Rashi on TanakhDeuteronomy 31

Moshe went, etc. I cannot any longer go forth and return. Perhaps his strength waned? The Torah therefore teaches, “His appearance was not dulled, and his freshness did not fade.” Then what is meant by “I cannot”? I am not permitted, for authority was removed from me and conferred on Yehoshua.

For Adonoy has said to me. This explains “I cannot any longer go forth and return” — for Adonoy said to me.

I am . . . today. Today my days and years are completed — today is the day I was born, and today is the day I will die. Another interpretation: To go forth and return with respect to words of Torah. This teaches that he was sealed off from the masoretic teachings and the wellsprings of wisdom.

He will not enfeeble you. He will not precipitate, in you, the feebleness of being abandoned by Him.

For you shall enter with this people. “For you shall enter ‘with’ this people.” Moshe told Yehoshua, ‘Let the elders of the generation join with you, let everything follow their opinion and counsel.’ But the Holy One, Blessed is He, told Yehoshua, “For you shall ‘take’ B’nei Yisroel into the land which I swore to them.” Take them, by coercion, with everything contingent on you. Get a stick, and beat their skulls — one leader for the generation, and not two leaders for the generation.

Moshe wrote, etc., and gave it. When it was completely finished, he gave it to his fellow tribesmen.

After seven years have ended. During the first year of [the next] Sh’mittah, meaning the eighth year. Why, then, is it referred to as “the Sh’mittah year”? Because there are still seventh-year restrictions which apply — with the seventh-year harvest which overlaps after the seventh-year has departed.

You shall read this Torah. The king recited, from the beginning of “These are the words,” as stated in tractate Sotah, on a wooden platform which was erected in the Temple courtyard.

The men. To learn.

The women. To listen.

And the infants. Why did they come? To bring merit to those who brought them.

And I shall exhort [lit. command] him. I shall enthuse him.

The stranger of the land. The nations of the land.

I shall conceal My face. As if I do not notice their suffering.

This song. “Hearken, O heaven” until “And reconcile his land, His people.”

And infuriate Me. And enrage Me, as always with נִיאוּץ, which denotes rage.

This song shall serve as testimony before them as witness. That I warned them, in it, of all that occurred to them.

For it shall never be forgotten from the lips of their progeny. This is a guarantee to Yisroel that the Torah will never be completely forgotten by their progeny.

He commanded Yehoshua, the son of Nun. This reverts to the text above in relation to the Divine Presence, as stated clearly, “to the land that I swore to them.”

Take. Like “remember,” “keep,” “going.”

On the side of the ark of Adonoy’s . . . covenant. There is a difference of opinion here among the sages of Yisroel, in tractate Bava Basra. Some of them say, there was a shelf which extended outside the ark, and it was placed there. Others say, it was placed alongside the tablets, inside the ark.

Assemble to me. They did not sound the trumpets, that day, to assemble the community, since it is said, “Make for yourself,” he did not empower Yehoshua to use them. And even during his own lifetime they were concealed before the day he died [Another text: on the day he died], in fulfillment of that which is said, “there is no sovereignty on the day of death.”

And invoke as witnesses against them heaven and earth. But, one might contend, he already invoked them as witnesses above — “I invoke as witnesses against you, today, etc.” There, he spoke to the Israelites, but did not address heaven and earth. Now, however, he wanted to say, “Hearken, O heaven, etc.”

After my death, that you will become depraved. Yet, throughout all the days of Yehoshua, they were not depraved, as it is said, “The people worshipped Adonoy all the days of Yehoshua.” [We derive] from here that a man’s disciple is as precious to him as his own person, for, so long as Yehoshua was alive, it appeared, to Moshe, as if he was alive himself.