Commentary on the Torah

by Richard Elliott Friedman

3:8. across the Jordan. This phrase occurs several times in Moses’ speech in Deuteronomy. Ibn Ezra hinted at a secret implied by this and several other matters in the Torah, and he added, “One who understands should keep silent.” But scholars of later centuries no longer kept silent. The issue, presumably, was that the land in question is across the Jordan only from the point of view of someone writing in Israel. Moses, who never set foot in Israel, would not be expected to refer to the place where he was standing as across the Jordan. Of course we might say that Moses says this phrase with a future audience in mind, a people settled in Israel. But Ibn Ezra’s comments are important as being among the first hints that some of the traditional rabbinic commentators questioned whether Moses wrote the Torah.