Moses’ Heavenly Counterpart 169 Thus, in 2 Enoch 39 the patriarch relates to his children that during his vision of the divine Kavod, the Lord helped him with his right hand. The hand here is described as having a gigantic size and filling heaven: “But you, my children, see the right hand of one who helps you, a human being created identical to yourself, but I have seen the right hand of the Lord, helping me (pomagazhschu mi) and filling heaven (ispl’nejaschu nebo)” (59). The theme of the hand of God ˇ assisting the seer during his vision of the Face here is not an entirely new development, since it recalls the Mosaic account from Ex 33,22- 23. Here the Deity promises the prophet to protect him with his hand during the encounter with the divine Panim: “and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen”. There is also another early Mosaic account where the motif of the divine hand assisting the visionary is mentioned. The Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian relates that during the prophet’s vision of the Kavod, a noble man sitting on the throne beckoned him with his right hand (dexia/' dev moi e[neuse) (60). It appears that the embracement of the visionary with the divine hand might signify here the seer’s invitation into the divine realm and maybe even his unification with the divine Form. This possible identification with the Kavod is not entirely unambiguous, since the heavenly counterpart can be perceived either as the divine Glory itself or as its angelic replica or image which mediates the earthly identity of the seer and the Kavod (61). Alan Segal observes that in such traditions their heroes “are not just angels, but become dangerously close to being anthropomorphic hypostases of God himself” (62). It is conceivable that 2 Enoch’s description is closer to the form of the tradition preserved in Ezekiel the Tragedian than to the account found in Exodus since the Exagoge mentions the right hand of the (59) 2 Enoch 39,5. ANDERSEN, “2 Enoch”, The Old Testament Pseudepi- grapha, I, 162; SOKOLOV, Slavjanskaja Kniga Enoha Pravednogo, 38. (60) JACOBSON, The Exagoge of Ezekiel, 54. (61) It is most clearly reflected in the tradition of Jacob’s heavenly counterpart as the image engraved on the Face. Here the celestial counterpart is neither the Face itself nor the earthly Jacob but the celestial medium which mediates them. (62) A.F. SEGAL, “Ruler of the World: Attitudes about Mediator Figures and the Importance of Sociology for Self-Definition”, Jewish and Christian Self- Definition (ed. E.P. SANDERS) (London 1981) n. 28; 248, 255-256.