That Moses Spake Unto the Children of Israel

Chapter 10. "It came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel..." (Deuteronomy 1). From the first of Shevat until the sixth of Adar, thirty-six days, Moses our teacher explained the whole Torah. On the sixth of that month, "The LORD said to Moses: Behold, your days draw near to die" (Deuteronomy 31:14). On the seventh of Adar, "Moses went and spoke..." and "he said to them: I am one hundred and twenty years old today" (Deuteronomy 31). The word "today" need not have been stated. What does "today" teach? It teaches that Moses was born on the seventh of Adar and died on the seventh of Adar, as it is said, "Moses, servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab by the mouth of the LORD. He buried him in the valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, and no man knows his burial place..." and "Moses was one hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye had not dimmed, and his freshness had not fled" (Deuteronomy 34). "It came to pass after the death of Moses, servant of the LORD..." "Moses My servant is dead; now rise, cross over..." "Joshua commanded the officers of the people, saying: Pass through the midst of the camp and command the people, saying: Prepare provisions for yourselves, for within three days you are crossing this Jordan, to go in to possess the land that the LORD your God gives you to possess" (Joshua 1). "The people came up from the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, at the eastern edge of Jericho" (Joshua 4:19). Count thirty-three days back from that date, and you learn that Moses our teacher died on the seventh of Adar. Three good sustainers stood up for Israel: Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. Three good gifts were given through them: the well, the pillar of cloud, and the manna. The manna came through the merit of Moses, the pillar of cloud through the merit of Aaron, and the well through the merit of Miriam. When Miriam died, the well departed, and it returned to Israel through the merit of Moses and Aaron. When Aaron died, the pillar of cloud departed, and it returned through the merit of Moses. When Moses died, all three departed and did not return, as it is said, "I cut off the three shepherds in one month" (Zechariah 11:8). Did they die in one month? Did they not die in one year? Miriam died on the tenth of Nisan, Aaron on the first of Av, and Moses our teacher on the seventh of Adar. Rather, on the day Moses died, all three departed and did not return. From the manna that they gathered on the seventh of Adar, they ate until the sixteenth of Nisan, as it is said, "The manna ceased on the morrow after they ate from the produce of the land, and there was no more manna for the children of Israel; they ate from the produce of the land of Canaan that year" (Joshua 5:12). Why does Scripture say, "The children of Israel ate the manna..." "until they came to an inhabited land" (Exodus 16:35)? On the day Moses died, that same day the manna stopped falling. "Until they came to the edge of the land of Canaan" (Exodus 16:35) means that on that day the manna in their hands ran out. This makes forty years less thirty days, plus the thirty days during which they ate the cake they had brought out in their hands from Egypt, which was as good for them as the manna. End of the chapter and of the first gate.