Moses Without a Grand Finale

In this week's Torah portion, Vaetchanan, Moses’ plea to G-d to allow him to lead the people into the land of Israel is denied. At that point Moses pivots and begins to soliloquize. Much of the book of Deuteronomy reads largely like a scriptural pre-death obituary delivered by Moses himself.

What stands out?

Was it his courageous high-profile break with the royal family of Egypt, opting instead to display solidarity with his downtrodden people? Was it his inability to continue looking the other way knowing that just beyond the palace lay a ghetto where his own flesh and blood were being brutalized daily? Was it his mind shattering mystic encounter at the Burning Bush, when he realized that history and his destiny were calling? The ten plagues? The splitting of the sea? The Manna from heaven to feed the starving bodies? Receiving Torah from heaven as well, to feed the starving souls?

None of that.

Instead of romanticizing himself, his life is summarized against the backdrop of what could seem like his most spectacular failure; the fact that he didn't lead his people across the Jordan into the promised land. This parting "gift" - might have been the most precious of all.

How so?

At first glance it might seem as if his "obsession" over this failure would cast a long shadow over an otherwise extraordinary tenure. Upon closer scrutiny however, the opposite becomes apparent, offering us a glimpse of the brightest side of Moses yet. You see, in the minds of the people, a life like that was one that they could never hope to replicate. Once gone they would be left doubly bereft. In addition to the death of their beloved leader, they would also be confronted with the existential loss, or death, of their sense of purpose; for what could they possibly hope to achieve that Moses hadn't already achieved?

The ending of the Moses era, MINUS a grand finale, was his way of bequeathing to them the greatest inheritance of all, the continuity of purposefulness. Only by emphasizing how even his storied life ended as a work in progress, could he ensure that his individual calling become the collective calling of the people to continue.

The message for us in our own lives is so clear. The greatest success that we can fathom in our own lives pales in comparison to the ways in which we can spark the imagination of those that look trustingly to us for a sign that there is purpose to it all. ESPECIALLY during these times. The bittersweet gift of our own groundlessness, of being ok with a life that often seems to resemble a continuous loop of unfinished business, lies in our ability to put that in perspective. Firstly by embracing our own life's work passionately and faithfully. Secondly, by remaining positive about the places where we have NOT yet met our goals.

Doing so need not be an exposé on our mediocrity; to the contrary, it is the best place to reinforce to our loved ones how much we are counting on them, how needed and valued they are, how desperately we and our world need them to add their light to the places where ours doesn't shine as brightly as we had hoped.