May Reuben live and not die (33:6). In his farewell blessing to the tribes of Israel, Moses first mentions the tribe of Reuben, descended from Jacob’s eldest son. His benediction for Reuben is expressed in biblical poetic parallelism. To the modern reader this may seem redundant, since it expresses the same idea twice, albeit in different words. For the Rabbis, however, this apparent repetition was an opportunity for interpretation. They noticed that while the first half of the verse expresses the hope that Reuben would live, the second half states that he should not die. Both of these outcomes are positive for Reuben, but the former is phrased in upbeat language, whereas the latter uses negative terminology. Midrash Sifrei D’varim 347 finds different meanings in these linguistic nuances. Thus, the first phrase is said to refer to Reuben’s reward for convincing his brothers not to treat Joseph as harshly as they would have liked (Genesis 37:22). The second half of the verse points to a death penalty decreed for Reuben that has been reversed (“not die”), referring to the punishment that Reuben deserved for having sexual relations with Bilhah, his father’s concubine and the mother of some of his brothers (Genesis 35:22). However, a prominent rabbinic tradition teaches that Reuben atoned for this sin and the decree of death was lifted. This midrash from Sifrei D’varim appears to link these two biblical incidents and implies that Reuben’s good actions in one situation helped to atone for his bad actions in the other.
So Moses the servant of יהוה’ died there (34:5). A medieval piyut (liturgical poem) begins with the words Azlat Yocheved (“Jochebed went out”), referring to Moses’ mother (Exodus 6:20). This piyut is part of the Italian prayer tradition for the holiday of Simchat Torah, when the final Torah portion, including the account of the death of Moses, is read. (While there are no known midrashic parallels for the symbolic ideas in this piyut, it shares common motifs with rabbinic traditions, including a narrative about Moses’ death found in Avot D’Rabbi Natan A 12, in which the angel of death, Samael, is the protagonist, rather than Jochebed.) In the piyut, Jochebed heart-rendingly searches for her son. She has heard of his death but refuses to accept that Moses has actually died. Understandably, a mother would not to want to learn that her son had preceded her in death. However, Jochebed’s refusal to believe in Moses’ demise is complicated by the fact that only God knows the circumstances of his death and his burial place. This piyut describes Jochebed traversing the world, including Egypt and various other pivotal places in Moses’ life, searching for him. In her travels, she asks inanimate objects to tell her the whereabouts of her son. Her quest, of course, is unsuccessful, because he is, in fact already dead and buried.
The theme of the poem “Azlat Yocheved” is based on the rabbinic premise that Jochebed outlived her son Moses, who was 120 years old at his death (34:7). Jochebed’s long life is discussed in a rabbinic midrash in Seder Olam 9, where she is described as surviving all of her children and entering the land of Israel at the age of 250.
[God] buried him in the valley in the land of Moab (34:6). A midrashic tradition physically connects the burial place of Moses, who was interred alone, to the graves of Abraham and Sarah in the Cave of Machpelah (Genesis 25:10). According to Sifrei D’varim 357, the two sites were linked by an underground tunnel.
Moses’ grave is unknown to human beings but it is known to God. In fact, according to 34:6, Moses was buried by God. BT Sotah 14a explains that the Torah is framed by two divine demonstrations of loving-kindness. The charitable act in the beginning was “clothing the naked.” This was fulfilled when God “made outfits out of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them” (Genesis 3:21). The loving-kindness at the end of the Torah was “burying the dead,” God’s final act of caring for Moses. According to rabbinic sources (BT Shabbat 127a), preparing the dead for burial is one of the ten ethical obligations for which there is no measure and whose reward is without measure.
—Anna Urowitz-Freudenstein