Deuteronomy/Davarim 34: "But there arose no further prophet in Israel like Moshe, whom YHVH knew face to face"

 [What does it matter where the ‘remains’ of the earthly part of man ultimately rests?  

• Bereshiyth 3:19 says:  for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 
• Ecclesiastes 12:7: the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
  

  Image from souljournaler.blogspot.com

We tend to hang on to the material and that is understandable; hence, graves and cemeteries and markers.  Those who have lost loved ones for whatever reason, never retrieving the remains, never have closure . . . those who have loved ones perish in watery graves go through rituals of throwing flowers on seawaters.  There is that need to connect somehow, with those who have moved on to that unknown dimension, beyond the end of this life; we hang on to what’s left.  But really and truly, the only material place where the memory of a deceased loved one truly belongs is at ‘home’ in the human heart, and fond remembrance always is in the mind. 

 

For Moses, it is fitting that the God he served the last 40 years of his life would ‘take care’ of his remains; in His wisdom, and with the human tendency to turn the material into idols, Israel would have done with Moses’ remains what it did with vestiges of what it holds dear, such as the bronze serpent.

 

Commentary here is from the best of Jewish minds as collected in one resource book by Dr. J.H. Hertz, Pentateuch and Haftorahs; please keep in mind when reading commentary that sometimes they go beyond what the text says and appear like a reinterpretation (in a commentator’s imagination) of the event described.  There is for instance the issue of ‘who’ could have written the verses about the death of Moses since obviously, he could not have; so naturally, the commentators fill in the blanks, so to speak and elaborate on the original.  Such ‘extensions’ are sometimes introduced by “according to Jewish tradition” though sometimes no such indicator is given—-so reader, be discerning.

 

Our translation of choice isEF/Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses.–Admin1.]

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Deuteronomy/Davarim 34

THE DEATH OF MOSES

Before his eyes closed forever, Moses beholds from afar the Promised Land from the top of Pisgah, and dies there according to God’s decree.  His incomparable rank as a prophet and unique place in the history of Israel.

1 Now Moshe went up from the Plains of Moav

 to Mount Nevo, at the top of the Pisga (Range)

 that faces Jericho;

 and YHVH let him see all the land: 

Gil’ad as far as Dan,

 

went up . . . Nebo. From that height he came down no more.

‘Amidst the tears of the people, the women beating their breasts and the children giving way to uncontrolled wailing, he withdrew.  At a certain point in his ascent he made a sign to the weeping multitude to advance no further, taking with him only the elders, the high priest Eleazar and the general Joshua.  At the top of the mountain, he dismissed the elders, and then, as he was embracing Eleazar and Joshua, and still speaking to them, a cloud suddenly stood over him, and he vanished in a deep valley’ (Josephus).

unto mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah. ‘Pisgah’ was the specific name for a series of mountain-ranges in the high plateau of Moab.  In Deut. XXXII,49, as well as in Num. XXVII,12, these ranges are designated by the more general name ‘the mountain of the regions beyond’.  Nebo was the special name for one of these mountain ranges (Num. XXI,20).

even Gilead as far as Dan. Better, all the land—-Gilead unto Dan (G.A. Smith).

In the clear air of Palestine, he saw the Land lying before him.  From the top of Pisgah all Western Palestine is in sight—the undulating forests of Southern Gilead, the snow-clad top of Hermon, mounts Tabor and Gilboa, Ebal and Gerizim, the heights of Benjamin and Judah, the Mount of Olives, and Zion, Bethlehem and Hebron and Beersheba.  Sifri states that Moses was given something more than a mere physical glimpse of the Holy Land.  He was shown all the land of Israel as it then was in its prosperity, and as it would be in the days of its adversity.  He was given a prophetic vision of the main episodes in the future history of Israel; so that he saw Samson and Gideon, Deborah and David, taking up his unfinished task of leadership, and was vouchsafed a vision of all that would happen unto Israel till the Judgment Day.

 

2 and all Naftali, and the land of Efrayim and Menashe,

 and all the land of Yehuda,

 as far asthe Hindmost Sea,
3 and the Negev 

and the round-plain, the cleft of Jericho, the town of palms, as far as Tzo’ar.

the South.  The Negeb; southern Judea.

valley of Jericho.  The Plain through which Jordan flows into the Dead Sea.

4 And YHVH said to him: 

This is the land 

that I swore to Avraham, to Yitzhak, and to Yaakov, saying:

 To your seed I give it! 

I have let you see it with your eyes,

 but there you shall not cross!

thou shalt not go over thither.  ‘To labour and not to see the end of our labours; to sow and not to reap; to be removed from this earthly scene before our work has been appreciated, and when it will be carried on not by ourselves but brothers—is a law so common in the highest characters of history, that none can be said to be altogether exempt from its operation’ (Stanley).

5 So there died there Moshe, servant of YHVH, 

in the land of Moav,

 at the order of YHVH.

so Moses the servant of the LORD.  Ibn Ezra remarks that even in the act of dying Moses was still the servant of God, obeying the command of the Master.

died there.  Scripture thus stresses the fact that Moses was human in regard to death, even as he was as to birth; Exod. II,1.

according to the word of the LORD.  lit. ‘at the mouth of the LORD’.  God, say the Rabbis, spares the righteous the bitterness of death, and takes away their souls with a kiss.

6 He buried him 

in a valley in the land of Moav, 

opposite Bet Pe’or, 

and no man has knowledge of the site of his burial-place until this day.

he was buried in the valley.  In some depression on the Pisgah range.  According to Rabbinic legend, God buried Moses in a grave that had been prepared for him at Creation (Ethics of the Fathers, v. 6).

no one knoweth of his sepulchre.  It has been hidden from human ken, say the Rabbis, so that it might not become a place of pilgrimage for those who deify national heroes.  He lies in an unknown sepulchre and unvisited tomb.  It is the seal of his self-effacement.

unto this day. These words, like the whole of the latter portion of this chapter, were added by Joshua.  This is the opinion of Rabbi Judah.  Poetic and touchingly beautiful are the words of Rabbi Meir:  ‘These verses the Holy One, blessed be He, dictated, and Moses wrote them down in tears.’  Such also was the view of Philo:–‘The Divine Spirit fell upon him, and he prophesied with discernment, while still alive, the story of his own death; told, ere the end, how the end came; told how he was buried with non present, surely by no mortal hands but by immortal powers; . . . how all the nation wept and mourned for him a whole month and made open display, private and public, of their sorrow, in memory of his vast benevolence and watchful care for each of them and for all.’

7 Now Moshe was a hundred and twenty years old at his death; 

his eye had not grown-dim, 

his vigor had not fled.

nor his natural force abated.  lit. ‘neither had his freshness fled’.  He suffered none of the infirmities of age, and the natural freshness of his body had not become dried up.

8 The Children of Israel wept for Moshe in the Plains of Moav for thirty days. 

Then the days of weeping in mourning for Moshe were ended.

the mourning for Moses were ended.  The days of mourning even for the best men must have an end.  It is wrong unduly to prolong them.  The workman passes, but the work must be continued.  ‘No sooner did the sun of Moses set, than the sun of Joshua rose’ (Talmud).

9 Now Yehoshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, 

for Moshe had leaned his hands upon him, 

and (so) the Children of Israel hearkened to him and did as YHVH had commanded Moshe.

spirit of wisdom.  But another name for the Spirit of God (Ibn Ezra).

Moses had laid his hands upon him. Thus endowing him with a portion of his spirit, and imparting the necessary qualification to be his successor; Num. XXVII,18.

10 But there arose no further prophet in Israel like Moshe, 

whom YHVH knew face to face,

and there hath not risen . . . like unto Moses.  The pre-eminence of Moses is one of the Articles of Maimonides’ Creed.  ‘To lead into freedom a people long crushed by tyranny; to discipline and order such a mighty host; to harden them into fighting men, before whom warlike tribes quailed and walled cities went down; to repress discontent and jealousy and mutiny . . . require some towering character—a character blending in highest expression the qualities of politician, patriot, philosopher, and statesman—the union of the wisdom of the Egyptian with the unselfish devotion of the meekest of men . . . .  To dispute about the inspiration of such a man were to dispute about words.  From the depths of the Unseen such characters must draw their strength; from fountains that flow only to the pure in heart must come their wisdom.  Of something more real than matter; of something higher than the stars; of a light that will endure when suns are dead and dark; of a purpose of which the physical universe is but a passing phase, such lives ell’ (Henry George).

face to face.  num. XII,8.

In the sight of all Israel. ‘Such was the end of the Hebrew Lawgiver—a man who, considered merely in an historical light, without any reference to his Divine inspiration, has exercised a more extensive and permanent influence over the destinies of his own nation and mankind at large than any other individual recorded in the annals of the world’ (Milman).

According to Jewish custom, the completion of any of the Five Books of the Torah is marked in the Synagogue by the congregation exclaiming ‘Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another.’  Be strong. i.e. to carry out the teaching contained in the Book just completed.

The Masoretic notes state the number of verses in the Book of Deuteronomy to be 955; its Sedrahs (parshiyoth) 11; its chapters 34; and the number of verses in thew hole Torah to be 5,845.

Chapters XXXIII and XXXIV form the Reading for Rejoicing of the Law.  When the last verses of XXXIV have been read, the Torah is immediately begun again by the reading of Gen. I-!!,3.

End of Deuteronomy/Davarim.