punishment or just time for new leaders?
Another WOW day at Torah Study with R. Zweiback as we moved forward to the end of Moses’ Song: Deuteronomy 32:44-52
Much of the discussion centered around the fact that Moses dies before he gets to go into the land that was promised to him.
Was it a punishment? OR maybe it was just what happened and Moses was old and he just died?
We went back to look at the events in Numbers 20 when Moses ‘struck the rock’ to see if it really seems like a sin that warranted a major punishment.
And in this the ‘drama’ of the moment when Moses struck the rock to get the water allows for many different ways of interpretation. It can have different meanings depending on the inflection and way it is said. So it is not really clear what actually happened at that rock. And Jes proved it to us with his acting prowess! (And Bills humorous comment about them wandering in "wine country" which made them whine!)
Larry suggested that Moses really needs a good lawyer to plead his case.
There were many possibilities reviewed with scenarios that set the stage of understanding Moses’ point of view as he was bringing the water to the people. He was mourning his sister’s death, putting up with whining people and dealing with crowd control, it was probably rather frustrating for him at the time.
Bruce mentioned the book: How Good Do We Have to Be? A New Understanding of Guilt and Forgiveness: by Harold S. Kushner.
And as Rachel points out – it gives us the security in knowing that he made mistakes as we all do.
Maybe it was just ‘time’ for the shift from Moses and Aaron to Joshua and this was the ‘excuse’ pointed out for Moses’ death prior to reaching the land.
(and of course there was a short tangent into the debate about whether the book of Deuteronomy was written later than the others or if it was just lost for a few hundred years – and how Hulda, the prophetess, authenticated the scroll – and her husband was a dressmaker! Oh, and there was some reference to sacrificing a goat we were supposed to keep quiet about . . . )
Interesting link on this
As the class ended Rabbi Yoshi told us the midrash of Joshua’s name (his namesake too) and the yud that gave him a connection to God!
I found a couple of interesting references to this on websites:
A Successor for Moses
Adding a Yud
Much of the discussion centered around the fact that Moses dies before he gets to go into the land that was promised to him.
Was it a punishment? OR maybe it was just what happened and Moses was old and he just died?
We went back to look at the events in Numbers 20 when Moses ‘struck the rock’ to see if it really seems like a sin that warranted a major punishment.
And in this the ‘drama’ of the moment when Moses struck the rock to get the water allows for many different ways of interpretation. It can have different meanings depending on the inflection and way it is said. So it is not really clear what actually happened at that rock. And Jes proved it to us with his acting prowess! (And Bills humorous comment about them wandering in "wine country" which made them whine!)
Larry suggested that Moses really needs a good lawyer to plead his case.
There were many possibilities reviewed with scenarios that set the stage of understanding Moses’ point of view as he was bringing the water to the people. He was mourning his sister’s death, putting up with whining people and dealing with crowd control, it was probably rather frustrating for him at the time.
Bruce mentioned the book: How Good Do We Have to Be? A New Understanding of Guilt and Forgiveness: by Harold S. Kushner.
And as Rachel points out – it gives us the security in knowing that he made mistakes as we all do.
Maybe it was just ‘time’ for the shift from Moses and Aaron to Joshua and this was the ‘excuse’ pointed out for Moses’ death prior to reaching the land.
(and of course there was a short tangent into the debate about whether the book of Deuteronomy was written later than the others or if it was just lost for a few hundred years – and how Hulda, the prophetess, authenticated the scroll – and her husband was a dressmaker! Oh, and there was some reference to sacrificing a goat we were supposed to keep quiet about . . . )
Interesting link on this
As the class ended Rabbi Yoshi told us the midrash of Joshua’s name (his namesake too) and the yud that gave him a connection to God!
I found a couple of interesting references to this on websites:
A Successor for Moses
Adding a Yud
posted by Chavarah @ 8:34 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home