Moses’s Transcendent Grave

The Aish Rabbi Replies

It’s a very sharp question. The Talmud (Sotah 13b) asks this as well. It explains that although Moses first ascended Mount Nebo, in Reuben’s territory, and died there (Deut. 34:5), he was buried in Gad’s land. How did he go after his death from one location to the other – which the Talmud states was a distance of four mil? He was carried on the wings of the Shechinah (Divine Presence) while being mourned by accompanying angels.

This raises a further interesting issue. The fact that Moses’s body was moved to a less conspicuous location conforms to a pattern. The Torah attests that no one ever knew Moses’s burial place (34:6). But it’s interesting: Not only is Moses’s burial location unknown; it is unknowable. The Talmud we cited above continues that at one point the Romans attempted to find Moses’s grave. They were shown the location yet still could not reach it. As the Talmud describes, they stood higher up and it appeared lower down. They then went lower down and it appeared higher up. They then split into two groups. To those standing on the lower ground it appeared above, while to those standing above it appeared below. It is thus clear that Moses’s grave is inherently inaccessible to mankind. What is so unique about it?

My teacher R. Yochanan Zweig explained by noting a further fascinating issue. God had Moses ascend Mount Nebo right before he died in order to permit him a view of the Land he would never enter. According to the Sages, he did not just see the Land as it was then, but he saw its future as well – all future events which would occur there until the Resurrection. (Verse 2 states that he saw until “the last sea” (yam ha’acharon) – which in simple reading means the Mediterranean, the sea which one reaches when the land reaches its end. However, the Sages understand this to allegorically refer to “the last day” (“yom ha’acharon” rather than “yam”). This means that Moses was shown all the future events which would occur in the Holy Land until the end of time (Sifri there, brought in Rashi).)

Moses thus experienced a sort of prophecy while he stood on the mountain. But, as R. Zweig explains, this was not an ordinary prophecy. Normally prophecy involves experiencing a vision in the mind – a vision which has no relation to the prophet’s surroundings. Yet here Moses looked with his eyes at the land before him – yet saw the future in the same way we see the present. In other words, Moses transcended time. He experienced prophecy not as a subliminal vision of imagined matters but because he existed above time – and could look around the world and see its future as readily as its present.

For this reason, Moses’s grave was never found – nor can it ever be found. The very place he was buried (which, as above, was not on Mt. Nebo but elsewhere) was a place suited to house a body above time – and a place utterly inaccessible to the physical universe.