What is the meaning of the Pasuk "Vayechasu he'Anan Sheishes Yamim"? When did it take place?
Rashi #1 (citing Yoma, 4a): The Pasuk means that the Cloud covered Har Sinai for the six days prior to Matan Torah (from Rosh Chodesh Sivan until the sixth), 1 and Hashem called Moshe on the seventh, when He announced the Aseres ha'Dibros. 2
Rashi #2 (in Yoma 4a.): The cloud covered Moshe for the first six days after Matan Torah (from the seventh of Sivan until the twelfth), before Hashem called him to come to Him to receive the Luchos.
Since the Torah is going to write "Vayikra el Moshe ba'Yom ha'Shevi'i mi'Toch he'Anan", why does it need to insert "Vayechasu he'Anan Sheishes Yamim"?
Yoma, 3b: To teach us that whoever enters the Machaneh Shechinah requires separation for six days. 1
Refer to 24:16:151:1.
See Torah Temimah, note 34, as to why the Kohen Gadol required seven days separation.
What are the implications of "Vayikra el Moshe ba'Yom ha'Shevi'i"?
Yoma, 4b: It implies that the Torah was given on the seventh of Sivan. 1
Like the opinion of R. Yossi. See Torah Temimah, note 36, who discusses the fact that, on the one hand we Pasken like R. Yossi, whilst on the other, we celebrate Shavu'os on the sixth of Sivan./
Why six days?
Moshav Zekenim: It was in order to clear his stomach of all food and drink. 1
Moshav Zekenim citing R. Yehudah ha'Chasid: Also the Mishkan was Machaneh Shechinah, and one need not to clear his stomach of all food before entering it! Here was different, for angels were here, and he had to be like one of them. (R. Akiva said that also angels eat Manna (Yuma 75b)! Gur Aryeh (Bereishis 1:21) says that it is not like our eating. Or, this is like R. Yishmael, who argues with R. Akiva (PF). Or, perhaps Moshe ate from the Shelamim, or the meal with Yisro, if he came before Matan Torah. However, can we say that he defecated while the cloud covered him?!)
QUESTIONS ON RASHI
Rashi writes that the six days were after Matan Torah. If so, the forty days [on the Har] finished after the seventeenth of Tamuz. The Gemara states in Ta'anis, 28b that he broke the Luchos on the seventeenth! Also, the hundred and twenty days days that he was on the Har terminated after Yom Kipur! The six days could not be before Matan Torah (like Rashi's other Perush), for he was going up and down?
Moshav Zekenim: Really, they were before Matan Torah. Since Moshe had a path within the cloud (to go up and down - refer to 24:18:1:1), it emptied his innards from food and drink.
