10/5/2026 - Shloimy Zelcer / Moshe's tears - It's up to us

The last few psukim of the Torah tell us, it's talking about Moshe Rabbeinu's death, and the Gemara tells us that Moshe Rabbeinu wrote them with tears.

So of course, we can understand that someone writing, or anyone writing about their own death, that it would be filled with tears.

But if you look at the last few psukim, it's not only about his death.

Only one of the psukim is about his death.

What about the other psukim? So why does the Gemara tell us that he wrote the last eight psukim with tears in his eyes? So did mefarshim deal with this? The Kli Yakar says that it was because Moshe Rabbeinu was anav gadol mikol adam, and it was difficult for him to write these words.

He was so humble, and he didn't like that.

I understand if you want to say that Moshe Rabbeinu was, wrote it begrudgingly, but lamaiso, this was a direct sivri from Hashem.

Hashem told Moshe Rabbeinu to write the words.

Why wouldn't he just write the words? What's he crying about? You want to say it was uncomfortable? Okay, maybe it was uncomfortable.

Why is he crying? What, what are the tears for? Why would Moshe Rabbeinu cry over these words? So let's look at these psukim a little bit, in a little bit of a different way.