Imagine Moshe
Rabbenu walking away from the camp of the Jewish people for the
last time. A hush, a complete silence descends upon the 3 million
Israelites as they watch, each one with tears in his eyes, as
the greatest man who ever lived walks away from them, to die.
And with these words the Torah ends:
"...and
by all the strong hand and awesome power that Moses performed
before the eyes of all Israel."
These words describe
what was on the minds of every Jew as they watched Moshe ascend
the mountain. What does "the strong hand" mean? Rashi tells us:
the miracles and wonders in the desert. And what does it mean "l'eini
kol Yisroel" - "before the eyes of all Israel"? Rashi says that
Moshe strengthened his heart to break the first set of Ten Commandments
(when they sinned with the Golden Calf). Moshe broke them at the
bottom of the mountain "in front of their eyes", and Hashem said:
"Yishar kochacha - well done!".
We know that
Moses did not write the last 8 verses of the Torah which describe
his own death. One opinion holds that Hashem Himself wrote them
and another states that Joshua wrote them as dictated by Hashem.
What is Hashem teaching us about life when He tells us in the
Torah that the Israelites were to remember Moshe's great leadership
in the desert and the fact that he broke the Tablets containing
the Ten Commandments? These two images of Moshe don't seem to
fit together - "great leader" and "the one who broke the tablets".
What is the Torah teaching us?
One answer
might be that Moshe broke the tablets and Hashem said: "Well done!"
Why? Because the Jewish people were not ready to receive the laws.
They still had to grow and learn more - to understand that we
don't need symbols of Hashem's power, symbols like the Golden
Calf. Rather, we need to always be striving for a relationship
with Hashem Himself, through the performance of mitzvos and learning
Torah.
And so, the
best way for Moses to leave us was to remind us to keep striving...The
Jewish people should never settle for a symbolic "relationship"
with Hashem through an intermediary like the Golden Calf. They
should strive for a real and intimate relationship with Hashem
that develops only from striving to know Hashem and to serve Hashem
every day of our lives. And that is a most important and poignant
message with which to end the Torah - to encourage us on our journey
toward personal growth and service of Hashem.
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