God told Moses: "Do not speak to Me on this matter again" (Deuteronomy 3:26). The decree was final. But Moses argued anyway.
Rabbi Abbahu offered a parable. A nobleman found a magnificent sword — unmatched in all the world — and brought it to the king as a gift. The king took the sword, admired it, then said: "Cut off his head with it." Moses understood the parable perfectly. He had praised God with the word hen — "Behold, the heavens and the heavens of heavens belong to the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 10:14). And God used that very word to sentence him: "Behold (hen), the days are drawing near for you to die" (Deuteronomy 31:14). The instrument of praise became the instrument of death.
Moses protested: "I ascended to the heavens! I entered the Araphel, the dark cloud where You dwell! I spoke with You face to face and received the Torah from Your hand! Was it all for nothing — just to end as food for worms?"
God replied: "I have already decreed death over the first Adam." Moses shot back: "Adam deserved it. You gave him one easy commandment and he broke it. But I kept all six hundred and thirteen commandments!" God said: "Abraham also died." Moses answered: "Abraham fathered Ishmael, whose descendants do wicked things." God said: "Isaac also died." Moses replied: "Isaac fathered Esau, who destroyed the Temple." God said: "Jacob also died." Moses answered: "Jacob's sons all served You — not one went astray."
Moses ran out of arguments but not out of grief. He wept: "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 milk and honey!"
He died on the seventh of Adar, exactly one hundred and twenty years to the day after his birth. The sages calculated backward from the crossing of the Jordan on the tenth of Nisan (Joshua 4:19), minus thirty days of mourning, to prove that God fulfills the years of the righteous precisely — "I will complete the number of your days" (Exodus 23:26). Not a single day more. Not a single day less.