Writing the End of Deuteronomy
In the SD
Peace and blessings to the rabbi, may you be strong and blessed for all your work.
There is a well-known controversy over whether Moses or Joshua wrote the end of Deuteronomy.
I understand the method that says Moses wrote in tears, but I do not understand the second method, and I will explain the difficulty that arises.
Even those who claim that Moses did not write but Joshua wrote also believe that Joshua wrote his words in prophecy , as Ibn Ezra comments on (despite the fact that Ibn Ezra expands the conclusion of the Torah to 12 verses), how did he know that God showed Moses the entire land?
So what did those who claim that Joshua wrote “gain”? In any case, the writing was done through prophecy. And if so, what do I care about writing prophetically by Moses and what do I care about writing prophetically by Joshua? Apparently, I should prefer writing prophetically by Moses, precisely because that is how the Torah scroll turns out to have been written entirely by Moses.
Thanks in advance.
Hello.
There is an assumption in the Gemara that the description of the death was not written by the same person (this is true for other individuals, see the issue there). You assume the HaBaZ, but from the Gemara it seems that he is not right. The Gemara only talks about eight verses, and there is no description of what was shown to Moses. This suggests that the Gemara truly believed that this description was still written by Moses and not Joshua, meaning that there is no prophecy here. But it should be noted that later on there is also a description of what happened to Moses and where he was buried, and if this was written by Joshua then it is still a prophecy.
And yet there is a difference. First, Joshua’s description is purely factual and there is no problem with it being conveyed in prophecy. But to convey to Moses that he was going to die, when, how and where, is unlikely. Beyond that, there are descriptions of Moses’ greatness there, and even in this it is unlikely that Moses himself wrote (although it can always be said that he received instruction). And above all, there is a description there in the third person and it does not appear to be things that Moses himself writes. Apparently for this reason, according to the other method, Moses did indeed write a lament in tears (and the Graha explained: in tears, in a mixed manner).
Thank you very much for the answer, however, there are still difficulties with this answer.
A. There are many descriptions of places, people, and stories that happened in the Torah that Moses was not present at and he writes them in prophecy, every book of Genesis is like this (written in prophecy), every story of Balaam was written in prophecy without Moses being exposed to it, and there are many more like this, so what is the problem for those who believe that Joshua wrote them to say that Moses wrote them in prophecy, like the cases mentioned above.
B. The description of Moses in the third person appears regularly in the Torah, this is not an exception here.
C. Even if it is said that everything that the Rabbi wrote is indeed so, the question will not be resolved except from the side of the Gemara, the question will still remain with Ibn Ezra what he “gains” from this interpretation that Joshua wrote the end of the Torah.
Thanks in advance
These are "prophecies" about the past.
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