Moses was a humanist in all things. Even his courage, his generosity were human virtues; all his qualities and all his flaws were human. He had no supernatural powers, no talent for the occult. Everything he did, he conceived in human terms, concerned not with his own “individual salvation” but with the well-being of the community. Once he reached heaven, he could have stayed there, but he chose to come back. He could have kept the truth he had just discovered to himself, but he chose to share it with the others. Though chosen by God, he refused to give up on man. Just as God brought Moses closer to man, Moses brought Him closer to man; he lived to share.

Another story underlines that vulnerability in him which is the reason each of us recognizes oneself in him. At the end of their seemingly interminable exchange, God consented to let Moses live, on condition that he accept having his disciple Joshua become his Master and that of the entire people. Moses agreed and immediately regretted it, exclaiming: Rather a thousand deaths than one moment of jealousy!

Moses was capable of jealousy; the prophet was human.

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Let us now listen to how he died:

When Moses finally agreed to accept the inevitable, he begged God not to place him into the hands of the Angel of Death, who frightened him. And God promised. Three times did the Angel of Death move toward Moses, yet he was powerless to do anything but look at him from afar.

Moses spent his last hour blessing Israel’s tribes. He began blessing them one by one, but time was running out and so he included them all in one benediction.

Then, escorted by the priest Eleazar and by his son Pinhas, and followed by his disciple Joshua, he began to climb Mount Nebo. Slowly he entered the cloud waiting for him. He took one step forward and turned around to look at the people following him with their gaze. He took another step forward and turned around to look at the men, the women and the children who were staying behind. Tears welled up into his eyes, he no longer could see anyone. When he reached the top of the mountain, he halted. You have one more minute, God warned him so as not to deprive him of his right to death. And Moses lay down. And God said: Close your eyes. And Moses closed his eyes. And God said: Fold your arms across your chest. And Moses folded his arms across his chest. Then, silently, God kissed his lips. And the soul of Moses found shelter in God’s breath and was swept away into eternity.

At the foot of the mountain, shrouded in fog, the children of Israel wept. And all of creation wept. And in his sorrow, Joshua forgot three hundred commandments and acquired seven hundred doubts. And the bereaved people, blinded by grief, wanted to tear Joshua to pieces for having succeeded Moses, the saddest and loneliest and the most powerful prophet of Israel and the world.