Moses’ Prayer to Evade Death
Moses said to God: Master of the Universe! You know full well how much toil and pain I bore for the sake of Israel until they would believe in Your name, how much grief I suffered on their account! [ . . . ] But I thought, just as I have beheld them in their distress, so shall I behold them in their good fortune. And now that Israel’s good fortune…
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In Deuteronomy Rabbah, Moses cites the law requiring laborers to be paid the same day (Deuteronomy 24:15); he argues that God should repay him for his forty years leading the Israelites by allowing him to enter the land.
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Related Guide
Prayers of Biblical Characters in Rabbinic Literature
3rd–10th Centuries
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