Komentarz do Powtórzonego Prawa 34:1

מערבת מואב אל הר נבו [AND MOSES WENT UP] FROM THE PLAINS OF MOAB TO MOUNT NEBO — There were several levels leading from the plain to the summit, but Moses covered them in one step (Sotah 13b).

AND THE ETERNAL SHOWED HIM [MOSES] ALL THE LAND — all the Land of Israel beyond the Jordan [westward] — and then the verse states that He showed him even Gilead, as far as Dan. Now Moses was in the territory of Reuben, and half the hill-country of Gilead, and the cities thereof²⁸⁹Above, 3:12. belonged to the children of Reuben,²⁸⁹Above, 3:12. and the other half belonged to Menasheh.²⁹⁰Joshua 13:31. Therefore the verse before us must mean that [G-d showed Moses the whole Land] “from Gilead²⁹¹The verse cannot mean that G-d showed him the land of Gilead, because that is precisely where Moses was. Instead the word eth — eth Gilead — must mean “from” the Gilead onward. as far as Dan.” Or it may be that there was [a place called] Gilead in the Lebanon in the Land of Israel, as it is written, thou art Gilead unto Me, the head of Lebanon.²⁹²Jeremiah 22:6. The verse mentions as far as Dan which is at the extremity of the border of the Land of Israel, as it is written, Go now to and fro through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba.²⁹³II Samuel 24:2. It mentions the land of Ephraim and Menasheh²⁹⁴Verse 2. which were in the northern part of the Land of Israel, and the land of Judah was to the south, as it is written, Judah shall abide in his border on the south, and the house of Joseph shall abide in their border on the north,²⁹⁵Joshua 18:5. for Judah took all the south of the Land of Israel from the Jordan to the sea, and Dan took the north-west. It mentions Naphtali²⁹⁴Verse 2. who was on the east, near Judah,²⁹⁶Ibid., 19:34 [in speaking of the border of Naphtali]: and it reached… to Judah at the Jordan toward the sunrise. but it does not mention Asher and Issachar, for they were among Ephraim and Menasheh, as it is written [about the borders of Ephraim and Menasheh], and they reached to Asher on the north, and to Issachar on the east.²⁹⁷Joshua 17:10. It did not mention Simeon, for their inheritance was in the midst of the inheritance of the children of Judah,²⁹⁸Ibid., 19:1. nor that of Benjamin whose border of their lot went out between the children of Judah and the children of Joseph,²⁹⁹Ibid., 18:11. already mentioned near them. It states as far as the western sea²⁹⁴Verse 2. which alludes to Zebulun who dwelt at the shore of the sea,³⁰⁰Genesis 49:13. or it may be that [Zebulun] is included [in the statement that G-d showed him] the south, and the plain³⁰¹Verse 3. [since the territory of Zebulun was in the plain at the sea]. It mentions the valley of Jericho³⁰¹Verse 3. because it is a deep valley, not visible from the top of the mountain [where Moses stood], but G-d showed it to him miraculously. In general then He showed him the entire inheritance of Israel, as it is written, This is the Land which I swore etc.³⁰²Verse 4. Our Rabbis in the Sifre³⁰³Sifre, Brachah 357. have elucidated about these places mentioned in Scripture.
Now, the reason for this sight which He showed him was because the Land of Israel is full of all good things,³⁰⁴Above, 6:11. and is the beauty of all lands.³⁰⁵Ezekiel 20:6. And since the great love with which Moses our teacher loved Israel was manifest to Him, He made him rejoice by beholding the abundant goodness with his eyes.³⁰⁶Ecclesiastes 5:10.

ויראהו ה׳ את כל הארץ; G'd showed him the entire country. The Torah may mean that G'd enhanced Moses' natural eyesight so as to enable him to see the whole land in all its details. This could be achieved by one of two means. 1) To provide Moses with additional eyesight by enabling him to utilise the original light G'd created on the first day of creation which He withdrew from man as a result of Adam's sin. According to Chagigah 2, Adam had been able to see from one end of the earth to the other by means of that light. 2) Or, G'd brought the land closer to Moses so that he could see it in detail with his normal eyesight.

ויראהו ה' את כל הארץ, “Hashem showed him the whole country.” Nachmanides emphasizes that the words את כל הארץ, do not refer to the whole earth, but to the whole of the land of Israel on the west bank of the Jordan, whereas afterwards the Torah added that He showed him also in detail the territory of the two and a half tribes on the east bank of the Jordan.

ויעל משה, “Moses ascended;” according to the view of Rabbi Avraham Ibn Ezra, these words and all those that follow have been written by Moses’ disciple Joshua, seeing that after Moses ascended he did not come back, and when should he have written these words and where? Joshua wrote these lines after having been prophetically inspired, seeing that he was not an eye-witness to what is described in these verses. Ibn Ezra views the words ויראהו ה', “the Lord showed him,” as proof that Moses could not have written this, else he would have written ויראני ה', “the Lord showed me.” He also feels it is impossible for Moses to have written, concerning himself, “he was buried there.” Ibn Ezra felt constrained to adopt this approach as he could not accept that Moses describes his own death and burial while still alive.
However, this is not true; his commentary is not correct. The correct way of viewing these lines is that we must accept the tradition that Moses wrote the entire Torah including the last eight verses at the dictation of G’d. In fact, one may view Moses as someone who copied verbatim a book which had been written long before he ever lived. This is the view of Rabbi Meir in Baba Batra 15 who said: “is it conceivable that the Torah would be complete if even a single letter of it were missing? Was it not Moses himself who commanded the Levites in Deut. 31,26: ‘to take this book of the Torah?’ Did he command them to take an incomplete Torah?” We must adopt the opinion of the sages in the Talmud who hold that Moses wrote these last verses בדמע. [I have never been sure if this means “tearfully,” or “with tears,” i.e. substituting tears for ink. Ed.]
I do not believe that it is something so extraordinary for us to believe that Moses could write a verse saying: “Moses, the servant of Hashem, died there, and He buried him in the valley, etc.,” seeing he was writing matters which had not happened yet but would surely happen in the future. He had previously written about things which had not happened yet but would happen in the future, when he wrote (Deut. 32,19) “the Lord saw and became exasperated and spurned His sons and daughters, etc.” At that time Moses had predicted events which would not occur until the fall of the Temple. He had also described many other events in the future in the past tense, as if they had already taken place. This was a style employed by many prophets and is something we should not have too much trouble to understand (Compare Nachmanides on Exodus 15,1 and the use of the future tense there for an event which had just occurred).

There were a number of elevations, etc. Otherwise, the verse should only have said Moshe went up to Mount Nevo. Why does it say from the plains of Moav”? Do we not know already that Moshe was in the plains of Moav since the whole of Devarim was taught in the plains of Moav?

Kap. 34. VV. 1 — 3. ויעל וגו׳. Über die Benennung der Gebietsteile nach den Stämmen schon vor der Verteilung siehe zu Bamidbar 34, 19.

את הגלעד עד דן, “the region of Gilad as far north as Dan.” Moses describes the boundaries of the Land of Israel, which in the Book of Samuel I, is described as “from Dan to Be-er Sheva.

ויעל משה, “Moses ascended;” G-d had told him to ascend Mount Nebo already in Numbers ,27,12; at that time the Mountain was called: הר העברים. Nonetheless, Moses had waited with doing this until he had blessed his people.

את כל הארץ [AND THE LORD SHOWED HIM] ALL THE LAND — He showed him all the land of Israel in its prosperity and the oppressors who in future time would oppress it (Sifrei Devarim 357:4).

את הגלעד עד דן, “Gilead as far as Dan.” Moses was standing on part of the land owned by the tribe of Reuven, whose territory also included some parts of Gilead. Menashe had conquered the other half of Gilead. There was also a “Gilead” in the mountains of Lebanon, which was located on the west side of the Jordan in Israel proper. This is based on Jeremiah 22,6 גלעד אתה לי ראש הלבנון, “Gilead, you are for Me the head of Lebanon etc.;” The reason the Torah mentions the words עד דן, is because that is the northernmost boundary of the land of Israel. The land of Yehudah, basically describes the southern part of the country. Proof of this is Samuel II 24 where Beer Sheva is listed as the southernmost city in Yehudah at the time David commanded Yoav to count the men capable of bearing arms. The tribes of Menashe and Ephrayim are mentioned by name as they populated the others regions. So are Naftali and Dan. Naftali bordered Yehudah in the east. Issachar’s boundaries are not mentioned, as its territory bordered Ephrayim on one side and Menashe on the other. Shimon was an enclave within the territory of Yehudah, and also did not need to be mentioned separately. Binyamin is also not mentioned because its territory was wedged between Yehudah to the south and the tribes of Joseph in the north. The reason the boundary of the Mediterranean is mentioned is on account of Zevulun whose territory was adjacent to the shores of that ocean. There is a view that the territory of Zevulun was situated all the way to the Dead Sea, near Jericho, based on the Torah describing that tribe as dwelling between “seas” (plural). (Genesis 49,13) The valley of the Jordan near Jericho is mentioned especially, seeing that the area is 1200 meters below sea level and not easily visible from where Moses had been standing. G’d invoked a miracle to enable Moses to see all this with his physical eyes. It is clear that Moses was shown the entire land clearly as the Torah testifies that G’d said: “I have shown you the whole land that I have sworn to give to Avraham, Yitzchok, and Yaakov.” (34,4) The principal reason G’d showed Moses the land was to impress him with its goodness. G’d was aware of the tremendous love Moses possessed both for his people and for the land of Israel. He knew that He gave Moses a great deal of joy by showing him what his people had to look forward to.

He showed him all of Eretz Yisroel in its tranquility, etc. Rashi is answering the question: The verse should only have said the entire land until the rearward sea. Why do I need all these details, the Gilod, etc.? And because of this reason he [also] has to explain [what is hinted in] the Negev and the plain, etc.

חים האחרון siehe zu Kap. 11, 24. — הככר ist die Talebene des Jordans (siehe Bereschit 13, 10).

הר נבו, “Mount Nebo.” This mountain is identical with the one called: הר העברים in Numbers chapter 27.

עד דן UNTO DAN — He showed him the children of Dan practicing idolatry, as it is said, (Judges 18:30) “And the sons of Dan erected the graven image for themselves”; and He showed him also Samson who would in the future issue from him (Dan) as a savior (Sifrei Devarim 357:7).

The name in this verse appears to relate to the summit of that range of mountains which was situated on the territory of Reuven, as pointed out in Numbers 32,37 where the members of the tribe of Reuven are described as having built Nebo, etc.; when it is written concerning the territory of the tribe of Gad: “for that is where the grave of the lawgiver is situated,” (Deut. 33,21) it appears that this must have been at the boundary between the territories of Reuven and Gad.

את כל הארץ, “the whole land;” Moses saw the entire land of Canaan with his physical eyes, more than what Joshua would step on with his feet during his wars of conquest. (Joshua 18, 210)

את הגלעד, “the region known as Gilead;” Moses at the time when looking at the West Bank of the river Jordan was standing in that region, -

עד דן, “looking as far north as Dan,” the northern boundary of the land of Israel. (Compare what is written in Samuel I 3,20, etc.)