Parshas Vayelech - Moshe's song

The passuk says in this week’s sedrah (דברים ל"א ב')

וַיֹּאמֶר אֲלֵהֶם בֶּן מֵאָה וְעֶשְׂרִים שָׁנָה אָנֹכִי הַיּוֹם לֹא אוּכַל עוֹד לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא וַה' אָמַר אֵלַי לֹא תַעֲבֹר אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּן הַזֶּה

And he said to them, “I am 120 years old today, I am no longer able to go and come, and Hashem said to me, ‘You will not pass over the Yarden.’”

Rashi explains

לא אוכל עוד לצאת ולבוא - יכול שתשש כחו תלמוד לומר לא כהתה עינו ולא נס לחה אלא מהו לא אוכל איני רשאי שניטלה ממני הרשות וניתנה ליהושוע, ד"א לצאת ולבוא בדברי תורה מלמד שנסתתמו ממנו מסורות ומעיינות החכמה

You may think that Moshe became weak, this cannot be so, as the passuk says לא כהתה עינו ולא נס לחה, rather we must understand that permission was taken from Moshe and granted to Yehoshua. Another explanation, he was unable to go and come in divrei torah, this teaches us that the tradition and wellsprings of wisdom were hidden from him.

The Ramban explains

ורבותינו אמרו (סוטה י"ג) מלמד שנסתתמו ממנו מעיינות חכמה, והיה זה במעשה נס שלא ידאג לתת גדולה ליהושע בפניו

The reason that the tradition and wellsprings of wisdom were hidden from Moshe is so that he should not be bothered when he saw that Yehoshua became great in front of him.

The Zohar says (חלק ג' רצ"ז א)

מכאן אוליפנא ההוא זכאה דחכמתא עלאה ביה כד מטי יומא לאסתלקא מעלמא בעי לגלאה ההיא חכמתא לאינון די רוח קדישא בינייהו מנלן ממשה דכתיב בן מאה ועשרים שנה אנכי היום. וכתיב ועתה כתבו לכם את השירה הזאת וגו'

“We learn from here, that if someone merited to understand the secrets of the Torah, then when the day comes for him to leave the world, he must reveal the secrets of the Torah to those who have attained ruach ha’kodesh. Where do we know this from? From Moshe - as the passuk says בן מאה ועשרים שנה אנכי היום, and then the passuk says ועתה כתבו לכם את השירה הזאת.”

The Zohar would seem to contradict the gemara, since the gemara says thatמלמד שנסתתמו ממנו עיינות חכמה, but the Zohar explains that to the contrary, Moshe revealed the hidden secrets of the Torah on his last day.

• How is it possible to reconcile the gemara with the Zohar?

The gemara says in Sotah (סוטה ל"ה א')

דרש רבא, מפני מה נענש דוד? מפני שקרא לדברי תורה זמירות, שנאמר 'זמירות היו לי חוקיך בבית מגורי', אמר לו הקב"ה: דברי תורה שכתוב בהן 'התעיף עיניך בו ואיננו', אתה קורא אותן זמירות? הריני מכשילך בדבר שאפילו תינוקות של בית רבן יודעין אותו, דכתיב: ולבני קהת לא נתן כי עבודת הקודש וגו', ואיהו אתייה בעגלתא

Rava explained, “Why was Dovid punished? Because he called the Torah זמירות, as the passuk says in Tehillim - זמירות היו לי חוקיך בבית מגורי – The words of the Torah were as songs to me, even when I was driven from place to place. Hashem said to Dovid, “The Torah concerning which it is written התעיף עיניך בו ואיננו – If you close your eyes for a moment and stop thinking about the Torah, you will not be able to remember it – you call זמירות? I will make you stumble in a matter which even children know.” As the passuk says – The benei kehos would always carry the aron ha’kodesh on their shoulders – but Dovid brought the aron ha’kodesh in a wagon.

• Why was Dovid punished for calling the Torah זמירות, if the Torah itself calls the Torah a שירה, as the passuk says in this week’s sedrah ועתה כתבו לכם את השירה הזאת?

The Pachad Yitzchak explains as follows:

The word זמר – song, is related to the word זמר – pruning. The word שירה – song, is related to the word שר – a prince. This is because a זמר is a song of overcoming adversary, however a שירה is a song of happiness and ascendancy (without reflecting on prior adversary).

When Dovid said that the words of Torah were to him as זמירות, this implied that he felt under threat when he had to run away, but he overcame his fear by learning Torah. The criticism of Dovid was that the Torah should have been to him as a שירה and not a זמר. This means that the ascendancy that learning Torah afforded Dovid should have been so great, that he should not have felt that he was overcoming his circumstances, but rather he should have only experienced the feeling of uplifting which is granted by the Torah.

This criticism of Dovid does not mean to say that a person should reach a madregah where all of his learning is on level of a שירה, and not on the level of a זמר. To the contrary, the Medrash Tanchuma says (parshas Noach) that adversity is always encountered initially when learning Torah.

לפי שלא כרת הקב"ה ברית עם ישראל אלא על התורה שבעל פה, שנאמר כי על פי הדברים האלה כרתי אתך ברית (שמות ל"ד)... וזו היא תורה שבעל פה שהיא קשה ללמוד ויש בה צער גדול, שהיא משולה לחשך, שנאמר העם ההולכים בחשך ראו אור גדול (ישעיה ט') אלו בעלי התלמוד שראו אור גדול שהקב"ה מאיר עיניהם באיסור והתר בטמא ובטהור...

“Hashem only sealed His covenant with the benei yisrael over תורה שבעל פה, as the passuk says כי על פי הדברים האלה כרתי אתך ברית – this refers to תורה שבעל פה which is hard to learn and involves much pain, because it is compared to darkness, as the passuk says העם ההולכים בחשך ראו אור גדול – the people who walk in darkness saw a great light. This passuk refers to people who learn gemara who see a great light, because Hashem lightens their eyes in the halachos of what is forbidden and what is permitted, and in the halachos of what is impure and what is pure.”

Rather it would seem that Torah learning proceeds through successive cycles of שירה and זמרה. First of all, the person learning Torah experiences חשך, till Hashem shows him the אור הגנוז in that part of the Torah which he is learning, whereupon he feels the שירה of the Torah. Both aspects of Torah learning are required for a person to be able to progress successively through the levels of understanding of the Torah.

Conversely it comes out, that if someone has reached such a madregah that he is no longer able to experience any חשך in regards to understanding any portion of the Torah, then it is no longer possible for that person to experience the cycle of שירה and זמרה which is required for growing in understanding the Torah in olam ha’zeh.

When Moshe said לֹא אוּכַל עוֹד לָצֵאת וְלָבוֹא – he meant I can no longer experience the distancing from the Torah (לָצֵאת) which is necessary to experience the subsequent increased light that can be experienced in understanding the Torah (לָבוֹא). In this regard, Moshe was now divorced from the madregah of זמרה of Torah learning, and would always remain on the madregah of שירה of Torah learning.

Based on this understanding, we can reconcile the gemara and the Zohar. When the gemara says נסתתמו ממנו מעיינות חכמה – the gemara means that Moshe was no longer able to see the difficulty that is the prelude to gaining a greater understand of the Torah in olam ha’zeh. However when the Zohar says that Moshe revealed the secrets of the Torah to the benei yisrael, as the passuk says כתבו לכם את השירה הזאת, the Zohar means that Moshe explained the secret of the uninhibited ascendancy of learning Torah to the benei yisrael.