5768 פרשת וילך

 In this week’s Parsha sheet the Torah describes the final day of the life of Moshe Rabbeinu. The Torah describes how Moshe Rabbeinu went around the camp of Bnei Yisroel telling them that it is his time to die and giving them some additional words of Mussar. When telling Bnei Yisroel that he was going to die, he said the following:

 I can no longer go out and come in.

 There are different interpretations given about what Moshe Rabbeinu meant by these words. One of the interpretations is brought down by the Rabbeinu Bechai which is:

 The words “going out and coming in” relates to learning and understanding Torah. This teaches us the God closed the fountains of wisdom to Moshe Rabbeinu. God performed this miracle so that Moshe Rabbeinu would not worry or be sad about his death.

 This Rabbeinu Bechai is very difficult to understand. We know from Chazal that death is actually one of the greatest acts of mercy that God does to mankind. Our purpose in this world is to do Mitzvos and keep the Torah so that our souls can be elevated and get close to God in Olam Habah. The only reason for a person to fear death is if he did not make proper use of his time on this world and has to face a difficult heavenly judgment.

 Moshe Rabbeinu, on the other hand, was an almost perfect Tzadik who even in his lifetime was on a level greater than any other prophet in history where he spoke to God face to face. For Moshe Rabbeinu, death would be just a continuation of his life just on a higher level. Why then, would God have to close the fountain of wisdom to Moshe so he should not fear death, there was nothing for Moshe to fear.

 Secondly, the fear of death is an emotional feeling not an intellectual one, so why would it help for God to close the fountains of wisdom, He should have closed off Moshe Rabbeinu’s feelings of fear?

 The answer is that in truth the fear of death for those that understand it is totally intellectual. When a person gets old and can no longer do the things he was accustomed to doing and that gave him pleasure, he will embrace death. He would have nothing to live for. Only those that understand that they are running out of time in this world to prepare themselves for life in the next world feel the true fear of death.

 This is true even for the greatest Tzadikim. There is a feeling that maybe we did not accomplish enough, maybe we did not repent enough for the small sins we had done. The finality of death and not being able to continue growing is a terrifying thought to someone who understands the purpose of life in this world.

 This is why God performed a miracle and closed the fountains of wisdom to Moshe Rabbeinu so that he should not worry about his upcoming death since in truth God knew that Moshe Rabbeinu had accomplished everything in this world that he needed to. However, that is something that is known only to God and not to man not even to the greatest Tzadik and Navi, Moshe Rabbeinu.

 We can learn a very important lesson from this Rabbeinu Bechai. If even the greatest Tzadikim were worried that they did not accomplish their purpose in life, surely we must consider the possibility that we have not either. However, we are in the middle of the ten days of repentance, where God has given us the ability to do Teshuva and start again and try to achieve what we were put her to do – Serve God properly. However, we need to focus and commit ourselves to change during these special days.

 If we can try to focus on our purpose in life and understand that life is only temporary and we have a set time to accomplish a lot in our Service of God, it will inspire us to true change through which we will merit a year where we will see only good and the coming of the true redemption.