Moses’ Prayer Answered

There are two leadership models we should emulate. The first is focused on the people of his time. The other is focused on the future as well.

Striking the Rock

In this week’s parsha, Moses describes how he implored G-d to allow him to enter the Promised Land, but to no avail. He was to die in the desert and was only given the option of seeing the land from atop a mountain.

The reason Moses was not permitted to enter the Land of Israel with the Jewish nation was due to the action he took, described in detail in an earlier parsha, and is alluded to briefly here.

When his sister Miriam died, the miraculous rock that provided millions with water throughout their close to forty year sojourn in the desert, ceased to flow with water. The people clamored for water and Moses was told by G-d to take his staff and speak to the rock. Moses gets angry at the rebellious nature of the people and struck the rock.

According to Rashi, his failure to speak to the rock and to instead employ the method of striking it was his subtle form of rebelliousness for which G-d denied him the right to enter the Promised Land.

However, in spite of G-d’s decree that he would not enter the land, Moses prayed to G- d that He rescind that decree. According to our Sages, Moses prayed no less than 515 prayers, the numerical equivalent of the word “Vo’ eschanan-And I prayed,” the very word which serves as the name of this week’s parsha.

Difference Between Moses and Aaron

Commentators raise the question as to why Aaron—who accompanied Moses when he struck the rock and was therefore also included in G-d’s decree that he would not live to enter the Promised Land—did not pray to G-d that he be permitted to enter. Why did Moses pray and not Aaron?

One answer given by commentators is that upon the conquest and settlement of the Land of Israel the obligation of the Jewish nation to provide Aaron and his progeny with the 24 forms of gifts would commence. If Aaron were to plead with G-d to be allowed to enter the Land, people might have impugned his motives. They would have charged that he wished to enter to reap the benefits of living in Israel.

Moses, on the other hand, who was not destined to receive all of those benefits, had therefore no concern that his motives might be questioned.

“The Buck Stops Here!”

One can offer a deeper answer to the question as to why Aaron seemed resigned to his fate to not cross the Jordan and Moses did not, lies in their different roles.

Moses and Aaron shared many qualities. Among their qualities was their boundless love and concern for the Jewish people. However, a nation can have only one ultimate leader. And although Moses was assisted by Aaron and Miriam and the seventy elders, when it came to the leadership of the Jewish people, only Moses could say, “the buck stops here!”

Another important distinction between Moses and Aaron that is a corollary of the first distinction was that Moses as their “supreme” leader could not get too close to the people. In order to be a responsible leader he had to maintain a healthy distance between himself and his people. Aaron, by contrast, did not have this need and therefore developed a powerful loving bond between himself and the people of his generation. This bond was so strong that he could not separate from them in his lifetime and in his final resting place.

According to the Midrash, the “real” reason Moses was not destined to cross the Jordan was due to the fact that he was the leader of the generation that perished in the desert, and as a faithful leader he had to stay with his flock.

Moses nevertheless implored G-d to allow him to cross the Jordan because Moses was not just the leader of his own generation; he was also the leader of all future generations. To this day we refer to Moses exclusively as “Moses our teacher.” Moses therefore thought that just as he had a responsibility to be there for his generation so did he have a responsibility for all future generations.

Moreover, Moses knew that if he would succeed in getting G-d to rescind his decree and allow him to enter the Land of Israel the future of the Jewish people would have unfolded in a drastically different fashion. Without Moses to lead them, the people degenerated into idolatry and slowly but surely sowed the seeds of their own expulsion from the land with the destruction of the Temple that occurred over 800 years after its conquest.

Had Moses been the one to lead them into Israel, his towering spiritual influence would have prevented their decline and there would never have been “destruction” and its ensuing exile. Moses’ entry into the land would have represented the beginning of the Messianic Age, which would have prevented thousands of years of travail and misery.

Moses therefore prayed to enter, not for his benefit, but for the benefit of future generations. Aaron, by contrast, who was not the ultimate leader, felt much greater kinship and empathy for his generation and sought to remain with them.

Internalizing Both Models

Although Moses and Aaron were “head and shoulders” above us, we nevertheless can apply their models of leadership to our own lives.

The Aaron component of our soul identifies with every person with whom we come in contact. The Aaron personality does not focus on the future.

The Moses personality, by contrast, focuses on the future as well.

When we do a Mitzvah or learn Torah we must not only focus on their relevancy today. We must also focus on how every Mitzvah we do hastens and prepares us for the Redemption.

Prayers Never Declined

Our Sages tell us that a righteous person’s prayers and requests are always heard and granted. Despite the failure of Moses to get G-d to rescind the decree, Moses’ soul, we are told, enters into the body of Jewish leaders for all eternity. Even the Moshiach we are told is imbued with and empowered by the soul of Moses that resides within his own soul.

If we had to characterize Moses’ soul’s passion it is his obsession for Torah. And this obsession which is always alive is what keeps the Jewish people alive and enables them to survive and flourish even as they go through the painful exile. And it is this same spirit of Moses that will be the driving force to bring Moshiach and the final Redemption, at which time, the Midrash states, Moses himself will arise, return, soul in body, with his entire generation, and he will lead them to the Promised Land.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Voeschanan by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.