The Hidden Burial Spot of Moshe, Ezra’s Yartzeit, &….lha”ln, Drawing Mohammad?!
January, 2023
What follows was published for popular consumption, sharing our current minhag and its sources.
Readers looking for an academic listing of sources, a detailed history, and sourced reasons behind these fasts, would be wise to enjoy the following research from the incomparable Dr. S. Leiman:
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Article:
The Jewish Quarterly Review
New Series, Vol. 74, No. 2 (Oct., 1983)
Available to peruse at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/1454383?read-now=1&seq=6#page_scan_tab_contents)
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Lecture:
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A Rabbi, a priest and an Imam walk into a conference…
While this may sound like the opening of a joke, such is exactly what transpired.
A couple of years after 9/11 I was invited to speak at a conference arranged by Muslim scholars on the topic of ‘Religion and War’. After first consulting with poskim, I agreed to join.
It opened with the local Imam speaking about Islam’s relationship with jingoism and combat, followed by the priest discussing what Catholicism has to say on the subject. We were only allotted fifteen minutes each, so by the time it was my turn, I used the first half of my time to make jokes. I did this to get the crowd on my side before I utilized the second half of my time to correct the record from the first two speakers.
The corrections were many, but it was these words from the Imam that took the cake:
“People think Islam and warfare are brothers. But this is not true. In fact, Islam despises war and destruction! Indeed, I shall now corroborate this with the sharia.”
‘This should be interesting’, I thought to myself.
He continued:
“Who else but our holy prophet would come up with the following law? What other religion other than Islam would show such sensitivity?”
What was he referring to? Well, he then quoted from the caliphate:
“When you march through enemy territory [during war time] you mustn’t knock down any palm or fruit-bearing tree…”
I let out an audible laugh. I didn’t intend to be rude, but I assumed this this Imam was also opening with jokes! I was quickly embarrassed when I realized that I was the only one who found humor in his statement.
But what he was stated was so preposterous! I just looked up at him, as if to say, “Oh. You are being serious?”
It became pitifully plain that he had no clue that -like much else in his faith and most others -this law was appropriated from the Torah.
There are many other examples of such seizures of our most holy. But the paramount example may be a law of theirs we all know, but whose reasoning few are aware.
It is a miracle of Yiddeshkeit and the genius of our mesorah that we never fell victim to that which has infected every other system of faith: the primary leader and teacher becoming Divine in the eyes of his people.
In order to duplicate our success, lahavil ad lanetzach, in Islam, they threaten death or violence to those who create or display images of their false prophet. While many assume that such harsh retribution is due to his purported divinity, in fact, the opposite is the truth. Precisely because their false prophet was but a mere mortal do they aspire to be like the Jews who never deified their greatest leader. Paintings or pictures is a slippery slope toward such veneration; but a hop-skip-and-a-jump toward idolatry, which is punishable by death.
The pasuk this week states “And He (Hashem) buried him (Moshe) in the valley, in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Pe’or; And no person knows the place of his burial, unto this day” (34:6).
Rebbe Channa bar Chanina explained the pupose for Moshe’s kever being hidden: if we would daven by Moshe’s kever on our way to galus, the decree may be nullified! (Sota 14a).
Another chazal states that this concealment was due to a fear that we would build the Beis Hamikdosh around that very spot (the incorrect location), and worse, if we were to do so, the Gentile nations would offer inappropriate things there. (Pisikta Zutrasa).
However, perhaps the most repeated reasoning is the fear that we would turn such a site into a shrine and, chalila, daven to Moshe, R’l. (See Ralbag, Rav Hirsch, inter alia.
Chazal share that this was also one of concerns of Yaakov, and why he didn’t wish to be buried in Mitzraim, as the mitzrim may turn his kever into a reliquary for idolatry (see Rashi to Bereishis 47:29).
What does this have to do with teves/shevat?
The Tur and Shulchan Aruch list more than twenty (!) fast dates throughout the year where it is ‘worthy’ to fast, some that even fall on rosh chodesh (siman 580). Here are some that relate to this time of year:
“On the eighth of teves the Torah was translated to Greek during the days of King Ptolemy, causing darkness to enter the world for three days; On the ninth of teves, we do not know what trouble transpired; On the fifth of shevat the zekeinim from the days of Yehoshua died; On the twenty-third of shevatall of bnei yisroel gathered against shevet Binyamin on account of Gibah…”
Among these dates are the 8th and the 9th of Teves.
After reading these halachos, one would naturally have the follwing two questions:
1- Why don’t we fast on these dates anymore?
Were they ever observed?
2- How do we understand the follwing cryptic comment of Shulchan Aruch when referring to the 9th of Teves:
‘[W]e don’t know what transpired’?
How could we have a taanis and not know what it is commemorating?
Is its reasoning/history found anywhere?
As to our first question, when the Tur mentions these dates, the Beis Yosef comments that he “[H]as never heard of anyone who fasts on any of these dates, and indeed we may wonder regarding whoever established these, how could he have allowed for a few of them to fall on rosh chodesh?”
So, although he too would later codify these fasts, there is ample support for the vast majority of yidden who do not fast on nay of these dates (see also Mishneh Berrura).
In fact, in our day, many poskim would advise one not fast on these dates, as we are weaker, and fasting could lead to a weakening of teffilah, learning, and even middos.
As for our second question, we must begin with the source for these fasts. The two main sources come from the geonic era, Halachos Gedolos and the 13th century Kol Bo -both authoritative sefarim, yet both written by uncertain authors.
The Tur’s language regarding the mysterious 9th of teves is a little more telling: ‘The chachamim did not inform us…” alluding to a deeper secret that is known but not shared. Indeed, the original manuscript of Megilas Taanis (not the one in common use today) uses similar language.
Many posit that this date was chosen as a fast since it is also the yartzeit of Ezra (Magen Avraham).
But if so, why would it be a hidden?
Some explain that we hide this based on the very same fear with which we opened: precisely because that Ezra greatness to our Torah history is almost unmatched -as he revivified the Torah in his day – revealing too much about his demise would negate the concern of yiddeshlkeit becoming a ‘cult of personality’, chalilah; about a person rather than the Riboneh Shel Olam (see Yaaros Devash, 2:12)!
Some additions of the original source explicitly mention the death of Ezra,…as well as another yartzeit: Nechemia.
To this, we could propose another reason for its hidden nature.
Sefer Nechemia is not mentioned in among the twenty-four sifrei tanach listing found in chazal (Bava Basra 14b-15). In fact, the gemara (Sukkah 37a) mentions a pasuk in sefer Nechemia as being from sefer Ezra (Nechemia 8:15)!!
As the Yad Yosef (to Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 93b) explains, in the days of the gemara both Ezra and Nechemia were contained in one sefer called, simply, ‘Ezra’.
The gemara (Sanhadrin 93b) outright asks why Nechemia was not zoche to have the (second half of the) book named after him, explaining that this was a punishment for a certain event.
Like sifrei Shmuel, Melachim and Divrei Hayamim, it was the Christians who divided Ezra into two, logiclly (without our mesorah) naming the latter half ‘Nechemia‘.
Rav Reuvien Margilios (Margolios Hayam) quotes the Chida as explaining that chazal did not mean that Nechemia’s punishment to be indefinite, and certainly at a certain point in history he would become absolved. This is why Hashem, at a certain point in our history, allowed the division of ‘Ezra’ into two books and for the latter to be called ‘Nechemia’. (See my feature available on this site titled ‘Chapter and Verse’, from Ami Magazine, Shavous, 5774 where the story behind the 24 sefarim, as well the ‘chapters’ are discussed in great detail).
Based on this, we can perhaps suggest that, at least initially, just as Nechemia’s sefer was ‘hidden’ so was his yartzeit.
There are additional reasons given for this secretive date, more information about this version of Megillas Taanis, and the further details regarding the other fast dates mentioned in the Shulchan Aruch.
But we will save these for another time, iy”H.
Shul Chronicles 
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