This is largely based on Zohar Atkins’s Moses vs. Socrates on the Value of Life.
This week’s parsha ends with ה׳'s final words to Moshe.
מח וידבר ה׳ אל משה בעצם היום הזה לאמר׃ מט עלה אל הר העברים הזה הר נבו אשר בארץ מואב אשר על פני ירחו; וראה את ארץ כנען אשר אני נתן לבני ישראל לאחזה׃ נ ומת בהר אשר אתה עלה שמה והאסף אל עמיך; כאשר מת אהרן אחיך בהר ההר ויאסף אל עמיו׃ נא על אשר מעלתם בי בתוך בני ישראל במי מריבת קדש מדבר צן על אשר לא קדשתם אותי בתוך בני ישראל׃ נב כי מנגד תראה את הארץ; ושמה לא תבוא אל הארץ אשר אני נתן לבני ישראל׃
Zohar Atkins compares Moshe’s response to his imminent death to another classic death scene.
But, setting aside the question of dishonor, there seems to be something wrong in petitioning a judge, and thus procuring an acquittal instead of informing and convincing him. For his duty is, not to make a present of justice, but to give judgment; and he has sworn that he will judge according to the laws, and not according to his own good pleasure; and neither he nor we should get into the habit of perjuring ourselves—there can be no piety in that. Do not then require me to do what I consider dishonorable and impious and wrong…And to you and to God I commit my cause, to be determined by you as is best for you and me.
…Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things: either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness…I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this? If indeed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the true judges who are said to give judgment there…Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not.
Both are convicted to die, one in an Athenian court and one by הקב״ה. The contrast is in how they approach their respective defences.
כג ואתחנן אל ה׳ בעת ההוא לאמר׃ כד אדנ־י ה׳ אתה החלות להראות את עבדך את גדלך ואת ידך החזקה אשר מי א־ל בשמים ובארץ אשר יעשה כמעשיך וכגבורתך׃ כה אעברה נא ואראה את הארץ הטובה אשר בעבר הירדן; ההר הטוב הזה והלבנן׃ כו ויתעבר ה׳ בי למענכם ולא שמע אלי; ויאמר ה׳ אלי רב לך אל תוסף דבר אלי עוד בדבר הזה׃
ואתחנן: אין חנון בכל מקום אלא לשון מתנת חנם: אע״פ שיש להם לצדיקים לתלות במעשיהם הטובים אין מבקשים מאת המקום אלא מתנת חנם.
"ויאמר יי אלי: רב לך: אמר לו: דייך העולם הבא!
ועדין היה עומד ומבקש כל אותן בקשות. אמר משה לפני המקום: רבוני! הואיל ונגזרה גזרה שלא אכנס לה מלך, לכך נאמר: (במדבר כ:יב) לָכֵן לֹא תָבִיאוּ אֶת הַקָּהָל הַזֶּה, כמלך; אכנס לה כהדיוט! אמר לו: אין המלך נכנס כהדיוט.
ועדין היה עומד ומבקש כל אותן בקשות. אמר משה לפני המקום: רבוני! הואיל ונגזרה גזרה שלא אכנס לה לא מלך ולא הדיוט, אכנס לה במחלה שלקסריון שהיא מתחת לפניס! אמר לו: (דברים לב:נב) וְשָׁמָּה לֹא תָבוֹא.
ועדין היה עומד ומבקש כל אותן בקשות. אמר משה לפני המקום: רבוני! הואיל ונגזרה גזרה שלא אכנס לה לא מלך ולא הדיוט, ולא במחלה שלקסריון שמתחת לפמיס, מעתה, עצמותי יעברו את הירדן! אמר לו: (דברים ג:כז) כִּי לֹא תַעֲבֹר אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּן הַזֶּה.
Socrates only asks for justice; Moshe asks for חן, mercy.
Socrates makes two related points that contrast with what we read in this week’s parasha: 1) in a court of law, emotional appeal—rather than logical demonstration—is wrong; 2) death is to be accepted and even appreciated. The two points are related in that Socrates has the ability to use emotional manipulation to acquit himself, but he would rather make his case using arguments—even if they are dismissed. Let the record show what he really believed, not what he was able to say to “win.” But Socrates is only able to be so principled because he doesn’t see death as a downside event. Base case, death is a nothing-burger; upside case, you get to hang out with your heroes in the afterlife. Socrates is only able to regard death as a net positive because he believes in principles like “the soul is immortal” and “the body is a prison of the soul.” If someone gives you a way to nobly exit from this world, take it.
Moses pleads with God. He doesn’t argue that his fate is undeserved; he prays. That’s exactly the kind of groveling that Socrates calls dishonorable. No matter, Moses wants to win—he wants to live another day. God is a judge and Moses will try every trick in the book—like a good lawyer, or a good sophist—to make the judge take his side. The Midrash powerfully imagines Moses seeking Talmudic loophole after loophole to obviate himself from his death sentence. The case continues to narrow—becoming what the sages call an okimta—until Moses asks, “Can you at least let my bones go into the land of Israel?” But even this wish is not granted.
One key difference is that Moshe knows that he cannot argue his case.
ה׳ knows just what happened, there’s no reason to deny.
When the facts are on your side, pound the facts. When the law is on your side, pound the law. When neither is on your side, pound the table.
We cannot argue that we know the facts or the law better than the דיין האמת. The nature of truth, אמת, is that we have no way of even thinking about absolute truth.
הבחנה זו של ”אין עוד מלבדו“ היא האמת המוחלטת (האבסולוטית) אבל היא נסתרת ממנו. אף בשכלנו כמעט אי אפשר לתפשה, וכל שכן שלא יתכן כלל שתתגלה לפנימיותנו. נמצא לפי זה שכל השגותינו אינן אלא יחסיות (רלטיביות) לבריאה, הן רק אמת בתוך ולגבי הבריאה, לפי מושגינו שגם הם נבראים. אין לנו אלא אמת יחסית בלבד, כל אחד ואחד לפי מדרגתו ומצבו.
When a person dies, we say Baruch Dayan Ha-Emmet, Blessed is the True Judge. Moses cannot claim to be a better judge than God; Socrates knows he is a better judge than his earthly judges. So Moses seeks not to convince God with truth, but to convince God with sentiment, appeal to God’s mercy. Socrates knows he has the truth and goes contentedly to his grave. Moses knows that he does not have the truth—that is only for God—but nonetheless advocates for himself before accepting God’s judgment.
Moshe asks for חן because he doesn’t want to die. It’s not because he, at 120 years of age, is afraid of death. But there are still things he can do in this world.
R. Yehoshua says: “It is too much for you” means “The world to come is enough for you.” But Moses clearly thinks not. The world to come is not enough! The land of Israel is so amazing that it makes the world to come seem not enough. The land of Israel is so amazing that it makes immortality of the soul seem like a wash.
For us as well, when we stand before הקב״ה during the עשרת ימי תשובה, we aren’t pounding the facts or pounding the law. We are pounding our chests.
We are asking for mercy—ואתחנן אל ה׳—because we know that, for all the mistakes we’ve made, we have the potential to do much better.
יפה שעה אחת בתשובה ומעשים טובים בעולם הזה, מכל חיי העולם הבא.
Moses does not enter the Promised Land—that is God’s judgment. But his prayer teaches us to long for it, and to argue with God up until the point that God’s judgment is cast. We should do whatever we can—even if that’s only pleading—to be on the side of earth and life.