And
concerning joy [I said], "What does this accomplish?"
Pinchas
Leiser
In one of his books, Adam Baruch z"l
wrote that as a young man studying at the Hevron Yeshiva he once danced
enthusiastically at the hakafot for Simhat Torah. The rosh yeshiva came over and tapped him on
the shoulder and said: "Young man, for what you have studied – you have
danced enough."
I think that this encounter with Simhat
Torah, (which in the Land of Israel has overshadowed Shemini Atzeret and is
rooted in the Babylonian custom of reading the Torah in a one year cycle and which
has developed into a folk holiday of dancing and the loosening of various
restraints) with the content of the parasha read on that day expresses the same
paradoxical dialectic.
In the Diaspora a distinction is maintained
between the original holiday of Shemini Atzeret, which is firmly founded in
Scripture and rabbinic literature and Simhat Torah, which is celebrated on the
"second festival day of the Diaspora." However, no sign of Shemini Atzeret survives
in the Land of Israel except for the maftir reading and the amidah
prayer. The entire People Israel
celebrates Simhat Torah.
On this day, even when it does not fall on
Shabbat, we read parashat VeZot HaBrakha, which is, of course, the concluding
parasha of the Torah.
As we all know, the Torah devotes a few
verses (Devarim 34:5-12) to describing Moses' death:
5. And Moses,
the servant of the Lord, died there, in the land of Moab, by the mouth of
the Lord.
6. And He buried him in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite Beth
Pe'or. And no person knows the place of his burial, unto this day.
7. Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died. His eye
had not dimmed, nor had he lost his [natural] freshness.
8. And the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for
thirty days, and the days of weeping over the mourning for Moses came to an end.
9. And Joshua the son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because
Moses had laid his hands upon him. And the children of Israel obeyed him, and
they did as the Lord had commanded Moses.
11. as manifested by all the signs and wonders, which the Lord had sent
him to perform in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and all his servants, and to
all his land,
12. and all the strong hand, and all the great awe, which Moses
performed before the eyes of all Israel.
Moses, servant of the Lord and the prophet who
achieved the greatest intimacy with God, died by the mouth of the Lord; there was no medical explanation for his
death, rather, he died because that is the common fate of human beings as
decreed by God. Midrashim describe
Moses' dialogue with God, expressing his desire not to die and not just his
desire to enter the Land of Israel.
Thus, when Moses joins the rest of humanity, dying by the mouth of the Lord, the man of God is transformed into a human figure rather than an
angel or a part of the Divinity.
Furthermore: Our Rabbi Moses, greatest of prophets, has no gravesite! His burial place is unknown. One can only imagine what kind of rites would
have been practiced by his grave, and indeed, various commentators (Hizkuni and
R. Yitzhak Shmuel Reggio) discuss the matter.
R. Yitzhak Shmuel Reggio (Northern Italy 19th century)
writes:
And no person knows the place of his burial – Behold this is a wonderful matter; the
Torah tried to specify the place of burial as thoroughly as possible - in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite
Beth Pe'or – but despite
all that God arranged things so that no person knows the place of his burial. He
did so that future generations would not err and worship him [Moses] as a god
in reaction to the fame of the wonders he worked.
The Jerusalem Talmud (Shekalim chapter 2, 47a, halakhah 5) also
expresses concern that the graves of the righteous should not become places of
worship:
We learned: Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel says:
"A nefesh [memorial structure built over a grave] should not be
made for the righteous; their words are their memorial."
And the RaMBaM (Hilkhot Avel 4:4)
states:
The entire
cemetery should be marked and a nefesh should be built over each grave,
but a nefesh should not be set up over the graves of the righteous for
their words are their commemoration and one should not be given to
visiting graves.
Regarding the Torah's concluding words, which
Moses performed before the eyes of all Israel, Rashi writes:
before
the eyes of all Israel [This expression alludes to the incident, where]
His heart stirred him up to smash the tablets before their eyes, as it is said,
and I shattered them before your eyes (Devarim 9:17). - [Sifrei 33:41]
And [regarding Moses shattering the Tablets,] the Holy One Blessed is He gave
His approval, as Scripture states, “[the first Tablets] which you shattered”
(Shemot 34:1); [God said to Moses:] “Well done for shattering them!” - [Shabbat
87a]. (Judaica Press translation)
It would appear that the death of the ultimate
leader is a sad event, and so concerning
joy, What does this accomplish? Why conclude the Torah reading
of the festival known as Simhat Torah – the rejoicing of the Torah – with this
depressing episode?!
I think that investigation of this short passage teaches us something
about the paradoxical joy that is appropriate on this day. Verse 8 states: And
the sons of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab for thirty days, and
the days of weeping over the mourning for Moses came to an end. That is to say, Moses' death was mourned in
the same normative and limited fashion as is the death of anyone else: for
thirty days.
This limitation, together with other elements discussed above,
highlights the fact that despite his fame as the greatest of prophets, Moses
was only human. Perhaps this can teach
us that each of us can, as a human being, rise spiritually in his own way, even
if we cannot achieve Moses' station. This
is not a matter reserved for "angels."
Let us conclude with a clear statement from R. Meir Simha MiDvinsk's Meshekh
Hokhma:
All of the types
of holiness, [that of] the Land of Israel, Jerusalem and the Temple, they are
but details and branches of the Torah, and they are sanctified through the
Torah's holiness...Do not imagine, God forbid, that the Temple and the
Tabernacle are intrinsically holy objects! God dwells among His sons in order
for them to worship Him, and if they, to a man, have transgressed the
Covenant (Hosea 6:7), all holiness is removed from them [the Temple, etc.],
and they become like profane vessels "intruders came and desecrated
it." Titus entered the Holy of Holies with a prostitute and was not harmed
(Gittin 56b) because its holiness had been removed. More than that - the
Tablets - the writing of God - are not holy in themselves, but only for your
sake when you observe that which is written in them...no created thing is holy
in itself, but only in that Israel observes the Torah.
...None of the
holy places are founded in religion... [As for] Mount Sinai, the place of
religion, as soon as the Divine Presence left it - the sheep and cattle climbed
up it (Shemot 19:13)! (Meshekh Hokhmah Shemot 32:19;12: 21)
Yeshayahu Leibowitz broadened this principle
to encompass every phenomenon in our lives that we tend to call
"holy":
Our Rabbi Moses
exemplified this when he broke the tablets as soon as he saw the people
transgress the commandment make no idol or image for yourself. We must
understand that the expression idol or any image applies not only to the golden
calf made by Israel, but to every natural existent: Nation, land, homeland,
flag, army, idea, a personality, and so forth, whenever they are treated as
being holy. (Y. Leibowitz: Sheva Shanim shel Sihot al
Parashiyot HaShavu'a, pg. 401)
Perhaps it is precisely the knowledge that
what is left for us is "the Torah of Moses" – which is the
"Torah of Life" that can be interpreted in every new generation, and
that we are commanded to choose life and not worship of the dead, of graves, or
of other objects - that can be a source of true joy and significance.
Pinchas Leiser, editor of Shabbat
Shalom, is a psychologist.
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