DEUT1730 What do we learn from the death of Moses? For each of us, even for the greatest, there is a Jordan we will not cross, a promised land we will not enter, a destination we will not reach. That is what R. Tarfon meant when he said: "It is not for you to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it" (Mishna Avot 2:16). What be began, others will continue. What matters is that we undertook the journey. We did not stand still.

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DEUT1731 The philosophers have already explained how the bodily forces of man in his youth prevent the development of moral principles. In a greater measure this is the case as regards the purity of thought which man attains through the perfection of those ideas that lead him to an intense love of God. Man can by no means attain this so long as his body humors are hot. The more the forces of his body are weakened, and the fire of passion quenched, in the same measure does man's intellect increase in strength and light; his knowledge becomes pure, and he is happy with his knowledge. When this perfect man is stricken in age and his near death, his knowledge mightily increases, his joy in that knowledge grows greater, and his love for the object of his knowledge more intense, and it is in this great delight that the soul separates from the body. To the state our Sages referred when in reference to the death of Moses, Aaron and Miriam, they said the death was in these three cases nothing but a kiss. They say this: We learned from the words, "And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab by the mouth of the Lord," that his death was a kiss. The same expression is used of Aaron: "And Aaron the priest went up into Mount Hor… By the mouth of the Lord, and died there." (Numbers 33:38. Our sages said that the same was the case with Miriam; but the phrase "by the mouth of the Lord" is not employed [Numbers 20:1-AJL], because it was not considered appropriate to use these words in the description of her death as she was a female. The meaning of the saying is that these three died in the midst of the pleasure derived from the knowledge God and their great love for Him. Maimonides.

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DEUT1732 See Leviticus 25:55 servants MORINIS 89

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DEUT1740 See [[GEN434]] Genesis 3:21 clothed EYES 256-7. See also [[LEV725]] Leviticus 19:18 yourself AHAVCH 21-2

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DEUT1737 See [[DEUT608]] Deuteronomy 13:5 walk AMEMEI 235

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DEUT1735 Our Yiddish ancestors [said] with their usual matter-of-fact directness: "Even to die one needs help; no corpse ever buried himself" (Yiddish proverb). And that means help from the entire community; going to a funeral of someone you don't know is as true a mitzvah as burying a family member. When few attend a funeral, we feel bad; when many come, it assuages our sense of loss and our intimations of our own mortality. And that attitude has created our new interest in hospice care. Respectful, loving attention in the face of the ultimate void that is death shows that gemilut hasadim is more than duty, but an extended, felt kindness in which, once again, we emulate our Creator: "And God buried Moses in the valley" [this verse].

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DEUT1738 See [[EXOD979]] Exodus 32:10 thee COHON 296

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DEUT1739 See [[GEN433]] Genesis 3:21 clothed DORFF-RUTTENBERGSOC 5

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DEUT1742 We are obligated to bury the dead. Rabbi Simlai expounded, "The beginning of the Torah deals with chesed, and the end of the Torah deals with chesed. The beginning of the Torah records that God clothed the naked (see Braishis 3:21). The end of the Torah records that God buried the dead. (Sotah 14a). The Talmud states further, "Just as God buried the dead, so too must you emulate Him and bury the dead." (ibid). A person is obligated to interrupt his Torah studies to attend a funeral. As long as there are people who will take care of all the funeral arrangements, a person need not interrupt his Torah study until the actual time of the funeral. (Yorah Daiah 361:1, 2 and Shach 1,2). Whoever sees the funeral and does not join the procession is guilty of "mocking the poor" and deserves to be excommunicated. A person must accompany the dead for at least four amos (app. 8 feet). (Yorah Daiah 361:3)

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DEUT1733 [T]he sages said that the three characteristics most important to Jewish character are modesty, compassion, and kindness (Numbers Rabba 8:4). Hesed, what I have defined elsewhere as "love as deed," (Jonathan Sacks, To Heal a Fractured World (NewYork: Schocken, 2005), 44-56] is central to the Jewish value system. The sages based it on the acts of God Himself. R. Simlai taught: "The Torah begins with an act of kindness and ends with an act of kindness. It begins with God clothing the naked: "The Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21) – and it ends with Him caring for the dead: "and He [God] buried [Moses] in the valley" [this verse] (Sota 14a). Hesed -- providing shelter for the homeless, food for the hungry, or assistance to the poor; visiting the sick, comforting mourners, and providing a dignified burial for all – – became constitutive of Jewish life. During the many centuries of exile and dispersion Jewish communities were built around these needs. There were hevrot, "friendly societies," for each of them.

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