That Moses might not take his approaching end too much to heart, God
tried to comfort him by pointing out to him that in his lifetime he had
received such distinctions from his Creator as no man before him, and
that still greater distinctions awaited him in the future world. God
said: "Dost not thou remember the great honor I showed thee? Thou didst
say to Me, 'Arise,' and I arose; thou saidst, 'Turn about,' and I
turned about; for thy sake too did I invert the order of heaven and
earth, for the order of heaven it is to send down dew and rain, and
earth's order is it to produce bread, but thou didst say to Me, 'I do
not wish it so, but bid heaven to send down bread, and earth to bring
forth water,' and I acted in accordance with thy wish; I caused bread
to rain from heaven, and the well 'sprung up.' Thou didst say, 'If the
Lord make a new thing, and the ground open her mouth, and swallow them
up, then ye shall understand that the Lord hath sent me,' and I
fulfilled thy wish, and it swallowed them. I had also spoken, 'He that
sacrificeth unto any god, save unto the Lord only, shall be utterly
destroyed,' but when Israel sinned with the Golden Calf and I meant to
deal with them according to My words, thou wouldst not let Me, saying:
'Pardon, I pray Thee, the iniquity of this people,' and I forgave them
as thou didst ask Me. More than this, the Torah is named after Me, it
is the Torah of the Lord, but I named it after Thy name, saying, 'It is
the Torah of My servant Moses.' The children of Israel also are named
after Me, 'for unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My
servants,' but I called them after thy name. I distinguished thee still
more, for just as there is neither food nor drink for Me, so also didst
thou stay in heaven forty days and forty nights, and in all that time,
'didst neither eat bread, nor drink water.' I am God, and see, 'I made
thee a god to Pharaoh;' I have prophets, and thou hast a prophet, for I
said to thee, 'and Aaron, thy brother, shall be thy prophet.' Again, no
being may see Me, and thee too did I make so that 'the people were
afraid to come nigh thee,' and as I said to thee, 'thou shalt see My
back: but My face shall not be seen,' so too did the people see the
back of thee. I glorified the Torah with twenty-two letters, and with
all these letters did I glorify thee. I sent thee to Pharaoh, and thou
didst lead Israel out of Egypt; through thee did I bestow the Sabbath
upon Israel, and the law of circumcision; I gave thee the Ten
Commandments, I covered thee with the cloud, I gave thee the two tables
of stone, which thou didst break; I made thee unique in the world; I
gave thee the Torah as an inheritance, and honored thee more than all
the seventy elders."
Moses had to acknowledge that extraordinary marks of honor had been
his. He said: "Lord of the world! Thou didst set me on high, and didst
bestow upon me so many benefits that I cannot enumerate one of a
thousand, and all the world knows how Thou didst exalt me and honor me,
and all the world knows as well that Thou art the One God, the only One
in Thy world, that there is none beside Thee, and that there is nothing
like Thee. Thou didst create those above and those below, Thou art the
beginning and the end. Who can enumerate Thy deeds of glory? Do one of
these, I beseech Thee, that I may pass over the Jordan." God said:
"'Let it suffice, speak no more unto Me of this matter.' [892] It is
better for thee to die here, than that thou shouldst cross the Jordan
and die in the land of Israel. There in a tomb fashioned by men, on a
bier made by men, and by the hands of men wouldst thou be buried; but
now shalt thou be buried in a tomb fashioned by God, on a bier made by
God, and shalt be buried by the hands of God. [893] O My son Moses,
much honor had been stored up for thee in the future world, for thou
wilt take part in all the delights of Paradise, where are prepared
three hundred and ten worlds, which I have created for every pious man
that through love of Me devoted himself to the Torah. And as in this
world I appointed thee over the sixty myriads of Israel, so in the
future world shall I appoint thee over the fifty-five myriads of pious
men. Thy days, O Moses, will pass, when thou art dead, but thy light
will not fade, for thou wilt never have need of the light of sun or
moon or stars, nor wilt thou require raiment or shelter, or oil for thy
head, or shoes for thy feet, for My majesty will shine before thee, My
radiance will make thy face beam, My sweetness will delight thy palate,
the carriages of My equipage shall serve as vehicles for thee, and one
of My many scepters upon which is engraved the Ineffable Name, one that
I had employed in the creation of the world, shall I give to thee, the
image of which I had already given thee in this world." [894]