Shemini Atzeres/V'Zot Ha'Berachah - 5779

Shemini Atzeres/V'Zot Ha'Berachah - 5779

Rabbi Hal Miller

And this is the blessing that Moshe, the man of God, bestowed upon the children

of Israel before his death. [Devarim [33:1]

So Moshe, servant of God, died there in the land of Moav, by the mouth of God.

[Devarim [34:5]

Those who write a weekly parsha drash tend to miss this small portion of the Torah

since it doesn't pop up on a regular Shabbos. Instead we read it as part of the

Simchas Torah celebration at the end of Sukkos, followed immediately by a portion

of the beginning of Bereishis. But there is a lot packed into this short portion, so we

will feature it this year as part of our exploration of Sukkos.

One of our verses calls Moshe an Ish HaElokim, and the other calls him Eved Hashem.

What do these two titles mean? Why do we see two titles in such a short space of

verses?

Rav Hirsch writes that Ish HaElokim, means "the man of God, the man who stood in

close relation to God, whom God had used as His servitor and messenger." At first

hearing, that sounds like a servant of God, so how is it different from the second of

our verses? Or is it?

Noting that this phrase occurs nowhere else in the Chumash, Hirsch goes on to say

that it applies to Moshe because he was not an ordinary mortal but a combination of

mortal man plus a spark of God greater than that which the rest of us have within. He

was not, for this phrase, merely a 'servant' of God, but in fact an 'organ' of God, filled

completely with ruach hakodesh, the holy spirit.

There is a midrash that says Moshe was man from the waist down, and 'elokim'

from the waist up. This has been misinterpreted by some as saying he was a god,

but the proper interpretation is that he was able to conquer his worldly needs with

his spiritual component. All of us have this spiritual component, and we should be

trying to emulate Moshe in applying it to control our material side.

Onkelos agrees that the phrase does not appear elsewhere in the Chumash, but he

lists other places in Tanach where it does: Tehillim, Ezra, II Chronicles, and Yehoshua.

In each case, it is applied to a prophet who was able to eradicate sin from himself in

the same way Moshe did.

On the other hand, our second verse is not describing who Moshe was, but what he

did. This phrase appears in two other places as well, in Bamidbar where Aharon and

Miriam are punished by God for having slandered Moshe "My servant", and in Yehoshua

where God tells Yehoshua that he is now the leader, since Moshe has died. In each

case, Moshe is praised by God for having done what He asked of him, serving Him in

whatever way He commanded. The phrase also appears in Tehillim 18, where David

refers to himself as a servant of God.

So, "servant of God" is one who does what he is commanded, and "man of God" is

one who is able to control himself to prevent sinning. We should strive to achieve

both.