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וזאת הברכהParshat Vezot Haberakhah

Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12

A note: this is a creative reading, a drash offered as a way into the text. It does not claim to be what the angels actually say.

Begin on the ground

Rung 1 of 8

The story

What happens, plainly.

Before his death Moshe, the man of G‑d, blesses the tribes. Hashem came from Sinai and shone from Se'ir, with a fiery law in His right hand; Moshe commanded us the Torah, the inheritance of the congregation of Yaakov. Reuven should live and not die; Hashem should hear the voice of Yehudah; Levi will teach the law and bring incense; Binyamin rests between His shoulders; Yosef's land is blessed with dew and the best of what the sun and moon bring out; Zevulun rejoices in going out and Yissachar in his tents; Gad, Dan, Naftali and Asher are each blessed, and the whole people is called happy, saved by Hashem. Shimon is not named. Then Moshe climbs from the plains of Moav to Mount Nevo, and Hashem shows him the whole land that he will not enter. Moshe, the servant of Hashem, dies there by the word of Hashem, and He buries him in the valley, and no one knows his grave to this day. He was a hundred and twenty and his eye was not dim; the people weep for him thirty days, Yehoshua is filled with the spirit of wisdom, and no prophet has arisen again in Israel like Moshe, whom Hashem knew face to face.

Rung 2 of 8

Ein Yaakov

What the sages of the Talmud saw.

Who wrote the last eight verses of the Torah, beginning "And Moshe died there"? One view: Yehoshua, because how could Moshe write that he had died? Rabbi Shimon answers: could the Torah scroll be missing even one letter, when Moshe says "take this book of the Torah"? Rather, up to this point the Holy One dictated and Moshe repeated and wrote. From here on the Holy One dictated, and Moshe wrote with tears.

Bava Batra 15aEin Yaakov (Glick Edition), Bava Batra 1:29

A heavenly voice, heard across the whole camp, announced: "Moshe, the great scribe of Israel, has died." Some say he did not die at all, and stands and serves above. On "no one knows his grave," the sages tell of a government that sent men to find it. From the top of the hill the grave seemed to be below; from below it seemed to be above. They split into two groups and it was the same. Rabbi Chama bar Chanina says even Moshe himself does not know where he is buried, and that he lies opposite Beit Peor to atone for what happened at Peor.

Sotah 13bEin Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sotah 1:53

Rung 3 of 8

The Zohar

The mystical reading.

The Zohar has no section of its own on this parsha.

Rung 4 of 8

The numbers

The letters stop being words.

  1. Moshe

    משה

    Moshe equals 345

    = א־ל ש־די El Sha‑ddai

    Shenei Luchot HaBerit, Torah Shebikhtav, Mishpatim, Torah Ohr 115

    Also the value of HaShem, "the Name", the same letters reversed; Tzror HaMor (on Exodus 1:21) pairs the two and reads in it why no one knows his grave. "Moshe, the man of G‑d."

  2. Torah

    תורה

    Torah equals 611

    No confident match yet.

    In Makkot 23b the sages count it: 611 commands came through Moshe, and the first two we heard from the Mouth itself.

  3. Zot, this

    זאת

    Zot, this equals 408

    = צום קול ממון tzom, kol, mamon: fasting, voice and money (repentance, prayer and charity)

    Ben Ish Hai, Drashot, Achrei Mot 10

    "And this is the blessing."

  4. Berakhah, blessing

    ברכה

    Berakhah, blessing equals 227

    No confident match yet.

  5. Yosef

    יוסף

    Yosef equals 156

    = 6 × 26, the Name 6 times

    Six measures of the Name. His is the longest blessing.

  6. Yeshurun

    ישרון

    Yeshurun equals 566

    No confident match yet.

  7. Eved, servant

    עבד

    Eved, servant equals 76

    No confident match yet.

    "Moshe, the servant of Hashem, died there."

  8. Nevo, the mountain

    נבו

    Nevo, the mountain equals 58

    No confident match yet.

Every value is computed from the Hebrew letters by code: aleph is 1, yud is 10, kuf is 100, tav is 400, and final letters keep their ordinary value. A match appears only when it is well known. Nothing is invented.

Rung 5 of 8

The angel's telling

The story as the angels tell it.

1:12

Before he lay down, the one who carried the Name that says Enough stood in front of the tribes and blessed them, one by one.

First he remembered how the teaching came: fire from a right hand, light rising over the mountains. "He commanded us a teaching," he said, "and it belongs to the whole family."

To the firstborn he said, live. To the royal son he said, may your voice be heard. To the priests he gave the teaching and the incense. The youngest he set to rest between the shoulders of the Name. And to the one in whom the Name was spread to every side he gave the dew, the sun, the moon, and the favor of the One who lived in the bush.

Then he climbed. From the top of the mountain he was shown everything: the hills, the valleys, the city of palms, the sea at the far edge. "You have seen it with your eyes," the Name said. "You will not cross."

And there he died, by the mouth of the Name. The Name buried him in a valley, and no one knows the place. His eyes had never dimmed.

The people wept for him, and then they stood up behind the young one he had laid his hands on. The angels were quiet. They had watched the teaching come down at the start of the book, and now it was all written, to the last letter, and the hand that wrote it was gone. They saw that this was the blessing. The teaching stayed, and it was enough.

Rung 6 of 8

The angel sages debate

Four angels argue over their Torah.

Michael from kindness

“Zot is 408, and so are tzom, kol and mamon together: repentance, prayer and charity. And this is the blessing: every one of them is in a person's hands today. Moshe leaves them something they can do right now.”

Gavriel from strength

“Torah is 611. Only the commands that came through Moshe are in that word; the first two came from the Mouth, and no teacher can carry those for you. Moshe is 345, El Sha‑ddai, the One who says Enough, and his life stops exactly where the land begins.”

Raphael from healing

“Yosef is 156, the Name six times over, and he gets the longest blessing. Six is every side of a thing, above and below and all four around. The verse calls him the one set apart from his brothers, and the widest blessing goes to him, which is how a family closes a wound.”

Uriel from light

“The parsha has 41 verses, and the last of them were written in tears. Moshe is 345, and so is HaShem, the Name, in the same letters turned around. No one can find his grave, because from above there is nothing to look for: the man and the Name he carried have the same number.”

They stand where the bedtime Shema places them: Michael on the right, Gavriel on the left, Uriel ahead, Raphael behind.

Rung 7 of 8

The spaces

Raziel reads the white.

Vezot Haberakhah has one open space and eight closed spaces in 41 verses.

  • Closed after Deuteronomy 33:6
  • Open after Deuteronomy 33:7
  • Closed after Deuteronomy 33:11
  • Closed after Deuteronomy 33:12
  • Closed after Deuteronomy 33:17
  • Closed after Deuteronomy 33:19
  • Closed after Deuteronomy 33:21
  • Closed after Deuteronomy 33:23
  • Closed after Deuteronomy 33:29

From Sefaria's text of the Torah according to the Masorah. An open space (petuchah) leaves the rest of the line empty; a closed space (setumah) is a gap inside the line.

וזאת הברכה אשר ברך משה איש האלהים את בני ישראל לפני מותו ויאמר יהוה מסיני בא וזרח משעיר למו הופיע מהר פארן ואתה מרבבת קדש מימינו אשדת [אש דת] למו אף חבב עמים כל קדשיו בידך והם תכו לרגלך ישא מדברתיך תורה צוה לנו משה מורשה קהלת יעקב ויהי בישרון מלך בהתאסף ראשי עם יחד שבטי ישראל יחי ראובן ואל ימת ויהי מתיו מספר וזאת ליהודה ויאמר שמע יהוה קול יהודה ואל עמו תביאנו ידיו רב לו ועזר מצריו תהיה וללוי אמר תמיך ואוריך לאיש חסידך אשר נסיתו במסה תריבהו על מי מריבה האמר לאביו ולאמו לא ראיתיו ואת אחיו לא הכיר ואת בנו לא ידע כי שמרו אמרתך ובריתך ינצרו יורו משפטיך ליעקב ותורתך לישראל ישימו קטורה באפך וכליל על מזבחך ברך יהוה חילו ופעל ידיו תרצה מחץ מתנים קמיו ומשנאיו מן יקומון לבנימן אמר ידיד יהוה ישכן לבטח עליו חפף עליו כל היום ובין כתפיו שכן וליוסף אמר מברכת יהוה ארצו ממגד שמים מטל ומתהום רבצת תחת וממגד תבואת שמש וממגד גרש ירחים ומראש הררי קדם וממגד גבעות עולם וממגד ארץ ומלאה ורצון שכני סנה תבואתה לראש יוסף ולקדקד נזיר אחיו בכור שורו הדר לו וקרני ראם קרניו בהם עמים ינגח יחדו אפסי ארץ והם רבבות אפרים והם אלפי מנשה ולזבולן אמר שמח זבולן בצאתך ויששכר באהליך עמים הר יקראו שם יזבחו זבחי צדק כי שפע ימים יינקו ושפני טמוני חול ולגד אמר ברוך מרחיב גד כלביא שכן וטרף זרוע אף קדקד וירא ראשית לו כי שם חלקת מחקק ספון ויתא ראשי עם צדקת יהוה עשה ומשפטיו עם ישראל ולדן אמר דן גור אריה יזנק מן הבשן ולנפתלי אמר נפתלי שבע רצון ומלא ברכת יהוה ים ודרום ירשה ולאשר אמר ברוך מבנים אשר יהי רצוי אחיו וטבל בשמן רגלו ברזל ונחשת מנעלך וכימיך דבאך אין כאל ישרון רכב שמים בעזרך ובגאותו שחקים מענה אלהי קדם ומתחת זרעת עולם ויגרש מפניך אויב ויאמר השמד וישכן ישראל בטח בדד עין יעקב אל ארץ דגן ותירוש אף שמיו יערפו טל אשריך ישראל מי כמוך עם נושע ביהוה מגן עזרך ואשר חרב גאותך ויכחשו איביך לך ואתה על במותימו תדרך ויעל משה מערבת מואב אל הר נבו ראש הפסגה אשר על פני ירחו ויראהו יהוה את כל הארץ את הגלעד עד דן ואת כל נפתלי ואת ארץ אפרים ומנשה ואת כל ארץ יהודה עד הים האחרון ואת הנגב ואת הככר בקעת ירחו עיר התמרים עד צער ויאמר יהוה אליו זאת הארץ אשר נשבעתי לאברהם ליצחק וליעקב לאמר לזרעך אתננה הראיתיך בעיניך ושמה לא תעבר וימת שם משה עבד יהוה בארץ מואב על פי יהוה ויקבר אתו בגי בארץ מואב מול בית פעור ולא ידע איש את קברתו עד היום הזה ומשה בן מאה ועשרים שנה במתו לא כהתה עינו ולא נס לחה ויבכו בני ישראל את משה בערבת מואב שלשים יום ויתמו ימי בכי אבל משה ויהושע בן נון מלא רוח חכמה כי סמך משה את ידיו עליו וישמעו אליו בני ישראל ויעשו כאשר צוה יהוה את משה ולא קם נביא עוד בישראל כמשה אשר ידעו יהוה פנים אל פנים לכל האתת והמופתים אשר שלחו יהוה לעשות בארץ מצרים לפרעה ולכל עבדיו ולכל ארצו ולכל היד החזקה ולכל המורא הגדול אשר עשה משה לעיני כל ישראל

The scroll runs right to left. Touch a glowing gap.

Raziel רזיאל

I don't keep the words. I keep the white between them.

This week the blessings came with their rooms already measured: nine spaces, one open and eight closed. After Reuven I closed the line: live and do not die, though your numbers are few. After Yehudah I opened the whole line. Hear his voice, bring him back to his people. A king needs a door, so I left him one.

Levi, Binyamin, Yosef and Gad each had a closed room of his own. Some had to share. Zevulun, who goes out to sea, and Yissachar, who stays in his tents, I kept in one room, because one carries the other. Dan and Naftali I kept together too. Asher ran straight into the last words, happy are you, Israel, and I closed them in together. Shimon had no room at all. There is no blessing with his name on it, so there was nothing for me to close.

Then Moshe climbed. From the plains of Moav to the top of the mountain, his death, his burial, the thirty days of weeping, the young one filled with wisdom: twelve verses and not one break. I wanted to give him a line of white the way I gave Yehudah. I couldn't. The scroll marks nothing there, and nothing after the last letter either.

Maybe that's right. The sages say the Name spoke those last lines and Moshe wrote them in tears. When you are writing through tears you don't stop for white space. You keep going until it's done. So I hold his white the only way I can. The Torah ends with no space after it, and we go straight back to the beginning.

Rung 8 of 8

The vessel

Sandalfon names what holds it all.

Sandalfon סנדלפון

I don't hold the light. I hold what holds it.

Moshe's blessings are full of my vessels. The Tumim and the Urim, given to Levi. Incense, and whole offerings on the altar. Yosef's land, filled with dew from above and the deep lying below, and fruit brought out by the sun and the moon. Asher dipping his foot in oil, his bolts of iron and copper. The wealth of the seas and the treasures hidden in the sand.

And the arms. Underneath are the everlasting arms. The whole people held from below.

You looked for the vessel in the blessings. Look at the valley. Moshe dies on the mountain by the word of the Name, and the Name Himself buries him in the valley opposite Beit Peor, and no one knows his grave to this day. The sages say men once went looking for it. From above it seemed to be below, and from below it seemed to be above. They say even Moshe does not know where he lies.

A grave is the last vessel a person is given. This one was dug by no one we can name. The Name made it and gave it no address. The letters say Moshe and HaShem are the same number, the same letters turned around, and I think that is why no one can find him. In the end he was held by the One he had carried his whole life. The Torah closes on the man who wrote it down, and the last words are in front of the eyes of all Israel, and he is somewhere no eye can reach.

The vesselThe grave no one knows

שבת שלוםYou've reached the top of the ladder.

The ladder, every Thursday

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