Komentarz do Powtórzonego Prawa 31:1

AND MOSES WENT. When Moses concluded his words, all who stood before him, and the young children, and the women returned to their own tents. It was not necessary for Scripture to mention this [that they returned to their tents], for it already stated, Ye are standing this day all of you before the Eternal your G-d;¹Above, 29:9. that thou shouldest enter into the covenant of the Eternal thy G-d,²Ibid., Verse 11. and [it is self-understood that] after having entered the covenant they would go away from him [Moses]. And so Scripture now states that Moses went from the camp of the Levites to the camp of the Israelites in order to show them honor, like someone who wishes to take leave of his friend and comes to ask permission of him.

וילך משה, "Moses went, etc." We need to know where Moses went. Yonathan ben Uzziel translates that Moses went to the study hall. Other commentators such as Nachmanides and Rabbeynu Bachyah say that he went from the camp of the Levites to the encampment of the Israelites much like a man who takes leave from his friends. The wording of the Torah is vague and does not provide a clue as to where Moses actually went. Another thing we are entitled to know is who told Moses that he would die on that day. Have we not been told in Shabbat 30 that man is not informed of precisely how long he will live? If that is correct, who told Moses that he would die on that day?

וילך משה, he was self-propelled, just as was Amram, Moses’ father who married his aunt Yocheved, daughter of Levi, and almost certainly many years his senior. (Exodus 2,1) Another of many uses of the word וילך meaning that the person described acted of their own initiative is found in Deut. 17,3 where the Jewish idolater described had not been seduced by anyone. After having concluded the matter of the covenant between G’d and this second generation of Israelites many of whom had not been born at the time of the Exodus, Moses now proceeds to comfort the people over his impending death. He does so in order that the joy over G’d having concluded this covenant with them should not be turned into sorrow over the prospect of his impending passing from the scene. Rejoicing over having been found fit to become a party to such a covenant is something natural, the psalmist in Psalms 149,2 speaking of Israel rejoicing with or over its Maker. Being in G’d’s presence, such as here, is always a joyful experience, as is offering sacrifices to Him, as we know from Deut. 27,7.when the occasion was to mark the erecting of the stones after the successful crossing of the river Jordan.

וילך משה, “Moses went, etc.” According to Nachmanides, after the people had accepted the new covenant and had gone to their respective tents, Moses left the encampment of the Levites, where the assembly had taken place, and went to the encampment of the Israelites, to show them respect and to take his final leave of them as on that very day he was to die on Mount Nebo. It is good manners not to take one’s leave without asking his host for permission to absent oneself, and Moses adhered to this time-honoured custom. His parting words commenced with his telling the people that on that day he had attained the age of 120 years. He informed them of this in order to lessen their grief over his passing, suggesting that now that he had attained that age he would no longer be a suitable leader for them. Moreover, seeing that G’d had forbidden him to cross the river Jordan, even if he felt capable and so inclined, he could not continue to lead them. Our sages said that the fountains of wisdom from which Moses had drunk during the last forty years had already dried up for him, and he could no longer draw inspiration from them. (Compare Sotah 13) This was actually a miracle G’d performed for him so that he would not grieve over Joshua taking over from him at a time when he still felt perfectly competent to continue.

Kap. 31. V. 1. וילך וגו׳. Mit den Segen- und Fluchverkündigungen und dem darauf folgenden Nachworte war das beendet, was Mosche im Namen Gottes an das Volk zu richten hatte. Er durfte daher seine Sendung für geschlossen ansehen, und wendet sich ganz den Anforderungen des Augenblicks, nämlich dem zu, was ihm noch vor seinem Scheiden und in Hinblick auf dasselbe zu tun übrig war. Es war dies: Abschied von dem Volke zu nehmen (Verse 1 — 6), ihm seinen Nachfolger mit auch ihn ermutigenden Worten vorzustellen (Verse 7 u. 8), endlich die bis dahin vollendete Toraschrift den Priestern und Ältesten des Volkes mit der Weisung zu übergeben, daraus nach jedem siebten Jahre der an der Gottesstätte des Gesetzesheiligtums vereinten Festversammlung des Volkes vorzulesen (Verse 9 — 13).

וילך משה, “Moses went;” from near the Tabernacle where he had his residence, as we know from: והחונים לפני משכן ה' משה אהרן ובניו, “and the ones encamped in front of the Tent of meeting: Moses, Aaron and his sons.”He now went from each tribe to the next to advise them of his impending death. He assured them that they had nothing to fear from his impending death, but that they should take heart and support their new leader Joshua. Why did Moses feel that he had to address and reassure each tribe separately? Why did he not merely use his trumpets and call a great assembly of the whole nation? According to Rabbi Joshua in the name of Rabbi Levi of Sakkinon, the trumpets which had been Moses’ private property, G-d had asked him to hide these trumpets so that no one else ever would blow them, not even he himself, as it would have been unseemly to do so on the day when he knew he was going to die. On that day Moses’ control over events had come to an end.

I believe we must explain our verse by recalling the Zohar volume one page 217. We are told there that 40 days prior to man's death his נשמה leaves him. Zohar bases this on Song of Songs 4,6: ונסו הצללים, "and the shadows fled." These "shadows" search for a resting place in the celestial regions and the righteous are aware of this. It is described there that Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai was aware of the fact that Rabbi Yitzchak's soul had already departed from him while the latter was still alive.

Er berief daher keine Volksversammlung zu sich, wie dies der Fall war, wenn er das Volk im Namen Gottes anzureden hatte, sondern: וילך, er ging zum Volke, um in der einfachsten, ganz den bescheidensten Mann charakterisierenden Weise sich bei ihm zu verabschieden.

וילך משה וידבר את הדברים האלה אל כל ישראל. בן מאה ועשרים שנה אנכי היום, וגו', “Moses went and spoke these words to all of Israel. ‘I am 120 years old this day.’” It is possible that the 120 years Moses lived corresponded to the 120 days he spent on Mount Sinai. During the first 40 days he received the first set of Tablets. During the second 40 days he pleaded for G’d to forgive the people the sin of the golden calf; he spent the next 40 days on the mountain in order to receive the second set of Tablets. This may be the reason why he used the term אנכי instead of אני.
Our sages in Sotah 13 feel that he meant to say that on that day he was precisely 120 years old, i.e. that he died on the same day of the same month as he had been born. This may also be the reason why he used the word היום at the beginning of the previous Parshah, so that all these speeches took place on the same day. The day in question was the seventh day of Adar at the end of the Israelites 40th year in the desert. We have further proof of this in 34,8 where the Torah reported that the people mourned Moses for 30 days during which they did not journey. The Torah states explicitly that the days of Moses’ mourning came to an end. It is proper to read this verse in conjunction with Joshua 1,10: “Joshua commanded the law-enforcement officers of the people: ‘prepare for yourselves provisions for in another three days you will cross the river Jordan.’” Anyone reading these two verses together will realize that Joshua would not command the people to prepare these provisions until the mourning period for Moses had passed. To make this plain, the Torah had to write the verse: “the days of crying for (the death of) Moses had concluded.” The Book of Joshua 4,19 reports that the Jewish people completed crossing the river Jordan on the tenth of the first month, i.e. 3 days after the conclusion of the mourning period for Moses. By counting backwards you will arrive at the date of the 7th Adar as the date on which Moses had died. When the Torah in Exodus 2,3 reported that Moses’ mother was unable to hide him any longer, the date referred to is the 6th of Sivan, the day on which the revelation at Mount Sinai took place 80 years later. On that day, the light which filled only his parents’ home on the day he was born became so powerful that it shone for the whole Jewish nation. The light which had filled the house of Amram had already forecast the eventual greatness of the boy that had been born to Yocheved. The reason Yocheved had to hide Moses in a basket, well insulated, was that the light surrounding the baby had become so much stronger that it represented a danger to the family. The Torah speaks of Yocheved having hidden Moses for שלשה ירחים ‘three lunar months,” rather than שלשה חדשים, “three months,” (Exodus 2,2) to indicate that these were lunar months. The months Adar, Nisan, and Iyar are 29,30, and 29 days long, respectively. This gives us a total of 88 days during which Moses was kept “hidden” at home, or it takes us back to the 7th day of Adar as Moses’ birthday. From all this it becomes clear that Moses died on the same day of the same month on which he had been born. The word חדש implies a period which equals 1/12th of the year, something not subject to variation either by adding or subtracting from it. The same is not true of the period known as ירח, a period which may comprise either 29 or 30 days. The reason why the Torah used the term ירחים in the verse mentioned was to enable us to calculate the precise date on which Moses was born. This prompted our sages in Kiddushin 38 to state that G’d completes the life cycle of the righteous from day to day (to grant them whole years) something they base on Exodus 23,26: את מספר ימיך אמלא, “I will fill (round out) the number of your days (meaning “years”).

It is also mentioned there that the names of the Israelites are actually the names of their respective souls. I myself have explained this on Proverbs 10,7 "that the name of the wicked will rot." Zohar Chadash 120 interprets this to mean that the wicked will not be able to remember his name, the reason being that the wicked has no soul. Having been deprived of his soul it is not surprising that the wicked does not recall his name.

לא אוכל עוד לצאת ולבא, “I am no longer able to go out (to war) and to come back.” Moses refers to the times he had led the armies of the Jewish people against Sichon and Og, respectively.
Nachmanides claims that the reason that Moses made this statement was to console the people about his impending death. No doubt, his physical powers had continued undiminished, as the Torah testifies about him in Deut. 34,7. He simply wanted to enhance the people’s regard for Joshua who would henceforth lead them in battle, and ensure that they would inherit the land. Our sages in Sotah 13. understand the words: “to go out and to come back” as referring to words of Torah. They claim that Moses felt that his ability to teach the Torah had waned, that the fountains of wisdom had dried up for him. This by it self was a miracle as it prevented him from relating to his impending death with worry and sadness. G’d also allowed this to happen so that Joshua could take over from him during his lifetime.

Here we are told that "Moses went;" this means that his soul, the spirit of life named Moses, had gone from him just like in any other צדיק whose end is at hand. In this instance Moses' soul is referred to in the masculine gender, i.e. וילך, to stress the greatness of his soul. By writing וידבר את הדברים האלה the Torah indicates that Moses was aware when walking that he would die on that day. He made this plain when he said: "I am exactly 120 years old today, etc." Our sages in Rosh Hashanah 11 interpret Moses' words as: "today my days and years have been completed."

Having read all this you may ask how it was that Moses knew that he would die on that day and not 40 days later seeing we said that the soul leaves 40 days before one's death? Read what I have written on Genesis 47,29 "Israel's days to die approached."

וידבר את הדברים האלה, He spoke these words, etc. Moses wanted to show that though he was 120 years old and about to die he had the strength to say all the words recorded from here until the end of the Book of Deuteronomy. No one except Moses possessed the physical or intellectual strength to do this.