David ben Solomon ibn Abi Zimra, Mesudat David, 24b-d

Jewish Mysticism
According to the way of secret the rabbis, blessed be their memory, said, “If Israel merited to receive the face of the Shekhinah only one time every month, it would have been enough for them.”… You already know that the physical moon and sun, which are visible, are in the pattern of the spiritual sun and moon. Just as the physical moon receives from the light of the sun, and sometimes it is revealed and sometimes hidden, sometimes it is full and sometimes wanting, and it is small in size in relation to the sun… so are the moon and sun in actuality above in the supernal world. Therefore, the ritual of sanctification of the month was given to Israel, [for it is] like the betrothal of the bridegroom and the bride…. Know that by means of sanctifying the moon and the intercalation of the year below the bride who is comprised of [of all] above is sanctified and she is joined to her husband, and from this union the new, pure souls of the righteous and pious burst forth into this world as well as the groups of angels of lovingkindness and mercy…. That the physical moon is in the pattern of the spiritual moon is attested by the fact that if you contemplate the face of the moon when it is full you will see in it something like the form of a human. I asked the sages who gaze upon the stars [concerning this phenomenon] and not one of them knows the reason or explanation. In my opinion it is an allusion to what the rabbis, blessed be their memory, said, “the form of Jacob, our father, is engraved on the throne of glory.” The throne is the name of the last attribute, the Matrona, and the form of Jacob is Jacob the elder, the secret of the king who sits on the throne. He dwells in her midst and is united with her, betroths her and illuminates her face. As an allusion to this the form of a human face is inscribed on the physical moon.

Translated by Elliot Wolfson in “The Face of Jacob in the Moon- Mystical Transformations of an Aggadic Myth,” in The Seduction of Myth in Judaism- Challenge and Response, 235-270. Edited by S. Daniel Breslauer. Albany- State University of New York Press, 1997.