Q&A: Moses’ Ascent to Heaven — Did It Happen or Not?
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
Moses’ Ascent to Heaven — Did It Happen or Not?
Question
Hello and blessings, Rabbi,
Why does the Rabbi think that the aggadic story about Moses’ ascent to heaven never happened at all?
Why not explain that the Sages wrote us a factual description of what happened (even if it is in an aggadic style)?
Answer
Why think that it did happen? You yourself write that the style is aggadic, and aggadic passages do not describe reality. Especially in a case like this, where nobody can really know what happened there. And then suddenly, after a thousand years, they remembered an incident that happened when Moses ascended to heaven.