Dvarim: It All Becomes Clear in the End!

by Rav Netanel Yosifun, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel

Many times, when consoling mourners at a shiva home, people will discuss the last words they heard from the deceased, or the last things that he or she did. This is apparently based on a sense and instinct that the last words of a person hint, in some way, as to the essence of his life.

It is told that when the Baal Shem Tov was on his deathbed, he was heard murmuring, "Let not the foot of arrogance come to me" (Psalms 36,12). He lived his entire life as a loyal conduit for the fulfillment of G-d's word, and he merited to establish, for generations, the Hassidic movement. And on his deathbed, he prayed that no form of pride should enter his heart.

Regarding the Gaon of Vilna it is recounted that when he was about to leave this world, he grasped his tzitzit in hand and said, "O Tzitzit, in This World, one can purchase you for a few coins, and with you he can merit life in the World to Come. But yet throughout that entire life of the World to Come, he cannot acquire even one mitzvah." Yes, his whole life was directed towards Torah and the precise fulfillment of its commandments and teachings. 

And when the Baal HaTanya was about to die, he turned to his grandson, the Tzemach Tzedek, and asked him, "Look up; what do you see?" The grandson said, "A ceiling." The Baal HaTanya said, "What I see is the Active Force upon Creation [a Kabbalistic/Hassidic concept]" – for his life was for the purpose of revealing and living the Divine spark that gives life to all of Existence.

In our weekly Torah portion of D'varim (Deut. 1,1-3,22), Moshe Rabbeinu begins his great parting speech to Israel in the knowledge that he is about to pass from this world. The Torah tells us that here he "began to explain this Torah, as follows:" Before his death, Moshe begins to explain the Torah – for this was his essence in the world, to bring Torah to Israel and to the world.

Aside from the significance of one's "final words," another fundamental point is taught here as well. For at first glance, there seems to be a difficulty here. The Ramban, in his introduction to the Torah, asks why the Torah did not start off with this simple sentence: "G-d said to Moshe all of the following." Many of the Books of the Prophets start off in that way, such as, "The vision of Yeshayahu ben Amotz" (this week's Haftarah reading, Isaiah 1), "the words of Yirmiyahu ben Chilkiyahu," etc. 

The Ramban answers that of course, the whole Torah was spoken by G-d into the ears of Moshe. Still, however, the Torah specifically did not begin by stating that this is Moshe's prophecy. This is because the Torah preceded the Creation of the World, not to mention the birth of Moshe; he is not a participant, but rather a scribe copying from an ancient work. The Ramban says that this is a clear difference between Moshe and the other prophets, who emphasize their presence in the prophecies: Yechezkel often said, "G-d's word to me was…" and Yirmiyahu said similar things. The Torah, on the other hand, speaks of Moshe as a third-person recounting the events – to teach you that the Torah preceded all.

This explanation by the Ramban likely includes many secrets, exalted above our understanding, about the difference between the prophecies of our Prophets and the Holy Torah. 

Another Medieval period commentator, known as the Ran, noted in his work D'rashot HaRan the difference between Moshe's prophecy and that of the other prophets, and that the former is "above and beyond nature." (And Rav Kook wrote at the beginning of his work Orot HaTorah (Lights of Torah): "We receive the Written Torah via the highest and most comprehensive formulation in our soul... Through it we fly above all reason and intelligence, and we feel the supreme Spirit of God hovering over us, touching and not touching... ). 

Why then, asks the Ramban, does the Book of Deuteronomy clearly state that it is the words of Moshe himself? And furthermore, when we read that Moshe "began to explain the Torah" here, the Ramban adds that Moshe himself decided to do this, and that G-d did not command him to do so. In addition, Moshe writes about himself in this book, "I pleaded with G-d" (Deut. 3,23) and other first-person phrases. 

Thus, the Book of Deuteronomy is the words of Moshe, and not of G-d – and as such, why is it on an equal level to the other four books of the Torah? Why is it not, Heaven forbid, on the level of the Books of the Prophets?

The answer, it appears, is that we learn here the great extent to which Moshe minimized himself in relation to the Giver of the Torah. Moshe's words are the words of G-d that were formulated even before the world was created! Moshe's thoughts and reasoning to "explain the Torah," as he does here in the Book of Deuteronomy, were already written up before Creation!

In the Sefer HaKuzari of R. Yehuda HaLevy, we learn that the soul of Moshe is a manifestation of the soul of every Jew. This teaches us that whatever the Sages of the Oral Torah teach and explain, it comes amid their "self-effacement" vis-à-vis G-d's word – and is actually a continuation of the Giving of the Torah. 

-- May it be G-d's will that during this period of the Three Weeks of Mourning over the exile and destruction of the Holy Temples, the light of the revelation of the Torah in the world should shine upon us once again, and that the Rebuilding of the Beit HaMikdash should reveal in itself that "from Zion shall emanate Torah, and G-d's word from Jerusalem!"