“AND NO MAN HAS KNOWN HIS BURIAL PLACE
The last of the
Tishrei festivals, termed “The Period of Our Rejoicing” concludes with “Atseret”
– “Assembly”. Since the time when Jewish communities adopted the yearly
(Babylonian) cycle of the Torah reading, this holiday has become “Simchat
Torah” – “The Joy of the Torah”, a climax of joy, characterized by many customs
expressing that joy. It is interesting to note that in those moments in
particular when we call to the Torah the Chatan Torah – “the Groom of
the Torah”, we read those verses which describe the death of Moshe and his
burial. A short and dramatic chapter paints Moshe’s ascent to Mt. Nebo Land of Israel
Let us examine
verse 6 in
Chapter 34:
“And he was buried in the glen in
the land of Moab
The first part
of the verse describes the location of Moshe’s burial, but in the second, the
Torah informs us that no man knows where Moshe is buried (according to Chazal in the Sifri and
Tractate Sotah!!).
The Talmud in
Sotah (Bavli Sotah 13b) discusses the
paradoxical nature of the passage, without offering any explanation:
“And he was buried
[translator’s note: The Hebrew for “he was buried” may, because of the lack of vocalization signs, be also read
as “He buried”] in the glen in the land
of Moab
R’ Hezkia ben
Manoah, author of the Hizkkuni commentary, develops Chazal’s reading
into an explanation:
He buried him in the glen – The
Omniscient gave three signs for the location of Moshe’s burial place, as is written ‘in the glen’, and
where is this glen? ‘In the land
of Moab
The view that
Moshe was not buried by man is buttressed by the lack of a clear
designation of the clause’s subject - who “buried”? This lack of clarity
facilitates the possibility that Moses buried himself (Rabbi Yishmael in the Sifri on Naso,
and Ibn Ezra). Rashi argues that the Holy One himself buried Moshe (also based on Chazal).
Obviously, none
of these suggestions can be understood literally. R’ Ovadia of Solferino,
author of the Seforno commentary, adds:
“If he buried himself, as some Sages
suggest, it was his non-material soul [ha’nefesh ha’nivdelet], because he died on
the mountain, the peak
of Pisgah
Here there is a
clear differentiation between the flesh-and-blood Moshe and “his non-material
soul.”
The ambiguity
surrounding the death and burial of Moshe prompted a Talmudic opinion that
Moshe never died:
It has been taught: R. Eliezer the
Elder said: Over an area of twelve mil square, corresponding to that of the camp of Israel , a Bath Kol made the proclamation, ‘So
died Moshe, the great teacher
of Israel
Here, too, we
may assume that Chazal are referring to the “nefesh ha’nivdelet” of
Moshe and not to the flesh-and-blood Moshe.
It seems to me
that the confusion created by the Sages and commentators’ readings of Moshe’s demise
and burial place in the Biblical narrative creates a unique mood, and comes to
make a number of important points, which we will discuss later.
Our exegetes, of
earlier and later periods, deal with the question of the location of Moshe’s
burial site in different ways.
The Talmud (Sotah 14a),
according to the BaCH’s version, attempts to answer the question “Why was
Moshe’s grave concealed?”:
Said R’ Hama bar Chanina: Why was Moshe’s grave
concealed? Because the Holy One knew that
the Temple would some day be destroyed and Israel would go
into exile, and that might they stand
and weep and mourn over Moshe’s grave, saying to him: Moshe our teacher, stand
and pray for us, and Moshe
would stand up and cancel the decree.
According to
this understanding, God wanted to prevent the Children of Israel from arousing
his mercies (Moshe’s? The Almighty’s?). by turning his grave into a place of
prayer.
Rabbi Moshe
Teitelbaum (the Elder) of Sátoraljaújhely (Hungary) Chassidic
author of the commentary “Yismach Moshe”, uses the juxtaposition of our passage
to the one following in the Talmud (Ibid., Soncino translation) for
the following exposition:
R’ Hama son of R’ Hanina further said: What
means the text: Ye shall walk after the Lord your God? Is it, then, possible for a human being to walk after the
Shechinah; for has it not been said: For
the Lord thy God is a devouring fire? But [the meaning is] to walk after the
attributes of the Holy One, Blessed
Be He. As He clothes the naked, for it is written: And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife clothes of skin, and
clothed them, so do thou also clothe the naked […] The Holy One, blessed be He, buried the dead, for it is written:
And He buried him in the valley, so do
thou also bury the dead. (Until here, the quote from the Talmud). I add my explanation, for it is known that they [the Sages] interpreted “Let them
follow this order” [The reference is to the
Thirteen Attributes of God] (Rosh
Hashana 17b) ‘Saying is
not sufficient, but there must be action,
they must act in accordance with the Thirteen Attributes (quoted above in
the Haphtara of Tetseh). R’ Hama bar
Hanina’s first exposition is problematic—Does the Holy One, blessed be He, hate Israel , forefend, that He
devises stratagems to avoid
cancellation of the decree [to live in
exile]? But the solution is that His intention is to benefit them, for
actually they could have
themselves cancelled the decree with the Thirteen Attributes. But in order for
them [the Thirteen Attributes] to benefit
them, they must act in accordance with this order, therefore was Moshe’s burial place concealed,
so that they would be forced to act
according to His attributes
in order to cancel the decree. Thus, the second exposition ‘follow His attributes’,
and this is His will as He
cautions them to follow his attributes, therefore was Moshe’s burial place hidden, so that they would be
forced to act according to His attributes, thereby cancelling the decree . . . (Yismach Moshe II, 153b)
It is not
desireable that Jewish prayers at Moshe’s grave offer an effortless substitute
for actions encompassed by “walking in His ways”.
R’ Hezkia ben
Manoach, author of “Hizkuni”, emphasizes the non-establishment of Moshe’s
grave as a place of worship, along with an additional reason:
“Until this day: So that no one
else be buried alongside, such as was the case in Bet-El, and so that inquirers of the dead not come with
their requests.”
RaLBaG,
explains the secrecy of the grave’s location similarly, but in greater detail (RaLBaG on Devarim 34:6):
The Lord did so [that no one
know the location] because if the site were to become known, future generations may mistakenly make
of him a divinity because of the famous wonders which he performed. Do you not see how the copper serpent
which Moshe formed resulted in some of Israel erring
because of the greatness of its creator (II Kings 18:4), and because God buried Moshe [secretly] as an omen,
no one ever touched his grave.
R’ Shimshon
Rafael Hirsch also explained in similar vein:
Let us recall how rituals bordering
on idolatry often developed around the graves of great men who did much for humanity, and thereby we
can understand the greatness of this final
stroke in the picture of Moshe’s life.
R’ Meir
Simcha of Dvinsk took a slightly different approach:
No man has known: In the sense
of has not recognized, i.e., had no relationship whatever to his burial place. This is because he was “a
man of God in his lifetime, and very humble, and was not connected to, not involved, in the
material and in general matters as are all men, and this is the meaning of “and no man has known” – not
even Moshe.
Despite their
shades of difference, the above explanations of the fog hovering over Moshe’s
grave move in one direction:
Moshe, the man (incidentally, when the Children of Israel demanded
of Aharon “Rise up and make us a god” it was the concrete “the man Moshe” they
missed) of flesh and blood, whose life was partially described in the
Torah, died like every man. The Torah describes his plea to enter the Land.
Chazal, too, in different sources, depict his longing to realize this dream and his desire for eternal life.
Moshe our teacher, man of God, greatest prophet of all time, “nafsho
hanivdelet” in Seforno’s words, did not die, because “the
righteous, even in death, are considered alive”. He continues to live within us
through the Torah, written and oral, in which “every innovation of future
distinguished scholars has already been presented to Moshe at Sinai”. Therefore
it is improper to desecrate his memory with idolatrous ritual. Rambam writes (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Mourning 4:4):
“[…] monuments are not erected
over the graves of the tsaddikim because their words are their memorials, and one should not go to visit
the graves”
The living
Moshe should not be replaced with inanimate gravestones. Perhaps Moshe our
teacher teaches us even with his death and burial a most important lesson: Our
Torah is a Torah of life, and has no interest in turning graves into ritual
sites and ‘holy places.” Holiness is not found in the ground, in stones and
graves, not even in the tablets of the covenant (see RaSHar Hirsch’s last
commentary on the Torah and the “Meshech Chochma” on Parashat Ki Tissah). It
is to be found in Man’s striving to sanctify his behavior during his lifetime.
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