Parashat Ve-Zot Ha-Berakhah. The Greatness of Moshe Rabbenu

Rambam, in The Guide of the Perplexed, highlights the difference between the nature of Moshe’s prophecy and that of all other prophets in several places. One passage goes as follows:

The proof taken from the Law as to his (Moses’) prophecy being different from that of all who came before him is constituted by His (God) saying: And I appeared unto Abraham…but by My name, the L-RD, I made Me not known to them (Exodus 6:3) . Thus it (the Torah) informs us that his (Moses’) apprehension was not like that of the Patriarchs, but greater- nor, all the more, like that of others who came before. As for the difference between his prophecy and that of all those who came after, it is stated by way of communicating information in the dictum: And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the L-RD knew face to face (Deut. 34:10). Thus it has been made clear that his apprehension is different from that of all those who came after him in Israel- which is a kingdom of priests and a holy nation (Exodus 19:6), and in whose midst is the L-RD (Numbers 16:3) - and, all the more, from the apprehension of all those who came in other religious communities (Guide, II: 35, Pines ed., pp. 367-68).

Of course, in his list of Thirteen Principles, Rambam denotes the superiority of Moses to all others as a separate article of Faith, distinct from that of the Torah.

Moses is also described in the bible as ‘anav me’od: Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any other man on earth (Numbers 12:3). According to the Rambam moral excellence is an absolute prerequisite for the intellectual attainments that are the sine qua non requirements of prophecy. Hence, it is indeed appropriate that Moshe be more modest that anyone else on the face of the earth. Indeed, in his work Shemonah Peraqim (Eight Chapters, the introduction to his commentary on Pirkei Abot), chapter 4, Rambam writes that Moses’ sin at Mei Meribah was his expression of anger at the people of Israel (Numbers 20:3). At that instant, Moshe lost his emotional equilibrium, something that was, in the eyes of God, a great sin and one that merited punishment; that is, of dying outside the Land of Israel and being unable to lead his people to the Promised Land.

In Parashat Ve-Zot Ha-Berakhah Moses’ blessings include his remarks to his own tribe of Levi. The first verse reads:

And of Levi he said:

Let Your Thummim and Urim

Be with Your faithful one,

Whom You tested at Massah.

Challenged at the waters of Meribah (Deut. 34:8).

Trying to understand this verse is quite difficult. This verse poses numerous questions. First and foremost, perhaps, is the citation of Mei Meribah, the place of Moses’ his sin. Why bring that up now, in the context of a blessing?

Rabbi Solomon Ephraim ben Aaron of Luntshitz (d. 1619), a member of the Ashkenazi rabbinic elite and the most renowned preacher of his day, known by his commentary on the Torah called Keli Yaqar, offers a striking explanation, one that assumes the Maimonidean notion that the mysterious sin of Moshe was not the striking of the rock but his (temporary) lapse into anger.

Keli Yaqar refers back to the book of Genesis, and to Jacob’s curse of Simeon and Levi’s anger:

Cursed be their anger so fierce,

And their wrath so relentless.

I will divide them in Jacob,

Scatter them in Israel. (Genesis 49:7)

Moshe Rabbenu, of course, was a direct descendant of Levi. He wondered if indeed the curse of Jacob was fulfilled in his own failure to control his anger. But Jacob, in his remark, referred to the entire tribe of Levi, not just one person! Keli Yaqar suggests that Moshe, with his words, was praying to God to “spare” the rest of the tribe of Levi from Jacob’s curse. Moses was saying, “Let the instantiation of the curse of anger, and the resultant punishment, rest exclusively upon me. Let it not happen to anyone else of the tribe of Levi. Let the fulfillment of the words of Jacob in my own life preclude the necessity of it happening to anyone else.” Using the language of a celebrated poem traditionally recited at the end of year, at the twilight that immediately precedes the onset of Rosh Ha-Shanah, Keli Yaqar writes, “tikhleh shanah ve-qillelotehah.” Let the “year,” that is, the span of Moshe’s life, end, and let the experience of Moshe be a “kaparah,” an atonement, for his entire tribe, the Levites, who shall teach your norms to Jacob, and your instructions to Israel (Deut. 34:10).

Moshe Rabbenu was, according to the Rambam, the behir min ha-enoshi: the most perfect example of a member of the human species possible. The explanation by Keli Yaqar highlights as well Moses’ unmatched love for his fellow human beings, and expressed his nature as Rabban shel Yisrael.