Ponderings of the Perkei Avot 6:9

RaYBaSH’s Ponderings of the Perkei Avot

Chapter 6:9

By: Yehudah ben Shomeyr

6:9a “Said Rabbi Yossei the son of Kisma: Once, I was traveling and I encountered a man. He greeted me and I returned his greetings. Said he to me: "Rabbi, where are you from?" Said I to him: "From a great city of sages and scholars, am I." Said he to me: "Rabbi, would you like to dwell with us in our place? I will give you a million dinars of gold, precious stones and pearls." Said I to him: "If you were to give me all the silver, gold, precious stones and pearls in the world, I would not dwell anywhere but in a place of Torah. Indeed, so is written in the book of psalms by David the king of Israel: `I prefer the Torah of Your mouth over thousands in gold and silver' (Psalms 118:72).”

Sometimes we find ourselves in a Torahless place. My family and I once had to spend years in Canada fulfilling the mitzvah of honoring ones parents, to help them out in the golden years of their lives. For my wife is their only child and they had no one else to care for them, to mow the yard in the summer, to gather wood in the fall and to shovel snow in the winter. Also, our only child is their only grandchild and so we wanted them to enjoy her while they were still living. There were no synagogues within a 3 hour radius and no other Jews to speak of. So we had to make our home a place of Torah. We had to keep Shabbat on our own; we had to keep the customs and traditions of Judaism alive for ourselves. Only with God’s mercy and help we did thus so. To make it a place of Torah, we had to live the Torah.

6:9b Furthermore, when a person passes from this world neither silver, nor gold, nor precious stones, nor pearls accompany him, only Torah and good deeds, as is stated (Proverbs 6:22): `When you go it will direct you, when you lie down it will watch over you, and when you awaken it shall be your speech.' `When you go it will direct you'---in this world; `when you lie down it will watch over you'---in the grave; `and when you awaken it shall be our speech'---in the World To Come. Also it says (Chaggai 2:8): `Mine is the silver and Mine is the gold, so says the Lord of Hosts.' "

 Numbers 31:1-2 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of Israel of the Midianites: afterward shalt thou be gathered unto thy people.

Jasher 87:9 And Moses finished commanding the children of Israel, and the Lord said to him, saying, Go up to the Mount Abarim (apparently another name for Nebo and Pisgah) and die there, and be gathered unto thy people as Aaron thy brother was gathered.

Deut. 34:1-8 And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the LORD shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan, And all Naphtali, and the land of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and all the land of Judah, unto the utmost sea, And the south, and the plain of the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees, unto Zoar. And the LORD said unto him, This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, saying, I will give it unto thy seed: I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes, but thou shalt not go over thither. So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day. And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping and mourning for Moses were ended.

Deut. 34:6 And he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over against Bethpeor: but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day.

 Jude 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

Moshe like everyone else in this world will do one day, he died. But unlike some, his grave has never been found. It has never been robbed, desecrated or plundered.

Why?

6:9b Furthermore, when a person passes from this world neither silver, nor gold, nor precious stones, nor pearls accompany him, only Torah and good deeds, as is stated (Proverbs 6:22): `When you go it will direct you, when you lie down it will watch over you, and when you awaken it shall be your speech.' `When you go it will direct you'---in this world; `when you lie down it will watch over you'---in the grave; `and when you awaken it shall be our speech'---in the World To Come. Also it says (Chaggai 2:8): `Mine is the silver and Mine is the gold, so says the Lord of Hosts.' "

Just as Moshe guarded the Torah and spoke on Its behalf in this world, so the Torah will do so for Moshe in the World to Come. Ultimately we know the Torah in it’s full and complete form in Yeshua the Messiah.

Even before the Final resurrection the Living Torah defends Moshe.

Matthew 5:17-19 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Moshe was humble (the least), he also was scrupulous to keep the least of the commandments. So Moshe will be called “Great” in the Kingdom of Heaven, the Olam Haba in Malchut Shamayim.

Will you, like Moshe, be guarded and escorted to the grave as well as the World to Come? It all depends if you Shomeyr Ha Torah (Guard the Torah) in this world.

Shalom,

-- Yehudah ben Shomeyr