It is difficult to think of anyone who achieved more in a single lifetime than Moses. He stood up to Pharaoh and—partnering with God—led the Israelites from slavery to freedom, and then split the Sea of Reeds. He guided the people through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where he received the Torah and then transmitted it to the nation. After the devastating sin of the Golden Calf, Moses pleaded with God to forgive the people and succeeded in averting their destruction. He oversaw the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) that would bring God’s presence into their midst, and organized the tribes into a sacred encampment, with the Mishkan at its center, and prepared them for their journey through the desert toward the Promised Land.
Throughout their desert trek, Moses endured endless complaints and accusations. After the Sin of the Scouts, and God’s threat to disown His people, Moses interceded with God again and convinced Him to pardon them. Although they were condemned to wander in the desert for forty years, Moses remained their steadfast leader through thick and thin.
Toward the end of his life Moses was barred from entering the Land because of his sin at the waters of Meribah. Nevertheless, one might imagine that after a life of such unparalleled accomplishments, he could find some measure of peace and satisfaction in his final days. Perhaps he might spend his twilight years in a retirement home just outside the border of Canaan, content with the legacy he had forged.
Yet Parashat Va’etchanan that we read this week paints a very different picture.
“I pleaded with the Lord at that time, saying, ‘O Lord God, You who have begun to show Your servant Your greatness and Your mighty hand… Please let me cross over and see the good land on the other side of the Jordan…’” (Deuteronomy 3:23–25).
As the people prepare to enter the Land, Moses shares with them a deeply personal and painful truth: despite his punishment, he begged God to let him enter the Land. Why? What compelled him to plead so fervently?
Apparently, Moses understood that the Land of Israel was not merely a reward or a destination—it was the very purpose of the Exodus and the culmination of his life’s mission. From the very beginning, when God first declared His intention to redeem the Israelites and explained its’ ultimate goal, He emphasized that it was to fulfill His covenant to the forefathers to bring them to the Land (Exodus 2:24; 3:7–9; 6:2–8).
Furthermore, Moses knew that the Torah as a whole was the blueprint for building a just and moral society in the Land of Israel (see Deuteronomy 4:5, 14; 5:28; 12:1). As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks writes, “Judaism is the constitution of a self-governing nation, the architectonic of a society dedicated to the service of God in freedom and dignity… In exile, God might still live in the hearts of Jews but not in the public square—in the justice of the courts, the morality of the economy, and the humanitarianism of everyday life.”(Future Tense, p. 136)
Moses also knew that the Mishkan was only a temporary, portable dwelling for God’s presence—a sacred structure meant to accompany the people on their journey to the Land (see Numbers 4:1–49; 9:15–23). Finally, he never forgot the tragic consequences when the people rejected the Land following the scouts’ report: “In this very wilderness shall your carcasses drop…not one shall enter the Land that I swore to settle you in” (Numbers 14:29–30).
For Moses, then, the Land was everything. He could not simply retire in peace, knowing that he had come so close yet would never enter. Though he knew the future in the Land would involve a host of challenges, Moses longed to witness the fulfillment of his life’s work. And so he prayed. He pleaded.
Tragically, however, the answer was no. God said “Enough! Never speak to Me of this matter again!” (Deuteronomy 3:26).
Thus, unlike Abraham who “died at a good ripe age, old and contented” (Genesis 25:8), after God reminded Moses again that “I have let you see it [the Land] with your own eyes, but you shall not cross there” (Deuteronomy 34:4), we are told that Moses simply “died there, in the land of Moab” (Deuteronomy 34:5). No mention of satisfaction. No peace or contentment. Only the tragic conclusion of a life devoted to a mission he could not complete.
What Moses was only permitted to see from afar, we have been privileged to experience in our time. After two thousand years of exile—marked by wandering, persecution, and longing—the Jewish people have returned to their Land. The dream that Moses could not realize has become our reality.
Although Israel faces many challenges, some daunting, one can only imagine how Moses would have yearned to stand here with us today—to witness the rebirth of his nation in its ancestral homeland, to walk its hills, pray in its cities, and enjoy its’ many blessings.
Shabbat Shalom.
