Akeidat Yitzchak

On Deut 34,6, "no one knew the place Moses was buried," the Sifri writes "delegations sent to locate Moses' grave failed. When the delegation stood on high ground, they thought that they saw Moses' grave in the valley; when the delegation stood on low ground, they thought they saw Moses' grave on the mountain. When they split up, some standing on the mountain, others in the valley, those on the mountain thought that they saw it in the valley, whereas the group standing in the valley thought that they saw Moses' grave on the mountain. Therefore the Torah says that no one knew the site of Moses' grave."

Since man's greatest misfortune is the inescapable need to die, and since certain superior individuals such as the prophet Elijah or Enoch are reported to have ascended to Heaven without undergoing physical death first, it seems strange that Moses the most perfect human being, should have died and been buried just like any ordinary mortal. True, he was buried by the Lord Himself, nevertheless, why should he not at least have been the equal of Elijah? (see Kings II 2, or Gnenesis 5,25) Since the Torah exhorts us repeatedly to observe certain commandments so that we should not die, dying must be viewed as a negative experience, possibly the ultimate negative experience. Moses' superiority to angels, is described by Sifri in Parshat vayelech in the following story. G'd said to the angel of death, "go and bring Me the soul of Moses." The angel went, stood by the side of Moses and asked him for his soul. Moses replied: "in a place where I am permitted to remain seated, you are not even allowed to remain standing; how could you have the temerity to demand my soul?" The angel of death withdrew angrily and reported back to the Almighty. G'd simply repeated His instructions to the angel once more. The angel of death returned once more to the place he had found Moses the last time, only to find that Moses had moved on since then. Enquiries from the sea as to Moses' present whereabouts, elicited the reply that the sea had not seen him since he had split the sea of reeds at the time the Jewish people crossed it at the Exodus. When the mountains and valleys were asked if they had seen Moses, they replied that G'd must have hidden him in a place no one knew of, since it is written "He buried him in the valley etc. (Deut 34,6) At any rate, from the description in the Sifri it is evident that the thought that Moses was merely another mortal was difficult for anyone to accept. Nonetheless, the Midrash deserves further analysis.

The solution to our problem may be Kohelet 12,7, "dust must return to earth, to its original state, whereas the spirit will return to G'd who had supplied it." The ultimate destiny of man then lies in the complete separation of spirit an matter. Life in the olam haba, the world beyond death, therefore, does not include any part of the body. ( see chapter eighty on the waters of strife) When Solomon concludes the statement quoted above with the words "vanity of vanities says Kohelet, all is vanity,” he omits some of the "vanities" he had mentioned in the opening chapters.(see Kohelet 1, verse 2) The body's function during life on earth, is to assist the mind, the spirit. Since most people's minds are materialistically oriented, they experience a strong pull of their body on their spirits at the time of death. This results in part of their spirit, i.e. a residue of the soul being unable to realease itself from the body. This is why that part of the soul absorbs some of the impurity of the dead body. This is the meaning of the statement in Berachot 8, "the soul of the wicked is as difficult to extract as wool from amongst thorns." The reference is to the spirit of impurity mentioned in Zecharyah 13,2. Seeing that most of mankind belongs to the category mentioned, the Torah decrees tum-ah, a state of impurity for the dead body. This impurity does not originate in matter, but in the corruption wreaked on the body by the spirit. The body, instead of having become the vehicle to advance the spirituality of the soul, had reversed the process. These bodies did not fulfil Solomon's dictum of returning to the dust in their original state. The concept of a twelve month period during which the soul keeps up some sort of intermittent contact with the body, reflects this idea. In a very few cases, peoples' lives follow the opposite pattern, inasmuch as their bodies become subservient to their spirituality. At death, the body then finds it difficult to separate from the soul, and to be left behind. In such cases, traces of the body, so to speak, try to escape towards Heaven together with the soul. Elijah's clothing, including his body would be burned off in the fiery elements he had to traverse in his ascent towards Heaven. A still better way of separating the body from the soul, is the clean break between body and soul at the precise moment of death, something accomplished by the very, very few. In those cases no impurity adheres to the physical remains at all, i.e. the dust is not impure and cannot become impure in its original state. When the Talmud says about Rabbeynu ha-kadosh that on the day he died priesthood became annulled, this is what the author of that statement Rabbi Chiyah had in mind. A person of the calibre of Rabbeynu hakadosh, who could say of himself that he had never enjoyed a physical satisfaction from his body, would not be forbidden contact with a priest when he died. The priest would be allowed to remain under the same roof with such a person's remains, seeing no impurity had attached itself to them. Herein lies the key to understanding the Sifri concerning the mission of the angel of death, and Moses' reaction to it. G'd had said to the angel "bring Me the soul of Moses." When Moses heard the angel of death say "give me your soul," he thought that the angel of death was trying to demonstrate his power, i.e. the power of ra, evil, over Moses. This is why he sent him away angrily. The body is composed of a mixture of four basic materials, i.e. fire, water, earth (dust) and wind (air). When the body develops a weakness, it is a sign that the four raw materials no longer work in harmony. The cause is due to an imbalance of the spiritual and material pressures within man. Death, i.e. separation of body and soul, must be preceded by the dissolution of the fusion of the four basic ingredients of the body. Moses, who knew that such a process had not yet commenced within him, knew that death due to this imbalance of forces did not apply to him yet. The angel of death had misunderstood his mission, which was simply to bring about the dissolution of the bond that held these four basic material ingredients together. Once this had been done, a clean break of body and soul would occur. When the Midrash describes the angel as approaching gehinnom, the mountains and the hosts of angels, to find out Moses' whereabouts, this describes the angel's search to see if any of the four basic materials had shown signs of weakening in Moses, and could form the basis for his being able to perform his usual task. He found that this had not occurred, and came back to G'd, mission unaccomplished. When G'd sent him out a second time, without changing the instructions, this showed that it had been the angel who had misunderstood, not that the instructions had not been precise enough. The fact that G'd Himself buried Moses, emphasises the separation of body and soul had been complete, instantaneous, that there had been no tum-ah at all. How else could G'd have involved Himself in Moses' burial, since He would then come into contact with impurity? This was an act of unprecedented love shown for any human being. Our sages see in the fact that the site of Moses' burial has never ben revealed, a retribution for Moses not having displayed sufficient fervor in the matter of Zimri cohabiting with the Midianite woman Kosbi. This had resulted in the need for Pinchas to take the law into his own hands. The message of the Midrash then is, that those who looked for Moses' burial place on the mountain, had ascribed super human qualities to him. They had to be reminded by seeing him buried in the valley, that even a Moses had human failings. Those, on the other hand, who had searched for his grave in the valley, only to see it on the mountain, had to be reminded that Moses did in fact tower high above other human beings. The fact that the site of the grave remains undisclosed, teaches that a true assessment of the complex personality of Moses is even beyond our sages. The term lakach hashem, G'd took, an expression we find when the wife of the prophet Ezekiel died, as well as when Enoch and Elijah left this earth, denotes that the earthly lives of these people were utterly fulfilled. When our sages say that Elijah did not die, the meaning is that he completed the earthly part of his life only. There remained other parts of his life to be fulfilled in a domain that does not know death. (Moed Katan 26) Our sages have made a general rule that "the righteous are called alive when they have died." In the case of Elijah, this is carried a bit further. Elijah did not even appear to die, hence there was no need for us to be told that appearances notwithstanding, he was not dead. Elijah, having wished himself an experience similar to that of Moses, was commanded to ascend to Heaven in the vicinity of the site where Moses had been buried, (see chapter 35)

"And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto mount Nebo" etc. "And the LORD showed him all the land" etc.

G'd showed Moses the whole land of Gilead etc. and said: "This is the land...you have seen it with your eyes, but you will not cross over into it." (Deut 34,4) If this was intended as a consolation, why did G'd arouse Moses' grief at not having realised what he had been allowed to view? Our sages, who were keenly aware of this, interpreted the first verse in the chapter, i.e. "vaya-al, he ascended, as emphasizing that Moses, as distinct from other mortals, always ascended. Jewish history knows of many ascents and descents. The statement describing Moses as being shown the land, must be understood as a vision into time, into the future, not as a vision into space.

"You will not cross over into it," means it is impossible for one lifetime to span the untold generations that G'd showed the mind's eye of Moses.

Verses 4-8 do not appear in the order in which one would have expected them. If we were to write this paragraph, we would write verses 5-7-6-8 in that order. The verse giving Moses' age at death immediately prior to the verse reporting Israel as mourning him, indicates that Moses died while in full possession of his youthful vigour. Therefore, the people concluded that Moses' departure from the scene was meant as a punishment for them, since they would henceforth be deprived of his leadership. We find a very similar description in Samuel II chapter thirty five, when the death of Avner is recorded. There too, the people felt that his death was a punishment for them. Our sages have expressed the idea on several occasions that Moses' departure was even a cause for "grief" in the celestial regions, since Moses could no longer be active on behalf of programs of Divine origin. The important factor for all who suffer a bereavement to keep in mind is, that the departed has joined the ranks of those enjoying eternal life. This is the reason we celebrate Simchat Torah on the day when Moses achieved that status. Completion of the Torah was the completion of Moses' lifework. (see chapter 82 re Moses' merit vis a vis other prophets)

The Sifri in Deut 33,29, describes Israel as enquiring from Moses what future reward G'd had in store for them. Moses' reply was the verse "hail to you Israel, who is like you a nation helped by the Lord?" Since olam haba is not like anything that can be experienced in this world, and all the pleasures, satisfactions and even ecstasy in this world are as nothing compared to what will be experienced in the hereafter, Moses was not able to describe that world except in the most general terms.

It is a well known fact that a period of motion is usually followed by a period of rest. The Sabbath at the end of six days of creative activity, during which something had been created out of nothing, was such a period of constructive rest, tachlit. The purpose of all creative activity had been to attain this goal, the Sabbath. Once completed, the universe could be shown to have been a successful creation only, if it were able to function on its own, without constant directives from its Creator. Moving into a new home, living in it, testifies that the building process has been completed successfuly, even though already during the various stages of erecting the structure there may have been many moments of satisfaction, pride, and sense of achievement for the builder.

Death represents the successful completion of life, since the latter is a state of inertia vis a vis the state of motion called life. Though we have a tendency of viewing death as the opposite of life, because it is a state of inertia, it is nevertheless what life had aimed at since birth. When Solomon describes the day of death as superior to the day one is born on, (Kohelet 7,1) this is to be understood within the framework of life and its accomplishments. When life is lived correctly, death is but the ultimate purpose of life. Eternity, infinity, are not part of the brief alliance between body and soul commonly known as a "lifetime." Solomon's statement in the very same verse that "better a good name than good oil," should be understood in a similar vein. A good name is an ultimate achievement. Material goods along the way are only fleeting satisfactions, transient successes. The period we spend on earth as "Adam," partially adamah earth, is transient; it is only a preamble to our achieving our real tachlit purpose in the hereafter.

Since the Torah has been given to us to ennoble our lives on this earth, a superficial evaluation would lead us to believe that when studying Torah there must also be a definitive goal, one that is capable of being achieved even if it does take a long time and prolonged effort to achieve that objective. More profound thinking, however, will show us that precisely because it is divinely revealed, it does not conform to earthly considerations. An objective yardstick by which one can measure achievements cannot be applied to Torah study. This is what the Psalmist had in mind, when he proclaims in Psalms 119,96 "for every purpose I have seen an end, (limit) but Your commandments are very wide ranging indeed." (endless) Attainment of final mastery of Torah is not given to any human being to achieve, nor do the six hundred and thirteen commandments encompass all that is expected of the Jew in order to refine him into the ideal personality. Most commandments have many sub categories, and even in the attempt to fulfil a single commandment such as "love your neighbour as you do yourself," there are innumerable ways of observing that commandment.

The variety of ways of pious conduct by individuals mentioned in the Talmud, demonstrates that it simply is not given to one person to fulfil all possible permutations in one lifetme. Performance and study of each of the sections brings its own reward in terms of happiness, enlightenment etc., but the impact of Torah in its totality is infinitely greater, and even different conceptually. The reward for fulfilment of each mitzvah may vary from "gold" to "fine gold," but the reward for the totality of observance is eykev rav, is so great that it cannot be defined in terms which our imagination understands. Similarly, when the Mishnah in Peah 1,1, promises dividends in this world for certain types of good deeds performed, whereas the "capital" is reserved for the world to come, the concept is identical with that expressed by the Psalmist. A study of the expressions used by our ancestors when blessing their children, or Israel as a whole, reveals that the change in the wording used reflects the ongoing and ever increasing closeness that existed between the various recipients on the one hand, and G'd on the other, just as already Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had different conceptions of mikdash the holy sanctuary, Abraham calling it "mountain," Isaac "field" and Jacob "house," respectively, there has been dynamic progress towards an increasingly intimate relationship between Israel and G'd. The uniqueness of this relationship is seen when Moses says "hail unto you Israel, who is like you?" Here he had paraphrased the words he had used in the song of thanksgiving after crossing the sea of reeds, when he had sung "who is like You O Lord, amongst the deities?" The reason the Jewish people wanted the reward in olam haba spelled out is, that they felt unless there was such a thing, the advantage of man over other creatures in this universe would not only be illusory, but man would actually be worse off than the animals. This very thought is in Solomon's mind, when he asks "what is man's gain in return for his toil?" (Kohelet 1,2) He refers to the comparison with the "inferior" creatures. Torah study and observance, force these conclusions on man. (see chapter thirty three) Moses' reply was that description in detail of that reward would deprive it of part of its value. Whenever we specify something, we give finite limits to the matter thus defined. Therefore, in order to preserve the comprehensive value of the reward, it could only be described as "indescribable."