Parshat Ha'azinu by Reverend Asher Tannenbaum
Between Two Worlds
In two different places, God gives Moshe the same instructions. In this week’s Parsha, Moshe stands before God and says “if I cannot enter the Land as a ruler, let me enter it as a commoner. If I cannot enter it alive, let me enter it dead.” And God answered him “ And there you shall not come” and in Parshat V’Zot HaBracha “And there you shall not pass, not as a king and not as a commoner, not alive and not dead.” It seems a rather harsh punishment.
Why is Moshe denied burial in the Land? A midrash suggests that Moshe is denied burial in the Land, because he failed to acknowledge himself to be of the land. When the daughters of Yitro say “an Egyptian man saved us from the shepherds”, Moshe heard and remains silent. Therefore he was not buried in the Land. One can say that Moshe was punished for his disloyalty and not committing to identify as a Jew. Or the midrash can be stating a fact about Moshe that he was a man that never belonged. Moshe has always existed in two worlds. He is the son of two mothers, one an Egyptian princess, the other a Jewish slave. While Moshe chooses his Jewish identity over his Egyptian one, he carries pieces of his Egyptian mother to the end of his life, namely his name. Moshe was brought up with two languages and his mastery of either or both is questionable. Moshe’s objection that he is not a man of speech is part of his argument to God that the Jewish people will not believe him. And the fact that he has lived away from Egypt for so long, is a concern that he will not be able to communicate with Pharaoh. Later when the Ten Commandments are given, the first word is not the Hebrew “ani” but rather “anochi” which is Egyptian for I. In speaking the first word in Egyptian, God is signaling to Moshe that his “in betweenness” does not exclude him from serving God.
In refusing to allow Moshe to be buried in the Land, God is affirming who Moshe is and was – a man between two worlds. Moshe was uniquely positioned to redeem a people, to help them cross the no-man’s land between Egypt and Canaan. When God tells Moshe that he will be buried outside the Land, he reminds not just Moshe but the generations of Jews who come after him,: sometimes the in-between is exactly where Judaism needs us to be.
Shabbat Shalom,
Reverend Asher Tannenbaum