Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died—twenty in Egypt, sixty in Midian, forty in the desert with exceedingly great exaltation in prophethood, in prayer, in fasting. His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. His eye was not dim—so in the case of his fathers, the Righteous of the world. His eye was not dim, for he was prepared for the recording of the law, and to see the four quarters of the world. Nor his natural force abated, for he was vested with the Form which Adam cast off in the Garden of Eden; and his face shone up to the day of his death.

Another exposition of the text, AFTER THE DEATH OF THE TWO SONS OF AARON. R. Levi opened his discourse by citing: I say unto the arrogant (laholelim): Deal not arrogantly (Ps. Lxxv, 5). ‘Laholelim’ means ‘to those who create confusion’, those whose heart is full of evil intrigues. R. Levi used to call them ‘woe-makers’ because they bring woe into the world. And to the wicked: Lift not up the horn (Ps. loc. cit.). The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the wicked: ‘The righteous were never happy in this world of Mine and you seek to be happy!’ Resh Lakish, in the name of R. Simeon the son of Menasya, said: The apple of Adam’s heel outshone the globe of the sun; how much more so the brightness of his face! Nor need you wonder. In the ordinary way if a person makes salvers, one for himself and one for his household, whose will he make more beautiful? Not his own? Similarly, Adam was created for the service of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the globe of the sun for the service of mankind.