Why Moses Earned the Radiant Face of the World to Come

Tanna Debei Eliyahu Rabbah 4:1

Curated by Arthur·Told by Maggid·

For what reason did Moses merit a radiant face in this world, like that which the Holy One, blessed be He, is destined to give the righteous in the world to come? Because he did the will of the Holy One, blessed be He, and grieved over the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, and of Israel, and all his days he longed and yearned and looked forward to there being peace between Israel and their Father in heaven. Whence do you know this? When Israel was in the wilderness and corrupted their deeds, the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "Now therefore let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation" (Exodus 32:10). At once Moses had an opening to reply: "And Moses entreated the face of the LORD his God, and said, Why, O LORD, does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say... Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel" (Exodus 32:11-13). At once there was a response: "And the LORD relented of the evil" (Exodus 32:14). Moses said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the universe, You are righteous and faithful, yet the attribute of justice prosecutes before You against all who come into the world and against all the works of Your hands that You created. Let me go down from before You and apply the attribute of justice among them: if they all worshiped the calf with a whole heart, let them all die in one day. At once Moses went down from before the Holy One, blessed be He, and "Moses took the calf... and scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it" (Exodus 32:20). "And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Whoever is for the LORD, to me!" (Exodus 32:26), and he said to them, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel... let each man kill his brother" (Exodus 32:27), "and there fell of the people about three thousand men" (Exodus 32:28). I call heaven and earth to witness concerning myself that the Holy One, blessed be He, did not tell Moses to stand in the gate of the camp and say "Whoever is for the LORD, to me" and to set each man his sword on his thigh and to kill brother and neighbor and kinsman. Rather Moses reasoned within himself and said in his heart: If I say to Israel "kill each man his brother and his neighbor and his kinsman," Israel will reason and say to me, Did you not teach us, our master, that a Sanhedrin that executes one soul of Israel once in seven years is called destructive? Why are you killing three thousand in a single day? Therefore he attached it to the honor of Heaven and said, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, set each man his sword on his thigh." And as soon as he spoke in the name of the Holy One, blessed be He, "the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses" (Exodus 32:28). The righteous Moses then again stood in prayer before the Omnipresent and said before Him: Master of the universe, You are righteous and faithful, and all Your works are in faithfulness; and shall six hundred thousand from age twenty and upward die because of three thousand who worshiped the calf with a whole heart, besides those of nineteen and fifteen and ten and two and one, and besides how many converts and servants who joined them, beyond all counting? At once the mercy of the Holy One, blessed be He, was stirred, and He was reconciled with them. A parable: to what may the matter be compared? To a king of flesh and blood whose firstborn son sinned before him. He seized him and handed him to his servant, the steward of the house, and said, "Go out and kill this one, and give him to the beasts and the dogs." What did that servant do? He took him out from before the king and set him aside and hid him in another house, and the servant came and stood before the king. After thirty days, when the king's heart was glad and his servants and household were reclining before him, when he lifted his eyes and did not see his firstborn, grief and sighing entered his heart, and no creature recognized it and brought grief and sighing into the king's heart except the steward of the house. At once he ran and stood him before him. At once the king took the beautiful crown that lay before him and set it on the head of his servant, the steward. To this is the righteous Moses likened: since he stood in prayer in four or five places and saved Israel from death, the beautiful thing that was set aside for Israel, that it should be theirs and their children's forever for the Torah they received when they said "we will do and we will hear" - that crown shall rest on the head of Moses forever, as it is said, "And the Israelites saw the face of Moses, that the skin of Moses' face shone" (Exodus 34:35). And lest you say, since Moses entered his eternal home perhaps that crown of the radiant face departed from him, Scripture teaches, "And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face" (Deuteronomy 34:10). Just as the radiance of the Face above endures forever and ever, so the radiance of the face of Moses entered with him into his eternal home, as it is said, "And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor his vigor gone" (Deuteronomy 34:7). And not Moses alone, but any disciple of the wise who occupies himself with Torah from his youth to his old age and dies in truth has not died, but is still alive forever and ever, as it is said, "And the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living with the LORD your God" (1 Samuel 25:29). And where is his soul? Beneath the Throne of Glory. From here they said: Let a person not multiply weeping and lamentation over his dead, nor grief and sighing, beyond the measure the sages fixed - three days for weeping and lamentation, seven days for mourning, thirty days for pressing garments and haircutting and other matters; and whoever weeps beyond this, it is as if he wounds himself, as it is said, "Do not weep for the dead nor bemoan him" (Jeremiah 22:10). The Holy One, blessed be He, said: You do not have more mercy on him than I do. If a person commits a transgression before Me and turns back and repents, behold I am with him in mercy and I accept his repentance, and I do not remember against him even a part of his iniquities. Weep, rather, for him who goes away - this is one who committed a transgression and repeated it and tripled it and did not repent; over him weep, for he is uprooted from the world. And so too every sage of Israel who has true words of Torah in him, and grieves over the honor of the Holy One, blessed be He, and over the honor of Israel all his days, and longs and yearns and looks forward to the honor of Jerusalem and to the Temple and to the deliverance that will soon sprout in our days and to the ingathering of the exiles - at once the Holy Spirit rests within him, as it is said, "Where is He who put His holy Spirit within him?" (Isaiah 63:11). From here they said: Any disciple of the wise who occupies himself with Torah continually every day in order to increase the honor of Heaven needs neither sword nor spear nor any guarding, for the Holy One, blessed be He, guards him Himself, and the ministering angels stand around him, a sword in the hand of each, guarding him, as it is said, "The high praises of God are in their throat, and a two-edged sword in their hand" (Psalms 149:6).

Themes

MosesRepentanceTorah

Continue Reading

Book of JubileesJubilees Declares Some Sins Cannot Be AtonedIn it, we find a stark warning, a line drawn in the sand regarding actions so egregious that they warrant the ultimate penalty. The passage states, “And for thiBook of JubileesMoses and Joseph of PassoverThe Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis, is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters, considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox ChurchBook of JasherAbraham and Creation of MosesThe Book of Jasher, an ancient Hebrew text referenced in the Bible itself (Joshua 10:13 and (2 Samuel 1:1)8), fills in some of those gaps. It's like a behind-thBook of JasherThe First Days of Freedom After Leaving EgyptBook of Jasher turns to The First Days of Freedom After Leaving Egypt. The Book of Jasher, a text mentioned in the Bible itself (Joshua 10:13 and (2 Samuel 1:1)Book of JasherMoses and Mount Sinai's TransgressionBook of Jasher turns to Moses and Mount Sinai's Transgression. The story picks up right after the Israelites leave Rephidim. They arrive in the Sinai wildernessBook of JasherKorah Rebels and the Earth Swallows Him AliveThe ancient Israelites certainly did! And this chapter of the Book of Jasher throws us right into the middle of their long, winding journey. Remember Korah's re