When God in wrath against Moses and Aaron vowed, "Therefore ye shall
not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them," Moses
forbore to implore God to do away with this sentence, acting in
accordance with the percept, "Do not attempt to dissolve thy neighbor's
vow in the moment he hath made it." Moses waited forty years before he
approached God with the request to permit him to enter the promised
land with Israel. [870] This occurred when he had received God's
command to appoint Joshua as his successor, for he now perceived that
God had actually resolved to execute His sentence. [871] For although
God had ten times decreed that Moses was to die in the desert, still
Moses had not troubled much about it, even when the resolution had been
sealed in the heavenly court. He thought: "How often did Israel sin,
and yet, when I prayed for them, He annulled the punishment He had
decreed; surely God should accept my prayer, if I - a man who never
sinned - should pray to Him." [872] Moses had also a special reason for
assuming that God had changed His determination concerning him, and
would not permit him to enter the promised land, for he had been
permitted to enter the part of Palestine lying on this side of the
Jordan, the land of Sihon and of Og, and from this he reasoned that God
had not irrevocably decreed punishment for him, and that it might
therefore now be recalled [873] He was strengthened in this assumption
by the fact that after the conquest of the east-Jordanic region God
revealed to him the instructions as to how the land was to be divided,
and it seemed to him as if he were in person to carry out these
instructions. He was, however, mistaken, for shortly after these laws
had been revealed to him, God informed him that he was to look upon the
promised land from Mount Abarin, as he should never enter it. [874]
When God saw that Moses was not much concerned about the impending
punishment, He sealed the command He had issued against him, and swore
by His Ineffable Name that Moses should not march into the land. Moses
thereupon put on sackcloth, threw himself upon the ashes, and prayed
not less than fifteen hundred prayers for the annulment of the Divine
resolve against him. He drew a circle about himself, stood in the
center of it, and said, "I will not move from this spot until judgement
shall have been suspended." Heaven and earth, as well as all the forms
of creation, trembled and said, "Perhaps it is God's wish to destroy
this world, to create a new universe." But a voice sounded from heaven
and said: "God's wish to destroy the world has not yet come, the
commotion in nature is due to this that 'in God's hand is the soul of
all living things and the spirit of all flesh,' even the spirit of the
man Moses, whose end is not at hand."
God then bade them proclaim in heaven, and in all the celestial courts
of justice, that they should not accept Moses' prayers, and that no
angel was to carry Moses' prayer to Him, because Moses' doom of death
had been sealed by Him. God quickly called before Him the Angel
Akraziel, who is the celestial herald, and bade him proclaim the
following in heaven: "Descend at once and lock every single gate in
heaven, that Moses' prayer may not ascend into it." Then, at Moses'
prayer, trembled heaven and earth, all the foundations thereof and the
creatures therein, for his prayer was like a sword that slashed and
rends, and can in no wise be parried, for in it was the power of the
Ineffable Name that Moses had learned from his teacher Zagzagel, the
teacher and scribe of the celestial beings. But when the Galgalim and
Seraphim saw that God did not accept Moses' prayer, and without taking
consideration of him did not grant his prayer for longer life, they all
opened their mouths, saying: "Praised be the glory of the Lord from its
place, for there is no injustice before Him, no forgetfulness, no
respect of persons toward the small or the great." [875]