In spite of his disappointments, in spite of his ordeals and the lack of gratitude he encountered, Moses never lost his faith in his people. Somehow he found both the strength and the courage to remain on Israel’s side and proclaim its honor and its right to live.

All that he had been subjected to, all he had experienced notwithstanding, he knew how to accept every gift with gratitude. Moses was gratitude personified. Of his ten names, he retained that of Moses—because that was the name given to him by Batya, the Pharaoh’s daughter; Batya who had saved his life.

When the great plagues befell Egypt, it was Aaron and not Moses who struck the Nile with his stick, transforming it into a river of blood. Moses would not do it, for he did not wish to harm the river that had saved his life.

Later, when Israel had to go and fight the nation of Midian, it was led by Joshua, not Moses; Moses would not fight his former adoptive country whose people had once given him shelter.

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And now, let us return to our initial question: Why was Moses so attached to life, to the point of opposing God’s will? Was that his way of protesting heaven’s use of death to diminish, stimulate and ultimately crush man? Was it his final act on behalf of his people? His way of teaching Israel an urgent and timeless lesson: that life is sacred—always and for everyone—and that no one has the right to give it up? Did the most inspired and fierce prophet of all wish by his example to tell us, through centuries and generations to come, that to live as a man, as a Jew, means to say yes to life, to fight—even against the Almighty— for every spark, for every breath of life?

Of course, it is also possible that Moses refusing to die is nothing but the image of a still vigorous old man afraid to die; the image of a human being, with human shortcomings and anxieties. As his last hour approached, he refused to act out the role of saint or hero; he wanted to live and admitted it. He had never lied, not to others and not to himself; he was not going to start now, on the threshold of death.

Yes, he wanted to live and was not ashamed of it; he wanted to live at any cost, except at someone else’s expense. The Midrash tells us that at the end God told Moses: You insist on belonging to the world of the living, so be it, you shall live—but then Israel shall perish; it must be one or the other, you or Israel. And Moses cried out: Let Moses die, let a thousand men like him die, only let not one child of Israel be touched. For one may not go beyond a certain limit; to live is good, to want to live is human, but not at the expense of another’s death.