וזאת הברכה

This is the final portion in the yearly Torah reading cycle. Near the end of his life, Moses gathered the Israelites to say farewell and to bless them. He reminded them that God had come in glory from Sinai, shining forth like bright light, and that God loved the people and held them close. Moses said the Teaching was the heritage of the whole congregation, and he called Israel by one special name: Jeshurun, meaning “the upright one,” when the tribes stood together with their leaders.

Then Moses blessed the tribes, yet Simeon was not mentioned. He prayed, “May Reuben live and not die, though few be his numbers.” For Judah he asked God to hear Judah’s voice and help him against his foes. For Levi he spoke of faithfulness and service: teaching God’s laws, guarding the covenant, and offering incense and whole offerings on the altar. He called Benjamin beloved and secure, protected close by God. He blessed Joseph with rich land, dew from heaven, deep waters below, and produce from sun and moon, strong as a firstling bull.

Moses continued, naming more tribes and picturing their future. He told Zebulun to rejoice on journeys and Issachar to rejoice in tents, and he described them inviting others to the mountain to offer sacrifices, drawing “riches of the sea” and “hidden hoards of the sand.” He blessed Gad as one enlarged and brave, like a lion, and said Gad chose a good portion and carried out God’s judgments for Israel. Dan, he said, would be a lion’s whelp leaping from Bashan. Naphtali would be satisfied with favor and full of God’s blessing, taking possession to the west and south. Asher would be most blessed, favored among brothers, with feet dipping in oil, and with doorbolts of iron and copper so security would last.

Moses ended the blessings by praising God as the one who rides through the heavens to help, an ancient refuge with everlasting arms. Israel, he said, could dwell in safety in a land of grain and wine, under heavens dripping dew, protected like a shield.

Afterward Moses went up from the steppes of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the summit of Pisgah, opposite Jericho. From there God showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan; all Naphtali; Ephraim and Manasseh; Judah as far as the Western Sea; the Negeb; and the Plain, the Valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, as far as Zoar. God told him, “This is the land I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross there.”

Moses, the servant of God, died there in Moab at God’s command. God buried him in a valley near Beth-peor, and no one knows his burial place to this day. Moses was 120 years old; his eyes were undimmed and his vigor unabated. The Israelites mourned for thirty days.

When the mourning ended, Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him, and the people listened. The Torah says no prophet like Moses ever arose again, one whom God knew face to face, who did signs and wonders in Egypt and showed great might before all Israel.