Imitating God

Parashat Vezot ha'Brachah (Deuteronomy 33:1-34:12)

A fundamental concept within Judaism is that we are to imitate God in certain ways. This concept is known as imitatio Dei, or imitation of the Divine. We can see this pattern in several places in the Scriptures, but one of the most explicit is Leviticus 19:2. It says, “You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.” We imitate Hashem’s holiness, His uniqueness, when we imitate His deeds. 

For example, we read about God clothing Adam and Eve in their nakedness. Just as God clothes the naked, so should we give clothes to those who need them. We see the LORD sending three angels to visit Abraham immediately after his circumcision (Genesis 17–18). Just as God visits the sick, so should his children visit those who are ill. Just as Hashem watches over the orphan, the widow, and the sojourner, we are to do likewise (Deuteronomy 10:18–19). Just as Hashem ceased from His own labors and rested on the Sabbath, we are to do likewise (Exodus 20:10–11). This week’s parashah gives us another insight into how we can imitate God.

When it was time for Moses to take his final retirement, God was compassionate toward Moses. When Moses died, Hashem took the responsibility to bury him:

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 the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one knows the place of his burial to this day. (Deuteronomy 34:5–6)

The Torah And The Resurrection

Parashat Ha'azinu (Deuteronomy 32:1-32:52)

In the days of our Master Yeshua, the Pharisees and the Sadducees debated the certainty of the resurrection. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection of the dead, whereas the Sadducees rejected this concept. The reason for the debate was that the Torah does not explicitly mention any kind of resurrection. However, passages within the Torah seem to point to a resurrection. A few of these passages are found within the last two Torah portions. Last week we read:

And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. (Deuteronomy 31:16)

The allusion in this passage is not obvious in our English translations. However, it is more pronounced in the Hebrew. In English, we read, “You are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise …” There are two separate thoughts: one regarding the death of Moses and the other about what the Children of Israel will do after his death. In Hebrew, however, we can read the first part of this as a single thought: Shocheiv im avoteicha v’kam, “You will lie down with your fathers and arise.” This alternate reading is put forth by Ibn Ezra and others. It is supported by the fact that the Hebrew word for the phrase, “and arise” (וְקָם), is in the singular and can refer back to Moses. This reading doesn’t supersede the literal reading of the passage, but it is an additional insight we can derive from it.

Another passage that supports the concept of a resurrection is in this week’s reading. Toward the end of the Song of Moses, we read: