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13 PROPHETS OF AN UNSEEN GOD The greatest Theophany ever to take place was unique not only in its scope—viewed by 600,000 people, not only in its duration—several months, and not only in its attainments— the Covenant between God and a Chosen People and the proclamation of Commandments and laws of lasting impact. It also revealed a key aspect of the Deity—that of an Unseen God. "No one can see my face and live," He stated; and even approaching too closely to where the Kabod rested was a peril. Yet if He were to be followed and worshiped, how could He be sought, found, and heard? How would Divine Encoun- ters with Yahweh take place? The immediate answer, in the Wilderness of Sinai, was the Tabernacle, the portable Mishkan (literally: Residence) with its Tent of Appointment. On the first day of the first month of the second year of the Exodus the Tabernacle was completed in accordance with the most detailed and exact specification dictated by the Lord to Moses, including the Tent of Appointment with its Holy of Holies; therein, separated from the other areas by a heavy screen, was placed the Ark of the Covenant that contained the two Tablets and above which the two golden Cherubim touched their wings. There, where the wings touched, was the Dvir—literally, the Speaker—by which Yahweh con- versed with Moses. And when Moses had completed "all this work, as Yah- weh had commanded," on the prescribed day, a thick cloud landed and engulfed the Tent of Appointment. "The Cloud 313