DEUT1743 [M]ore than any other religious literature, the Torah makes an absolute distinction between heaven and earth, between God and human beings. Because God is God, there is space for humans to be human. In Judaism the line dividing them is never blurred. How rare this is was pointed out by Walter Kaufmann: "in India, Jina and the Buddha, founders of two new religions in the sixth century BCE, came to be worshiped later by their followers. In China, Confucius and Lao-tze came to be deified. To the non-Christian, Jesus seems to represent a parallel case. In Greece, the heroes of the past were held to have been sired by a God or to have been born of Goddesses, and the dividing line between Gods and men became fluid. In Egypt, the Pharaoh was considered divine." (The Faith of a Heretic (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2015), 187-8). In Israel, says Kaufmann, "no man was ever worshiped or accorded even semi-divine status. This is one of the most extraordinary facts about the religion of the Old Testament." (Ibid., 188). There never was a cult of Moses or any other biblical figure. That is why "no man knows Moses' burial place to this day" [this verse] so that it could never become a place of pilgrimage. No religion has held a higher view of humanity than the book that tells us we are each in the image and likeness of God. Yet none has been more honest about the failings of even the greatest. God does not ask us to be perfect. He asks us, instead, to take risks in pursuit of the right and the good, and to acknowledge the mistakes we will inevitably make. In Judaism the moral life is about learning and growing, knowing that even the greatest have feelings and even the worst of saving graces. It calls for humility about ourselves and generosity toward others. This unique blend of idealism and realism is morality at its most demanding and mature.

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DEUT1744 [What do we learn from the death of Moses?] … Never lose the idealism of youth. The Torah says of Moses that at the age of 120, "his eye was undimmed and his natural energy unabated" [this verse]. I used to think that these were two complementary phrases until I realised that the first is the explanation of the second. That Moses' "eye was undimmed" means that he never lost the passion for justice that he had as a young man. It is there, as vigorous in Deuteronomy as it was in Exodus. We are as young as our ideals. Give away to cynicism and you rapidly age.

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DEUT1745 See [[NUM268]] Numbers 20:29 bewailed AMEMEI 211

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DEUT1747 The Torah states that Moses was the humblest of all people in the world (Numbers 12:3). On this verse, one commentary asks how it could be possible that Moses, who was the greatest prophet, the only one who spoke face-to-face with God [this verse], stood up to Pharaoh, and stayed in heaven for forth days and nights without eating and in order to write the Torah (Exodus 34:28), could think of himself as worthless, with low self-esteem? (Ketav VeKabbalah commentary on Numbers 12:3). One answer he espouses is that indeed Moses recognized his enormous talent and worth and how special he really was. Realizing that all of his talents and greatness were from God, Moses did not think of himself as great, because he himself did not do anything special, but his accomplishments were due only to God's help. Furthermore, Moses tried to use all of his talents and gifts to help others. If we learn from Moses and attribute anything we are good or great at to God and then use our abilities to help others, we will inevitably feel good about ourselves--but in the proper way, with modesty, like Moses. Therefore, Moses had very high self-esteem, while still remaining the most humble man on earth.

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DEUT1746 See [[NUM84]] Numbers 11:22 enough SINAI2 44

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DEUT1748 See [[NUM108]] Numbers 12:3 humble AMEMEI 184-5

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