Or HaChaim on Exodus 34:35/אור החיים על שמות ל״ד:ל״ה

1 וראו בני ישראל, and when the children of Israel saw, etc.; We need to understand why the Torah repeats something we have been told already in verse 30. Perhaps the Torah wanted us to know that the Israelites needed to experience the fact that Moses' face emitted rays of light on more than one occasion in order that they should not interpret these rays as a residue of Moses' prolonged stay on the Mountain in the Celestial Surroundings. Had they observed the phenomenon only once, the Israelites would have concluded that it would fade away with time, just as time made their own experience during the revelation fade away. This is why they looked at Moses' face from time to time to reasssure themselves that these rays were evidence of Moses' being a superior being. It is also possible that the entire episode reflects a spiritual return by Moses to the time before man had sinned and G'd had provided clothing for him made of skin (leather). According to Bereshit Rabbah 24, the Torah scroll of Rabbi Meir had the words כתנות עור in Genesis 3,21 spelled אור, light. When G'd turned the skin of Moses' face into a source of light, He demonstrated that the process which had once turned light into skin was reversible and that man could be rehabilitated to the spiritual level he once enjoyed prior to the sin in גן עדן.

2The message of this verse may also be that although Moses was at pains to cover his face with the veil, this did not prevent the Israelites from looking at his face whenever he had removed the veil. It was not forbidden to look at Moses' face seeing that Moses did not object. Moreover, G'd Himself wanted the people to get a glimpse of this אור החיים, the light which represented the idea of "Life" at its best.