The End of The Torah - Author david levithan says goodbye to moses in parshat vezot habracha

It can't have been easy, figuring out where to end the Torah. There have already been floods and explosions and homecomings and regime changes – it's hard to end something with a *** when it's been banging all along. So, in V'zot Ha'bracha, our story ends just as it began – quietly. What starts with birth ends with death, just as ours lives start with birth and end with death. If the beginning is about creation, the ending is not, ultimately, about destruction. Instead, it is about a respect for creation. It is a recognition of the grace of life. Not to give away the ending, but Moses is the one who dies. This is not a big surprise – the man is 120 years old, and God has told him it's time to go. So he does what every self-respecting patriarch should do – he draws in his tribes and bequeaths them not only the future, but also a sense of their past. Then, when he has gone around to all the tribes – when he has spoken to all of the Israelites - it is finally time to go. He climbs up Mount Nebo, and God shows him the land where the people will live on, carrying his prophecy forward even as he must stay behind. Moses dies at God's word, is buried somewhere in the valley in the land of Moab, and is mourned for thirty days. He is the last prophet to know God face to face. He is one of a kind. And he is gone. The end. Only not. A good ending is never an ending. A good life always goes on. We don't need to see the descendants go where Moses couldn't go. We don't need to be told that things will work out, that he won't be forgotten. Because here we are. At the time Moses died, he was 120 years old – the oldest Israelite alive. Now, that age is within reach. Just two days from when this is being written, the oldest woman in the world died at the age of 115. Her name was Gertrude Baines, and she was the daughter of black slaves in the American South. Over the course of her life, not only did she get the right to vote, but, in her last year, she voted for a black man for President. Proving you don't need to be a prophet to see a lot in 120 years. And you don't need to be Moses to have an ending worthy of a life. The end. Only not. Chazak, chazak, v'nitchazek. Be strong, be strong, and may we be strengthened. Producer: Sarah Lefton Animation Director: Nick Fox-Gieg Animation: Jeanne Stern Editorial Director: Matthue Roth G-dcast Theme Music: Tim Cosgrove Written and narrated by David Levithan Recording by Gabe Schwartz