Rashi on Exodus - The Patriarchs and Those Who are Lost and Not Found

"Moses returned to Hashem and said, 'My Lord, why have You harmed this people, why have You sent me? From the time I came to Pharaoh to speak in Your Name he harmed this people, but You did not rescue Your people."

-- Exodus 5:22


"The Holy One, Blessed is He, said to Moses in response: Woe! For those who are lost and are not found! I have good cause to bemoan the death of the Patriarchs. Many times I revealed Myself to them as El Shaddai, yet they did not say to Me, 'What is Your Name?' But you said, 'If they will say to me, What is His Name, what shall I say to them?'"

-- Rashi, Commentary on Exodus


LOST : Because they did not enter the promised land.

NOT FOUND : They did not find what Moses found when he asked for the Name to be revealed to him.

Midrash Rabbah Beresheet on the Ascent and Descent of Shekhinah

"Originally, the place of the Shekhinah was in the lower regions. When Adam sinned it ascended to the first heaven; when Cain sinned it ascended to the second heaven; in the generation of Enoch it ascended to the third; in the generation of the Flood to the fourth; in the generation of the Tower of Babel to the fifth; the men of Sodom caused it to depart to the sixth; and the Egyptians in the time of Abraham caused it to depart to the seventh. In contradistinction, seven righteous men arose and made it descend. Abraham brought it down to the sixth, Isaac to the fifth, Jacob to the fourth, Levi to the third, Kohath to the second, Amram to the first, and Moses caused it to come down from above to below on earth."

-- Midrash Rabbah, Beresheet 19.7