a thing; this verse teaches us that the Holy One, blessed be He, drew his robe round Him like a prayer leader and showed Moshe the order of prayer. (Rosh ha-Shana 17b)
God passes here before Moshe and before the people, and He is, as it were, part of the congregation itself. Since God serves as the prayer leader, Moshe sees only His back, just as we see only the back of the prayer leader. In this way, God does not stand as a king commanding His people face to face. God provides the people with a personal example to emulate, as a commander in the battlefield who calls out to his soldiers: "After me!" – and his subordinates do not see his face but only his back. Indeed, in many commandments we do not see God as the Commander, but as the Exemplar, to be emulated:
"Ve-anveihu" (Shemot 15:2, read as ani vehu, "I and Him") – I will be like Him. Be you like him: just as He is gracious and compassionate, so be you gracious and compassionate. (Shabbat 133b)
On the basis of this principle, Rabbi Moshe Cordovero wrote his book, Tomer Devora, in which he learns from each of the Thirteen Attributes the way in which a person should conduct himself in order to emulate his Creator.
*
Let us add to the relationship between the Ten Commandments and the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy:
And the Lord said to Moshe: Write you these words, for after the tenor of [al pi] these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel. And he was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten utterances. (34:27-28)
In the first verse, we find the relationship between the Written Law and the Oral law, between that which is written and that which is "after the tenor of."[7] According to our above explanation, it is possible that the meaning of "these words" is the essence of the Written Law – the Ten Commandments, as written here in the second verse. And, in parallel, the meaning of "al pi" is the essence of the Oral Law – prayer. It would seem that the essence of prayer is the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, which were proclaimed here orally.
Perhaps Moshe wanted to write on the tablets he had carved the Thirteen Attributes of Mercy, to bring them down to the people of Israel and to teach them to the public as a way of rectifying their sin of the golden calf. But God told him that despite the sin and the shock, the Torah never changes, and the Ten Commandments remain in their place, and only they should be written. The Thirteen Attributes and prayer remain as an Oral Law that assists in the fulfillment of the written Law, but "you are not permitted to say them in writing."[8]
From the Attribute of Strict Justice to the Attribute of Mercy
Let us mention one last point regarding the connection between Moshe's Yom Kippur and the Yom Kippur service mentioned in the Torah, and our Yom Kippur. Moshe ascended the mountain for the third time after a harsh measure of justice hung over the people following the sin of the golden calf. The harsh measure of judgment was expressed in the anger we mentioned, which was in the middle forty days. It was also expressed in the death of the three thousand worshippers of the golden calf at the hands of the Levites, and in the plague that God inflicted upon the people afterwards:
And the Lord smote the people, because they made the calf, which Aharon made. (Shemot 32:35)
Nor can we ignore the fact that, according to the plain meaning of the verses, the main service of Yom Kippur (Vayikra 16) was given not only as an instruction for Yom Kippur – which is only mentioned at the end of the section – but as a continuation of the severe blow of the death of Aharon's sons when they drew near to God. The Sages connect, and rightly so in our humble opinion, the death of Aharon's two sons to Aharon's sin with the golden calf. Following the terrible judgment that was pronounced upon him on the day of the dedication of the Mishkan, Aharon saw a need to come before God to atone, to appease, and to open a new page in his relationship with God. For this purpose, he was given the order of service, which later became – with certain additions – the order of the service of Yom Kippur, as is explicitly stated at the end of the section. Thus, our Yom Kippur, with its order of service, is again connected to Moshe's Yom Kippur, which was to appease and atone for the sin of the golden calf.
[1] The Chizkuni in Devarim (9:18) writes in similar fashion, but he thereby contradicts what he himself wrote in Shemot (33:7). The matter requires further examination.
[2] In the Midrashim, various methods are employed to calculate the forty-day periods and their dates, but they differ by only one or two days. Here we have followed Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer. According to the author of Seder Olam (chap. 6), Moshe ascended on the 29th of Av. The differences stem from the question of which of the months was a full month and which was a deficient one, and from the question of whether the day of Moshe's ascent should be counted among the forty days. See also the comments of the Tur (Orach Chaim 581).
[3] During this period, Yehoshua bin Nun, Moshe's attendant, does not leave the tent even when Moshe returns to the camp to teach the people what God had commanded him.
[4] I heard this observation from my friend R. Danny Weil, over half a century ago.
We dealt extensively with the middle forty days in the previous section ("The Tent of Meeting Outside the Camp"). The following remarks are based on the assumption of the commentators that we brought there, that the description of the Tent of Meeting outside the camp relates to the middle forty days. We have tended to a different approach, that the middle forty days were on Mount Sinai, and the description of the Tent of Meeting outside the camp relates to the period after Yom Kippur. The following lines accord therefore with the interpretation that we have not adopted.
[5] See Yoma 53a at length.
[6] It should be noted that by strict law, it is appropriate to recite the Thirteen Attributes that Moshe heard on the mountain on Yom Kippur also in the other services of the day. The Tur writes as follows:
"According to the Gaon, the custom of the Yeshiva is to recite 'Vaya'avor' [= the Thirteen Attributes] five times in the Arvit service and in the Shacharit service, seven times in Musaf, six times in Mincha, and three times in Ne'ila. And Avi Ezri writes: 'I have a tradition that in the morning service, Vaya'avor must be recited thirteen times, corresponding to the Thirteen Attributes.' And Rav Natronai writes: 'The custom in the morning service is to recite seven selichot [= the Thirteen Attributes, and so in the Rosh, Yoma 8:20], in Musaf five, in Mincha three, and if there is time, five" (Tur, Orach Chaim 620).
[7] The Talmuds and Midrashim saw in this two Torahs, the Written Law and the Oral Law. See especially the Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 60b) and the Jerusalem Talmud (Pe'a 2:4) and elsewhere. In the following lines, I have written what seems correct to me.
[8] The words of Reish Lakish in Gittin, ibid.
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