The Circle of Life

(17) “Assail the Midianites and defeat them— (18) for they assailed you by the trickery they practiced against you—because of the affair of Peor and because of the affair of their kinswoman Cozbi, daughter of the Midianite chieftain, who was killed at the time of the plague on account of Peor.”

צרור — This grammatical form is similar to זכור and שמור: it expresses the idea of continuous present action — You must [constantly] show enmity toward them.

HARASS. Tzaror (harass) is an infinitive. (It is vocalized with a kamatz. An imperative is vocalized with a sheva.) It is like the word zakhor (remember) (Which is also vocalized with a kamatz rather than with a sheva.) in Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

(34) So the people took their dough before it was leavened, their kneading bowls wrapped in their cloaks upon their shoulders.

And if anyone sets out to pursue you and seek your life, the life of my lord will be bound up in the bundle of life in the care of the LORD; but He will fling away the lives of your enemies as from the hollow of a sling.

Remember, God, the soul of my father, my teacher (the name of the father, son of the name of his father), who went to his world, because I will - without making a vow - give charity for him. In recompense for this, let his soul be bound with the Binding of life (God), with the soul of Avraham, Yitzchak and Ya'akov, Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel and Leah, and with the other righteous men and women in the Garden of Eden. And let us say, Amen.

(63) These are the males enrolled by Moses and Eleazar the priest who registered the Israelites on the steppes of Moab, at the Jordan near Jericho. (64) Among these there was not one of those enrolled by Moses and Aaron the priest when they recorded the Israelites in the wilderness of Sinai. (65) For יהוה had said of them, “They shall die in the wilderness.” Not one of them survived, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

(12) יהוה said to Moses, “Ascend these heights of Abarim and view the land that I have given to the Israelite people. (13) When you have seen it, you too shall be gathered to your kin, just as your brother Aaron was. (14) For, in the wilderness of Zin, when the community was contentious, you disobeyed My command to uphold My sanctity in their sight by means of the water.” Those are the Waters of Meribath-kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin.

(3) A time for slaying and a time for healing,^-c
A time for tearing down and a time for building up; (4) A time for weeping and a time for laughing,
A time for wailing and a time for dancing; (5) A time for throwing stones and a time for gathering stones,
A time for embracing and a time for shunning embraces; (6) A time for seeking and a time for losing,
A time for keeping and a time for discarding;

A time to cast away stones. The youths of Yisroel scattered during the destruction of the Beis [Hamikdosh], as it is stated, “sacred gems are scattered.”

And a time to gather them from the exile, as it is stated, “And Adonoy their God will save His people like sheep on that day, for the stones of the crown will be exalted over His land.”

At that time, Moses asked to die as Aaron had died, because he saw the great honor Aaron was given at the funeral procession, with rows and rows of angels eulogizing him. But did he actually say this to someone? No, he just said it to himself. Yet the Holy Blessed One heard his whisper, as it says (Deuteronomy 32:51), “And you will die on the mountain that you go up on, and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor.” From this you learn that he asked to die as Aaron had died.
At that time, [God] said to the Angel of Death: Go, bring me the soul of Moses. The Angel of Death went and stood before him, and said: Moses, give me your soul. But he scowled at him [and said: The place I sit, you have no right to even stand – and you ask me to give you my soul? So he scowled at him] and chased him away with a rebuke.
The Holy Blessed One said again to the Angel of Death: Go, bring me the soul of Moses.
Finally, the Holy Blessed One said to Moses: Moses! You’ve had enough of this world. The World to Come has been prepared for you since the six days of creation. As it says (Exodus 33:22), “God said, here is a place near Me; stand on that rock.” The Holy Blessed One took Moses’ soul and stored it under the Throne of Glory. (As it says [I Samuel 25:29], “And the soul of my master will be bound up in the bond of life.”) And when He took it, He did it with a kiss. As it says (Deuteronomy 34:5), “[Moses died…] by the mouth of God.” And not only Moses’ soul is stored under the Throne of Glory, but also the souls of all the righteous are stored there! As it says (I Samuel 25:29), “[If anyone sets out to pursue you and seek your life], the soul of my master will be bound up in the bond of life.” Could it be that the souls of the wicked are there, too? The verse continues: “but He will fling away the lives of your enemies like a slingshot.” [(To what can this be compared?) It can be compared to someone who takes a stone and places it in a sling;] even though he flings it from place to place, he does not know where it will land. So it is for the souls of the wicked, which cast about and go wandering the world, and have no place to rest.
The Holy Blessed One said again to the Angel of Death: Go, bring me the soul of Moses. He went back to the place, and looked for Moses, but could not find him. He went to the Great Sea and said to it: Did Moses come here? And it said: I have not seen him since the day that Israel passed through me. He went to the mountains and hills and asked them: Did Moses come here? [They said to him: We have not seen him since the day that Israel received the Torah on Mount Sinai. He went down to the Underworld and to Oblivion said to them: Did Moses come here? They said: We have heard his name, but we have never seen him. He went and asked the angels: Did Moses come here?] They said to him: God knows his path and his place. God stored him away for the World to Come, and no living creature knows where. As it says (Job 28:12–14, 22), “Where will wisdom be found, and where is the place of understanding? No human knows its measure, and it cannot be found in the land of the living. The Deep says, it is not in me, and the sea says it is not by me…. Oblivion and Death say: in our ears we heard a rumor.” Even Joshua was sitting in despair over Moses [for he did not know where he was], until the Holy Blessed One said to him: Joshua, why are you in despair over Moses? For “Moses My servant is dead.” (Joshua 1:2).

THE Hebrew nefesh (soul) is a homonymous noun, signifying the vitality which is common to all living, sentient beings. E.g. "wherein there is a living soul" (nefesh) (Gen. 1:30). It denotes also blood," as in "Thou shalt not eat the blood (nefesh) with the meat" (Deut. 12:23). Another signification of the term is "reason," that is, the distinguishing characteristic of man, as in "As the Lord liveth that made us this soul" (Jer. 38:16). It denotes also the part of man that remains after his death (nefesh, soul) comp. "But the soul (nefesh) of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life (1 Sam. 25:29).

The term soul employed on this subject refers not to the breath of life necessary for the body, but the form of the soul which is the intelligence by which it attained knowledge of the Creator's Being according to its intellectual power, and by which it attained knowledge of the non-concrete intelligences and other works of God, even it is the form which we have explained in the fourth chapter of the treatise concerning Fundamentals of the Torah, and it is called soul for the purpose of this subject. The life herein spoken of, because there is no death connected with it, seeing that death is only incidental to the happenings which befall a body, and as there exists no body, is called a collection of life, even as it is said: "Yet the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life" (I. Sam. 25.29). And, this reward is such that there is no reward higher than it, and the kind of good after which no other good exists, and it is for it that all of the prophets craved.

(2) But Abram said, “O lord יהוה, what can You give me, seeing that I shall die childless, and the one in charge of my household is Dammesek Eliezer!”

(46) Rebekah said to Isaac, “I am disgusted with my life because of the Hittite women. If Jacob marries a Hittite woman like these, from among the native women, what good will life be to me?”

(1) When Rachel saw that she had borne Jacob no children, she became envious of her sister; and Rachel said to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die.”

(14) I cannot carry all this people by myself, for it is too much for me. (15) If You would deal thus with me, kill me rather, I beg You, and let me see no more of my wretchedness!”