Commentary on the Torah

by Richard Elliott Friedman

He is your life

I’ll hide my face.

I’ll hide my face.

to the number of the children of Israel.

Dan is a lion’s whelp. But in Jacob’s blessing “Judah is a lion’s whelp”! (Gen 49:9). Why are these two tribes described this way? Dan is the northernmost tribe, and Judah is the southernmost. So this produces an image of Israel protected by lions on either side. (Actually, Simeon is the southernmost tribe, but Simeon is unaccountably left out of this song.)

At the beginning of the Torah, the tree of life is lost, and death becomes the fate of all humans. Now the Torah ends with the death of Moses. At the beginning, Cain worries that “I’ll be hidden from your presence” (literally, from your face). Now God tells Moses, “Let me hide my face from them; I’ll see what their future will be.” Back in Genesis, God promises a land to Abraham for his descendants. Now God shows Moses the land that God promised. In Genesis, Abraham “passes” through the land. Now God tells Moses: you won’t “pass” there (34:4). In Genesis, Isaac’s eyes were dim. Now we are told that Moses’ eye was not dim. Genesis ends with Jacob’s blessing of twelve sons (The Blessing of Jacob, Genesis 49). Now the Torah ends with Moses’ blessing of twelve tribes (The Blessing of Moses, Deuteronomy 33). Genesis recounts the first merging of “spirit” and “wisdom” in a man: Joseph (Gen 41:38–39). Now these two words are applied to Joshua (Deut 34:9); and Joshua, coming from the tribe of Ephraim, is a descendant of Joseph.