No Liberator Is Crowned King

Abstract

Moses, the deliverer from slavery, the one who revealed to the people the name of Elohim and his Law, the only man who spoke with God ‘mouth to mouth’, dies outside of the promised land. YHWH shows it to him from a distance, but he cannot reach it. The Patriarchs of Genesis had died otherwise, surrounded by their wives, sons, daughters, grandchildren, by the many ‘stars’ promised on the day of the call. They die at home, many of them are buried in the same cave of Machpelah, which was the only piece of the promised land owned by Abraham. Moses dies alone with no one to accompany him on the last trip, without the consolation of affections. He dies as he lived, in that lonely and continuous dialogue with the voice that had called him from the bush as he was herding, alone, the flock of Jethro his father-in-law at Horeb; the same voice that spoke to him again on the mountain, in the tent of the meeting, in solitude. We do not know if on that last trip to Mount Nebo the voice continued to talk to him, if it accompanied him or retired as it happened to many prophets who have died in the silence of the voice. Because, the most important happiness is not ours, but that of our children, that of the children of all.

No one knows his resting place. For the men of the mountain, their tomb is located in the valley; for the men of the valley, it is situated on the mountain. It is everywhere and elsewhere, always elsewhere. No one was present at the time of his death. In a sense, he still lives in us, in all of us. Because, as long as there is a son of Israel, somewhere, who proclaims his Law and his truth, Moses lives through him, in him, as the burning bush lives, which consumes the hearts of men without consuming their faith in man and in his agonizing cries.

(Elie Wiesel, Biblical characters through the Midrash).