When Moses last descends from Mt. Sinai, he doesn't know that his face is illuminant with rays of light. By the time we encounter this divine phenomenon in our reading, we have already experienced the human cycle of brilliant joy and wretched despair; the Jews breaking the chains of slavery through the destruction of the first pair of tablets - highs and lows. For all of us, it is possible to live in our disappointment and come down from the mountain with our faces bright, emerging from despair.