The Body of Moses
Rabbi
Hayim Vital once dreamed that it was the custom of Israel to bring the body of
Moses to the synagogue once a year on Shavuot to commemorate the giving of the
Torah at Mount Sinai. Now the day of the festival had arrived, and the body of
Moses was brought to the synagogue in Safed. It took many men to carry the body
into the synagogue, for it was at least ten ells long. Then the body, wrapped
in a white robe, was placed on a very long table that had been prepared in
advance. Btu as soon as the body of Moses was stretched out on the long table,
it became transformed into a scroll of the Torah that as opened to its full
length, from the first words to the last. And in the dream they began to read
the words of the Torah, starting with the creation, and they continued until
they reached the last words, in the sight of all Israel (Deut. 34:12).
All
this time the rabbi of Safed sat at the head of the table, and Hayim Vital saw
at the foot. And in the dream it occurred to Hayim Vital that while the rabbi
of Safed sat closest to the account of creation, he was closest to that of the
death of Moses. And when the scroll of the Torah had been completely read, the
rabbi said, “The time has come to bring the garments to clothe the body of
Moses.” And at that moment the scroll of the Torah became the body of Moses
once again, and they clothed it and set a girdle around it. That is when Hayim Vital
awoke, and for hours afterward it seemed to him as if the soul of Moses was
present in that very room.
Palestine:
Sixteenth Century (Howard Schwartz, Gabriel’s Palace: Jewish Mystical Tales [New
York: Oxford University Press, 1993], 100)
The
Body of Moses (Palestine)
Form Shivhei
Rabbi Hayim Vital, edited by Menashe ben Naftali Feigenbaum (Ashdod: 1988,
p. 38).
This
astonishing dream of Hayim Vital shows the close link in the Jewish mind
between the Torah of Moses and Moses himself. In the dream the body of Moses is
brought to the Synagogue on Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Torah
to Moses on Mount Sinai. Once the body, which is of gigantic proportions (as
Moses was a giant among prophets) is carried inside and put on a long table, it
turns into the scroll of the Torah. Hayim Vital sits closest to the end of the
Torah, where the account of the death of Moses is found. Vital assumes that
because he is closest to this end, he is the closest to Moses. Once the Torah
has been read from beginning to end, it turns back into the body of Moses. Hayim
Vital had one of the richest religious imaginations in all of Jewish history,
and in his dreams and visions the line between mythology and religions is completely
erased, as here, where the Torah and the body was the archetype of the
messianic prophet. In his writings he strongly hints that his master, the Ari,
had a messianic role, and in his dreams, visions, and other writings he
likewise attributes such a role to himself. (Ibid., 302)