Ilustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
Midrash מִדְרָשׁ
וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם בֶּן מֵאָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה אָנֹכִי הַיּוֹם לֹא אוּכַל עוֹד לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא וַה' אָמַר אֵלַי לֹא תַעֲבֹר אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּן הַזֶּה׃
Moshe said to them: “I am now 120 years old, I can no longer go and come. And God has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’”
The Gemara wonders about this pasuk.
"לֹא אוּכַל עוֹד לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא” מַאי לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא? אִילֵימָא לָצֵאת וְלָבֹא מַמָּשׁ, וְהָכְתִיב "וּמֹשֶׁה בֶּן מֵאָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה בְּמוֹתוֹ…לֹא נָס לֵחֹה"!
…אָמַר רַבִּי שְׁמוּאֵל בַּר נַחְמָנִי אָמַר רַבִּי יוֹנָתָן לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא בְּדִבְרֵי תוֹרָה. מְלַמֵּד שֶׁנִּסְתַּתְּמוּ מִמֶּנּוּ שַׁעֲרֵי חׇכְמָה.
“I can no longer go and come” – What is going and coming? It can’t be that Moshe had trouble actually walking, because the Torah says (Devarim 34:7) “And Moshe was 120 years old when he died…he was still in perfect physical health”!
…R. Shmuel bar Nahmani said in the name of R. Yonatan that Moshe could no longer go and come in words of Torah. The gates of wisdom were closed to him.
- What activities do you do with your feet, and what activities do you do with your mind? What kinds of “going and coming” can we do with our minds?
- What message might this midrash be suggesting about which kinds of activities were most important to Moshe?
- What do you think it felt like for Moshe that the gates of wisdom were closed to him?
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