Deuteronomy 1:3 states, "And it was, in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel." Okay, so the eleventh month… why is that detail even included? Isn't it obvious a year has eleven months before the twelfth? We know the Jewish calendar has twelve months, right? Esther 3:13 tells us about the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, Adar. And 1 Kings 4 talks about Solomon having twelve commissioners, one for each month of the year, even specifying a commissioner for the intercalated month – the extra month added in leap years.
So, what's the point of specifying the eleventh month?
Rabbi B'na'ah poses a brilliant question: Did we need Moses to tell us that the year has twelve months? Of course not! 1 Chronicles 27 already tells us about divisions by month, “month by month throughout all the months of the year.”
So what does "the eleventh month" come to teach us, then?
Here's where it gets fascinating. The Sifrei Devarim, a collection of early rabbinic legal interpretations on Deuteronomy, suggests that those thirty-odd days between the first of Shvat (the eleventh month) and the sixth of Adar were crucial. In those thirty-six days, Moses explained the entire Torah.
Wait, really? The entire Torah? In just over a month? How do we arrive at that figure?
Well, Deuteronomy 34:8 tells us that the Israelites mourned Moses for thirty days. Joshua 1:11 then says, "for in three more days you will be crossing this Jordan." And Joshua 4:19 tells us, "And the people ascended from the Jordan on the tenth of the first month (Nissan)." If we work backward – subtract those thirty-three days (thirty of mourning plus three before crossing the Jordan) from the tenth of Nissan – we arrive at the seventh of Adar as the date of Moses' death.
And if Moses died on the 7th of Adar, and began speaking on the 1st of Shvat, then we're left with roughly 36 days. Those 36 days, according to this interpretation, were when Moses reviewed and clarified the entire Torah for the Israelites.
But there's one more layer. Why the 7th of Adar for his death? Well, tradition also holds that Moses was born on the 7th of Adar. How do we know that? Deuteronomy 31:2 says, "And he said to them: I am one hundred and twenty years old this day." The Sifrei asks, why does it say "this day"? It could just say "I am 120 years old." The extra words teach us that Moses completed the full circuit of his years on that very day.
This detail highlights a beautiful concept: that God "sits" and fills out the years of the righteous day by day, month by month, hour by hour. As Exodus 23:26 says, "the number of your days shall I complete." God ensures that the righteous live out their full measure of time.
So, what does it all mean? Perhaps it's a reminder that even in a short amount of time, a profound impact can be made. Moses, knowing his time was limited, poured his heart and soul into those final weeks, leaving a legacy that continues to shape our world. And perhaps it's a call for us to consider how we use our own time, making each day count, striving to live a life of meaning and purpose, knowing that our days, too, are being "filled out" with divine intention.