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Moses Begged to Cross the Jordan as a Bird or a Fish

A voice out of heaven gave him five hours. He spent them offering trades: wings, fins, a cloud, and finally his own body in pieces.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Herald Went Through the Camp
  2. Let Him Go First and Let Me Follow
  3. A Bird, a Fish, a Cloud, a Body in Pieces
  4. Four Hundred Parasangs in One Look
Moses Begged to Cross the Jordan as a Bird or a Fish Click for full size

The Herald Went Through the Camp

A herald walked the length of the camp calling out that the Holy One had raised up a new prophet over Israel that day, and that everyone should come and hear him.

They brought out a golden throne, a crown, a diadem of pearls, a royal cap, purple cloth. Moses laid the whole set out in front of Joshua and dressed him in it with his own hands, and appointed Caleb son of Jephunneh to stand beside him and repeat his words to the crowd. Then Moses sat down on the ground in front of his own student, with all Israel sitting on the ground beside him, and let Joshua teach.

Moses read and Joshua explained. Moses explained and Joshua interpreted. They did not disagree once, all the way through. Moses' face was like the sun that day and Joshua's was like the moon.

What was passing from one of them to the other had been written before there was anything in the world to write on. No parchment, because there were no animals yet. No gold or silver or iron, because nothing had been dug or refined. No wooden tablet, because there were no trees. It had been set down in black fire on white fire and bound to the arm of the Holy One, and it was older than creation.

A voice came out of heaven. "You have five hours of life left in this world."

Moses lifted his voice and wept, and then went back to teaching. He taught them the entire Torah, start to finish, in the time he had.

Let Him Go First and Let Me Follow

The voice came again. Four hours.

Moses stood up and began to negotiate.

"If it is because of Joshua that I am being pushed out, then let him go ahead of them. Let him walk in front of this people as the teacher and I will walk behind him as the student. Let him be the high priest and I will be an ordinary priest. Let him be the king and I will be his servant. Only let me go over and see the land."

God answered him. "I have sworn by My great name that you will not cross the Jordan."

A Bird, a Fish, a Cloud, a Body in Pieces

"Then give me permission to go as a bird. Say the Name over me and let me make my two arms into the wings of the dawn, and I will go through the open air over the Jordan and look at the land from above it."

"If you do that," God said, "it counts as crossing, and My oath is broken."

"Then a fish. Two arms into fins, every hair on my body into a scale, and I will go into the Jordan and travel under it through the deep water and come up and see the land."

"It counts as crossing. And the deeps are not yours. The deeps were given to Jonah."

"Then set me on the wings of the clouds. Carry me three parasangs up, so high that the clouds are under me and I am over them, and I will pass through the air and see it."

"It counts as crossing. The air and the clouds already belong to Elijah," God told him, "and I wrote through your own hand that a man does not move his neighbor's boundary marker. How are you asking Me for something that is not yours?"

Moses tried once more, and this time he offered the only thing he had left.

"Cut me apart. Limb from limb. Give the pieces to Gabriel and let him carry them over the Jordan and set them down on the other side, and then bring me back to life there and stand me on my feet, and I will see the land."

"That counts as crossing," God said.

Four Hundred Parasangs in One Look

"Then show it to me with my eyes."

"On this," God said, "I will listen to you."

He put the whole country in front of Moses, four hundred parasangs across and four hundred deep, and He gave the old man's eyes the strength to hold it. The low ground and the high ground, the near and the far, what was in plain sight and what was folded away out of sight, all of it at once, in one look, from one end to the other.

The voice said three hours remained.

Moses tried the last door. "Then let me stay on this side. Let me live out my days across the Jordan with the children of Gad and the children of Reuben, and Joshua will bring the rest of them in."

"You would be making My Torah into a bargain," God said. "Three times a year every man goes up for the pilgrimage, and you would not go up, and Israel would say: Moses himself does not go, so why should we. And when Joshua stands up to teach, they will say: before we learn from the student let us go across and learn from the teacher. You would empty his study house."

The voice said: two hours.

Off to one side, Samael had been waiting the whole time, watching for the moment he could go down and take the soul, with his mouth full of laughter. Michael, the prince of Israel, saw him laughing and turned on him. "Wicked one. I am weeping and you are laughing. Do not gloat over me, my enemy. When I fall, I get up."

The camp below them had begun to cry, and the sound of it went up past both of them.

MosesDeathPrayerAngelsJudgment
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From the tradition

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The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrashim on Moses Our Master, Drash on Petirat MosheOtzar Midrashim (Eisenstein)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Sefaria Community Translation · CC0

On the last day of his life, Moses did something no prophet had ever done, he dressed his successor in public, with his own hands. He commanded that a golden throne be brought, along with a crown, a diadem of pearls, a royal cap, and purple garments. He arranged every piece before Joshua and clothed him while all Israel watched.

A herald marched through the camp crying: "Come and hear the words of the new prophet whom the Holy One has raised over you today!" All Israel rose in honor. And then Moses sat down, not on the throne, but before it, like a student sitting before his teacher. Joshua opened his mouth and expounded Torah for the first time, while Moses listened from below.

Joshua's first sermon was a flood of praise: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who gave the Torah through Moses my teacher, His servant and chosen one, faithful in all His house." The people responded: "Amen, Hallelujah!" Joshua spoke of a God who is One with no second, with no end to His praise and no limit to His glory, whose wonders cannot be searched and whose kingdom cannot be measured.

Moses knew what came next. When his time arrived, he tore his garment, plucked his beard, put dust on his head, and wrapped himself in mourning. He entered his tent with a bitter cry, clapping his two hands together and weeping: "Woe to my feet that never walked in the Land of Israel! Woe to my hands that never plucked its fruit! Woe to my throat that never tasted the produce of a land flowing with milk and honey!"

Before departing, Moses turned to Israel one final time and blessed them with peace. Then he raised his voice and said: "I will see you at the resurrection of the dead. In the future that is coming, I will see you." He walked out from among them, and all Israel raised their voices in weeping, a great and bitter cry that rose all the way to the highest heavens (Deuteronomy 34:8).

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Midrash Konen ('He Established')Otzar Midrashim (Eisenstein)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Sefaria Community Translation · CC0

It is written, "The Lord established the earth with wisdom", this is the Torah. The Torah, where was it and where will it be? Why is it called Torah? Because a teaching descended to the world. And it is also called Torah because its gematria is 613, and the two commandments, "I am the Lord" and "You shall not have other gods," which were heard from the Creator, make it 613. And it is written, "The Torah was commanded to us by Moses." Another explanation: The Torah in Greek is called "the appearance and form of the Torah," meaning it was hidden and then revealed and given to Israel. It was hidden in the heavens before the heavens and the earth were created. What was its name? Its name was "Faith," as it is written, "And I was with Him as a confidant." And perhaps you might say it was written on a book, but before the beasts and animals were created, there was no skin to make a parchment to write on. And if you say it was written on silver and gold or various metals, they had not yet been created, refined, or purified in the world. And if you say it was written on a wooden tablet, the trees had not yet been created in the world. So, on what was it written and with what was it written? In black fire upon white fire, and it was bound in the arm of the Holy One, blessed be He, as it is said, "A fiery law for them" [and it is said, "A refuge is God from eternity and under the arms of the world"], when the Holy One, blessed be He, looked here and there and saw no angel in heaven [and no man on earth] and desired to create the world to make man engage in the Torah, as it is said, "He is one, and who can reverse it," and consulted with the Torah, which is wisdom, to create the world, as it is said, "The Lord by wisdom founded the earth." With His understanding, the depths were split open and the heavens rained down dew. Wisdom in gematria is 73 names, 8 (chaf) eight, 20 (kaf) twenty, 40 (mem) forty, 5 (hei) five, thus 73 names are engraved on the arm of the Holy One, Blessed be He. In one of them light was created, in one fire, and in one water, thus 3 remain from them, 70 names, and for each name He can create a world like this. And with them, He is destined to create worlds upon worlds to be inherited by the righteous in the future, to expand their boundaries and fill their treasures, as it is said, "to inherit the beloved ones, yes, etc." What did he do? He took the Torah, opened it, and took from it a name that was not given to any creature, as it is said, "This is My name forever" (Exodus 3:15), with the missing "vav" indicating concealment. He struck and dripped from it forty drops into the sea, and it was filled with water. The Holy Spirit and the Divine Presence of the Creator hovered and blew upon it, as it is said, "And the Spirit of God" (Genesis 1:2). He opened the Torah and took from it a second name and extracted from there three drops of light, one for the light of this world, one for the light of the world to come, and one for the light of the Torah. One for the light of this world, as it is said, "And God said, 'Let there be light'"; one for the light of the world to come, as it is said, "Arise, shine, for your light has come"; one for the light of the Torah, as it is said, "For the commandment is a lamp, and the Torah is light." He opened the Torah and took out the third name, and from it, he took three drops of fire and ignited the entire world from that fire, except for the fire of humans, as it is said, "From His right hand came a fiery law for them." And the entire world was filled with water, light, and fire. When God saw fire to His right and light to His left, and water beneath Him, He took them and combined them two by two. He took fire and water and combined them with each other and made the heavens from them. He took water and light and combined them with each other and made from them a canopy of darkness and clouds of glory, as it is said, "He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him." He took light and fire and combined them together and made from them the holy creatures. He said to the heavens, "Stretch out like a tent," and they stretched out by themselves, as it is said, "He stretches out the heavens like a curtain." Until God said to them, "Enough." God began to stand in light and His Shechinah in the heights, and He closed the gates of darkness and sealed and locked His windows. God began to stand in the light, and His Shechinah (Divine Presence) was in the heavens, and He closed the darkness and sealed and locked its windows. God said, "This light is worthy of being hidden away, and if it is not revealed to flesh and blood, it will turn into darkness. If I reveal both of them together, the ministering angels will see and not be seen. If I mix both of them together, their light will not be equal (i.e., they have no value if used together in a mixture). Rather, I will separate and take the light from the darkness, and the light will dwell with Me, as it is said, 'And the light dwells with Him,' and the darkness will dwell below, as it is said, 'And darkness was upon the face of the deep,' and it is said, 'And God saw the light that it was good, and God separated,' and it is said, 'And God called the light day.'" On the first day He took a lump of snow from beneath the Throne of Glory and threw it on the face of the waters in the middle of the world and it became land as it says, “For He says to the snow, 'Be upon the earth'…” (Iyov 37:6) And He took the foundation stone and cast it onto the place of the Temple and the world was founded upon it as it says, “…or who laid its foundation?” (Iyov 38:6) He called to the land and it stood in its place in order that it not move back and forth like a ship on the high seas as it says, “…God, God the Lord, spoke and called to the earth…” (Tehillim 50:1) And since His light shined, it shined first on the land of Israel and from there illuminated the whole world as it says, “From Zion, the perfection of beauty, God appeared.” (Tehillim 50:2) How did He illuminate it? He donned His tallit and wrapped Himself in His light and lit up the world as it says, “[You] enwrap Yourself with light like a garment…” (Tehillim 104:2) All that day the waters covered the land and it was dissolving until He donned the garments of majesty and His glory was seen as it says, “The Lord has reigned; He has attired Himself with majesty…” (Tehillim 93:1) And He girded Himself with a belt of might and established it through His might as it says, “…He has girded Himself with might. The world also is established that it cannot be moved.” (ibid.)

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