{"id":49510,"date":"2019-02-15T07:24:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-15T05:24:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=49510"},"modified":"2022-09-08T17:25:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-08T14:25:29","slug":"what-can-we-learn-from-gods-stern-refusal-to-moses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-can-we-learn-from-gods-stern-refusal-to-moses\/","title":{"rendered":"What Can We Learn From God\u2019s Stern Refusal To Moses?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[363,397,354],"acf":{"old_id":"49510","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":33923,"related_cahpter":"156","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"For each of us, there is a river we will not cross, a promised land we will not enter","content":"

The scene in which Moses climbs Mount Nebo to see in the distance the land he would never enter is one of the most poignant in all Tanakh. There is a vast midrashic literature that turns Moses\u2019 request \u201cLet me cross over to see the good land beyond the Jordan\u201d (Deut. 3:25) into high drama, with Moses mounting argument after argument in his defence only to be met by unbending refusal from Heaven: \u201cEnough from you; do not speak to me of this matter again\u201d. (Deut. 3:26).<\/span><\/p>\n

Why?<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>This is the man who, eighteen times in Tanakh, is called \u201cGod\u2019s servant.\u201d No one else is so described except Joshua, twice. His own obituary in the Torah reads: \u201cNever again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses\u201d (Deut. 34:10). Why was he treated so seemingly harshly by God among whose attributes are forgiveness and compassion?<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Clearly the Torah is telling us something fundamental. What, though, is it? There are many explanations, but I believe the most profound and simplest takes us back to the beginning of beginnings: \u201cIn the beginning God created Heaven and Earth.\u201d There is Heaven and there is Earth, and they are not the same.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the history of civilisation, one question has proved hardest of all. In the words of Psalm 8: \u201cWhat is man that you are mindful of him?\u201d What is it to be human? We are an infinitesimal speck in an almost infinite universe of a hundred billion galaxies each with a hundred billion stars. We know that our lives are like a bare microsecond set against the almost-eternity of the cosmos. We are terrifyingly small. Yet we are also astonishingly great. We dominate the planet. We have ever-increasing control over nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

We are the only life form thus far known capable of asking the question, \u2018Why?\u2019<\/span>
\n<\/span>
\n<\/span>Hence the two temptations that have faced Homo sapiens since the beginning: to think of ourselves as smaller than we actually are, or greater than we actually are. How are we to understand the relationship between our mortality and fallibility and the almost-infinities of space and time?<\/span><\/p>\n

Judaism is humanity\u2019s protest against both ideas. We are not gods. And we are not chemical scum. We are dust of the earth, but there is within us the breath of God. What is essential is never to blur the boundary between Heaven and Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n

For each of us, therefore, there is a river we will not cross, a promised land we will not enter and a destination we will not reach. Even the greatest life is an unfinished symphony. Moses\u2019 death on the far side of the Jordan is a consolation for all of us. None of us should feel guilty or frustrated or angry or defeated that there are things we hoped to achieve but did not. That is what it is to be human.<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: The Death of Moses,<\/a> 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company: <\/span><\/p>\n

From:<\/span>Unfinished Symphony (Covenant & Conversation, Vezot Habracha 5779<\/span><\/em>)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":49511,"id":49511,"title":"Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses","filename":"Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-can-we-learn-from-gods-stern-refusal-to-moses\/dt3-the_death_of_moses\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt3-the_death_of_moses","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":49510,"date":"2019-02-15 05:24:03","modified":"2022-09-06 17:47:27","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":524,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses-262x300.jpg","medium-width":262,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","medium_large-width":524,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","large-width":524,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","1536x1536-width":524,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","2048x2048-width":524,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","post_full_size-width":524,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses-367x420.jpg","home_baner-width":367,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"What Can We Learn From God\u2019s Stern Refusal To Moses?","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"For each of us, there is a river we will not cross, a promised land we will not enter","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":49511,"id":49511,"title":"Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses","filename":"Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/what-can-we-learn-from-gods-stern-refusal-to-moses\/dt3-the_death_of_moses\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"dt3-the_death_of_moses","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":49510,"date":"2019-02-15 05:24:03","modified":"2022-09-06 17:47:27","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":524,"height":600,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses-262x300.jpg","medium-width":262,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","medium_large-width":524,"medium_large-height":600,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","large-width":524,"large-height":600,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","1536x1536-width":524,"1536x1536-height":600,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","2048x2048-width":524,"2048x2048-height":600,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses.jpg","post_full_size-width":524,"post_full_size-height":600,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/Dt3-The_Death_of_Moses-367x420.jpg","home_baner-width":367,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49510"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":107837,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49510\/revisions\/107837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}