Menachot 30

The last eight verses of the Torah, Deuteronomy 34:5-12, briefly describe Moses’ death, the Israelites’ mourning for his passing and the transition to Joshua’s leadership. Tradition cites Rav as teaching that these eight verses must be chanted by a single reader and cannot be divided up — an indication that the division of Torah portions into aliyot may still have been fluid in this period. Today’s daf dives into the rationale for his requirement to keep this block of material together.
Tradition ascribes authorship of the Torah to Moses. But ancient interpreters were troubled: How could Moses have written the verses about what happened after his own death? Hence, other explanations were sought, including this one:

As it is taught in a beraita: The verse states: “And Moses the servant of the Lord died there.” (Deuteronomy 34:5) Is it possible that after Moses died, he himself wrote: “And Moses died there”? Rather, Moses wrote the entire Torah until this point, and Joshua bin Nun wrote from this point forward — this is the statement of Rabbi Yehuda. And some say that Rabbi Nehemya stated this opinion.

So perhaps Joshua penned the last few verses. But Rabbi Shimon, who apparently has reservations about the tradition of tying these verses together, raises a concern with this solution:

Rabbi Shimon said to him: Is it possible that the Torah scroll was missing a single letter? But it is written that God instructed Moses: “Take this Torah scroll and put it by the side of the Ark of the Covenant.” (Deuteronomy 31:26)

This is indeed a puzzle. Just a few chapters previously, Deuteronomy related that Moses took a complete Torah scroll and put it in the Ark of the Covenant. But if he didn’t write the whole Torah, how could he have personally done that? Another solution must be sought:

Rather, until this point, the Holy One, Blessed be He, dictated and Moses wrote the text and repeated after Him. From this point forward, with regard to Moses’ death, the Holy One, Blessed be He, dictated and Moses wrote with tears without repeating the words, due to his great sorrow. As it is stated there with regard to Jeremiah’s dictation of the prophecy of the destruction of the Temple to Baruch ben Neriah: “And Baruch said to them: He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the scroll.” (Jeremiah 36:18)

Rabbi Shimon posits that Moses wrote down the whole Torah, including the description of his own demise. But while he repeated every word after the Almighty, he didn’t utter aloud these last eight verses because of his overwhelming sadness. This idea is backed with an apt verse: Similarly, when Jeremiah prophesied of the Temple’s destruction, Baruch ben Neriah’s sadness prevented him from repeating the words out loud as he wrote them down.
 
Based on Rabbi Shimon’s comments, the Gemara revisits the question of whether he truly objected to Rav’s position that these eight verses must be recited together by a single reader:

Shall we say that the ruling of Rav is not in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Shimon? You may say that Rav’s ruling was stated in accordance with the opinion of Rabbi Shimon; since these verses differ from the rest of the Torah in one way, as Moses wrote them without repeating the words.

Sidestepping the question of whether Moses or Joshua was responsible for the final eight, the Gemara finds that either way, these verses were distinct from the rest of the Torah. Perhaps because Joshua transcribed them, or perhaps because Moses didn’t speak them aloud. Either way, to this day they are treated as a special unit read by a single reader.

Read all of Menachot 30 on Sefaria.

This piece originally appeared in a My Jewish Learning Daf Yomi email newsletter sent on February 10, 2026. If you are interested in receiving the newsletter, sign up here.