Sforno on Exodus 33:13/ספורנו על שמות ל״ג:י״ג

1ועתה, since You had agreed that I should be the angel,

2הודיעני נא את דרכך, acquaint me with Your two miraculous ways, 1) how simply by Your knowledge of something You can make these figments of Your will or imagination become automatically a reality as demonstrated whenever You perform supernatural miracles, and 2) how by Your unfailingly accurate knowledge of future events, such knowledge does not impair the freedom of choice of man to do what he wants.

3ואדעך, so that I will know You, as knowledge of Your actions does convey some inkling of the considerations which resulted in such actions.

4למען אמצא חן בעיניך, by possessing such knowledge and an appreciation of Your mode of operation I will myself attain favour in Your eyes. A similar thought has been expressed in Jeremiah 9,23 “let the one who wants to boast, boast about the degree of knowledge about Me that he has acquired for I, the Lord, am fond of those who make knowing Me better their principal objective.”

5וראה כי עמך הגוי הזה, for Your name will only be recognised among this people and not among the nations of the world. Compare psalms 76,2 on this subject, i.e. נודע ביהודה אלוקים בישראל גדול שמו, “G’d is known in Yehudah; His name is great in Israel (exclusively). Seeing that this is so it is not appropriate for You to withhold from me the answer to what I have requested on account of their sin “ Moses’ argument is in line with what we were told in Sanhedrin 11 and Baba Batra 134 that there were at different times (Hillel’s students) 30 people whose personal stature was such that they deserved that the Presence of G’d rest on them. If it did not, this was only because their contemporaries did not deserve that G’d’s presence manifest itself in their lifetime.