Moses never entered the Land of Israel. Because of one act of disobedience, when he hit a rock in anger instead of praying to it (Numbers 20:11),1 God told him he could never set foot in the land of milk and honey, the land that represented the fulfillment of his life’s work. That’s how centuries of tradition have told the story. And that’s what we believe. How unfair it seems, knowing all that Moses did for the Israelites.
But is there another reading of this text? Is it possible that Moses did cross the Jordan River?
According to tradition, Deuteronomy 31 relates what took place on the last day of Moses’ life. It opens with the words Vayeilech Moshe, “And Moses went.” But, as Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetsky, dean of the Yeshiva of the South Shore, Long Island, recently asked, “Where did he go?”2
The sentence immediately following reads, “He [Moses] said to them, ‘A hundred and twenty years old am I today; I am no longer able to go-out and to come-in, and God has said to me, “You are not to cross over this Jordan!”’” (Deuteronomy 31:2). Kamenetsky writes, “If he, in fact, was telling the people that he can no longer come and go, then why open the portion with the words, ‘and Moshe [Moses] went?’ If not contradictory, they are certainly superfluous.”3
For hundreds of years, Jewish hermeneutics (critical interpretation of the biblical text) has taught that every word and phrase in the Hebrew Bible bears significance. Anything that appears to be superfluous is in fact teaching us something that is not immediately apparent. In this case, Moses must have gone somewhere. But where?
When I posed this question one Shabbat (Sabbath) morning to my synagogue congregation, 14-year-old Adam Koffman responded: “He snuck across the Jordan River to get a peek into the Promised Land.”4
What a beautiful thought! Perhaps after crossing the Jordan by himself, Moses sat awhile in the shade of one of the huge willow trees along the riverbank: I picture him resting peacefully, quietly and satisfied. Maybe he strolled to the oasis of Jericho and plucked some fruit from one of her date trees before returning to the riverbank to recline a little longer and savor the moment. A warm wind blows about, but the soft branches of the willow tree cool the air. The river gurgles at his feet.
Could this have happened?
We know from the Book of Numbers (20:12) that God specifically told Moses after he hit the rock at Meribah that he could not lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land. Now, only a year5 after this incident, is it likely that Moses would disobey God again? Consider that when Moses first disobeyed God by striking the rock, he did so in frustration and anger: His furor at the people got the best of him. But this time his action would be cold and calculated.
Let’s take a closer look at just what God says to Moses about entering the Land of Israel.
Immediately after Moses strikes the rock at Meribah, God tells Moses, “Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them” (Numbers 20:12).
A year later, on the last day of Moses’ life, when Moses and the children of Israel are encamped on the east bank of the Jordan, God tells Moses three times that he must not enter the land. The first time, Moses quotes God as saying, “You are not to cross over this Jordan!” (Deuteronomy 31:2). Then God reiterates the message, telling Moses, “You are to die on the mountain that you are going up, and are to be gathered to your kinspeople, as Aaron your brother died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kinspeople—because you (both) broke faith with me in the midst of the Children of Israel at the waters of Meribat Kadesh, in the Wilderness of Zin, because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the Children of Israel. Indeed, at a distance you shall see the land, but you shall not enter it, the land that I am giving to the Children of Israel” (Deuteronomy 32:50–52). Later that same day, God restates: “This is the land that I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying ‘To your seed I give it!’ I have let you see it with your eyes, but there you shall not cross!” (Deuteronomy 34:4).
A close examination of these texts reveals a shift in God’s message. In Numbers Moses is told at Meribah that he cannot lead the people into the land. But God says nothing about whether Moses can cross the Jordan by himself. And so we imagine that is exactly what he did, early in the morning on the last day of his life: “And Moses went” (Deuteronomy 31:1)!
How do we know this? Because in the very next line (Deuteronomy 31:2), God refines his words to tell Moses that he, specifically, is not to cross the river. God is saying: “Moses you must not repeat what you just did.”
So I picture Moses at the beginning of the last day of his life. A great prophet, he knows his end is near. Standing on the east shore of the Jordan River, gazing at the opposite side, he recalls God’s command that he must not lead the Israelites across the water into Israel. But God has not yet said anything about Moses crossing the river by himself. (God’s original punishment for striking the rock is apparently not so unfair as we long thought.) And so he enters the Promised Land. Only when Moses returns does God tell him not to cross the river ever again. As the day goes on, God further hones his message, telling Moses not even to approach the riverbank. He must remain “at a distance” so that he will not be tempted to go back across the river.
God could have been clearer in his original message to Moses. But perhaps God intended this ambiguity, which left room both for Moses to cross the river and for us to discover a way to imagine Moses crossing the river. As a contemporary film director said, “Without imagination, there is no hope.” And in the end, our image of Moses crossing the Jordan is an image of hope, hope that dreams may be fulfilled even in our last days.
Moses never entered the Land of Israel. Because of one act of disobedience, when he hit a rock in anger instead of praying to it (Numbers 20:11),1 God told him he could never set foot in the land of milk and honey, the land that represented the fulfillment of his lifes work. Thats how centuries of tradition have told the story. And thats what we believe. How unfair it seems, knowing all that Moses did for the Israelites.
