Contents of The Midrash
The real content of the midrash is a haggadic treatment of Deut. xxxi. 14 et seq., supplemented by an exegesis of Deut. iii. 23 et seq., and is filled with somewhat tedious dialogues between God and Moses, who is represented as unwilling to die. All his tears and entreaties were in vain, however; for God commanded all the princes of heaven to close the gates of prayer. In the last days of his life, until the 7th of Adar, Moses interpreted the Torah to Israel, and on the day of his death, according to R. Ḥelbo, he wrote thirteen Torahs, of which twelve were for the twelve tribes, and the best was for the Ark of the Covenant (ib. xxxi. 24 et seq.; comp. Pesiḳ. p. 197a; Deut. R., Wayelek, end.; Midr. Teh. on Ps. xc.); some say that the angel Gabriel descended, and took the Torah from the hands of Moses, bearing it through each heaven to show the piety of its scribe, and that the souls of the holy read from this Torah on Mondays and Thursdays and on festivals. This is followed by a long section beginning with R. Josiah's account of the honors which Moses rendered Joshua, and the service which he did him in the last days of his life. Especially noteworthy here is the poetic prayer of Joshua beginning עורו רנו שמי השמים העליונים.
After this the close of Moses' life is depicted, a bat ḳol (heavenly voice) giving warning with increasing insistence of the hours, even of the seconds, that remained for him. This enumeration of the hours and the conventional formula יצתה בת קול are important for the determination of the dependence of the additions in Deut. R. xi. and the second recension on the original version. Early in the midrash the angels Gabriel and Zangaziel, "the scribe of all the sons of heaven," are mentioned; but in the last hours of the life of Moses it is Samael, the head of the Satans, whose activity is most conspicuous as he watches for the passing of the soul, while Michael weeps and laments. At last Samael receives the command to bring the soul of Moses, but flees in terror before his glance. Again he appears with a drawn sword before Moses, but he has to yield before the "shem ha-meforash," carved on the staff of the leader of Israel. The last moment approaches, however, and God Himself appears to receive Moses' soul. The three good angels accompany Him to prepare a resting-place for Moses, whose soul at length is taken in the kiss of death.
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“Yet to speak of the whole world as metaphor
Is still to stick to the contents of the mind
And the desire to believe in a metaphor.
It is to stick to the nicer knowledge of
Belief, that what it believes in is not true.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Yet to speak of the whole world as metaphor
Is still to stick to the contents of the mind
And the desire to believe in a metaphor.
It is to stick to the nicer knowledge of
Belief, that what it believes in is not true.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)