Sacrificial Moses

Moses ascends (‘alah)  again and again into the cloud on Sinai (Exodus 19:3; 20:21), but nobody else does. 

As Morales says, this marks Moses as the “ascender” to God (The Tabernacle Pre-Figured, 219). He adds, “As mediator between God and the people, he is able to ascend to God whereas the people may not, and able to descend to the people whereas God may not (lest they perish)” (220). 

If the tabernacle is a portable Sinai, Israel needs a portable Moses too, someone who can continue to ascend to the cloud after Moses is gone. The priests fulfill that role, but Morales rightly emphasizes that the chief permanent “ascenders” are the sacrificial animals:

“‘Sacrifice ‘mediates’ the relationship between God and a sinful people. Sin alienates the people from the presence of the holy God, and only through sacrifice can that relationship be restored” (quoting JW Hilber). One ascends, then, via the ascension of sacrifice. Priestly duty being primarily about facilitating the crossing of boundaries from the profane to the sacred expplains why the fundamental priestly role was not slaying the sacrificial animal (most often performed by the laity), but the burning of some or all of it upon the altar so as to transfer it from the profane realm of the earth to the heavenly realm and ownership of YHWH. . . . Burning the sacrifice upon the altar, the exclusive right of priests . . . was primarily about a transfer via ascent, so that the altar with its fiery summit functioned as a cosmic mountain, as the intersection and transition between the profane and sacred, the earthly and the heavenly” (241).

To which I can only add: Exactly so.