Deuteronomy 34:10-12: Each Ending Leads to a Beginning

Explore the Hebrew meaning of navi (prophet), panim el panim (face to face), and yad chazakah (mighty hand) from Deuteronomy 34:10-12 and meaning for the Jewish community in October 2025

Simchat Torah: Endings, Beginnings and Relevance Today

This week, Jews all around the world are celebrating Simchat Torah. We get to dance with Torah scrolls, hopefully not drop them, and celebrate another successful and joyful year of getting to read the Tanakh together as a community.

To help with this celebration, I am going to be helping with reading the end of Deuteronomy in Hebrew and continuing my hand with the English translation! I’m sharing my portion with our Rabbi. I never pass up a chance to brush up on my Hebrew and improve my translation skills.

I only have a few verses, but once I started digging deeper, I was a little taken aback by the breadth of meaning within just three verses - and these meanings being particularly relevant to the Jewish community this year.

Meaning in the End of Deuteronomy

In Deuteronomy 34:10-12, we reach one of the most moving endings in the Torah:

“And there has not arisen again a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face… and for all the mighty hand and the great terror which Moses performed before the eyes of all Israel.”¹

This brief passage captures the essence of what made Moses unique - not only his leadership but his communion with HaShem and his visible acts of strength that shaped a nation’s faith.

I want to give you three words in Hebrew and their English meaning, along with a more existential meaning that applies directly to us today.

1. נָבִיא (Navi) – Prophet with Purpose

The word נָבִיא (Navi) means prophet - one who speaks on behalf of God.
But in Hebrew, navi also carries a sense of “to bring to pass.”² Things are happening when you hear this word, and quite a number of instances where prophets are speaking, there is a call to action. Get your crap together, you need to make a change is what they’re usually saying.

We saw some real live action happen for the past 2 weeks in the middle east, haven’t we? The US President, Donald Trump, was somewhat of a modern day prophet who did some “navi,” as it were - whether you love him or hate him, I quite frankly don’t care - but you can’t deny there were things that came to pass and he has displayed some prophet chutzpah: “They don’t know what the f*** they’re doing!”³ (One of my personal favorites, from Donald Trump. It’s refreshing to see someone else lose their temper and get unfiltered now and then, like me.)

2. פָּנִים אֶל פָּנִים (Panim el Panim) – Face to Face Connection

This is my particular favorite from the verses - פָּנִים אֶל פָּנִים (Panim el Panim)⁴ - face to face. This expression suggests deep mutual recognition, a presence and familiarity cultivated between Moses and HaShem - suggesting that each saw each other for who they are; they were revealed to one another.

As I keep reading this portion of the tikkun in preparation, I’m also viscerally seeing the facesof our beloved hostages released from Hamas captivity this past week. I can’t not see the hostages being returned to their families, friends, and the nation of Israel - Panim el Panim.

3. יָד חֲזָקָה (Yad Chazakah) - The Mighty Hand

Finally, יָד חֲזָקָה (Yad Chazakah)⁵⁶ - mighty hand - represents both strength and divine intervention. I can’t not think of the strength of leaders rising up to do the right thing (for whatever reason) and rescue the hostages held in Hamas captivity (finally), along with proposition for peace in the middle east with a subsequent ceasefire; it’s power with purpose - the hand that liberates, not dominates.

Each Ending Leads to a Beginning

As we roll the Torah scroll back to Genesis, we’re reminded that no ending is final. The last words of Deuteronomy 34 aren’t about loss - they’re about continuity. Navi, Panim el Panim, and Yad Chazakah remind us that prophecy, presence, and strength still live within us and are still happening today. Every generation has its prophets, every struggle its “mighty hand,” and every reunion the spark of face-to-face recognition.

Much like the people of Israel at the end of Deuteronomy saying goodbye on this earthly plane to the prophet Moses, we have to say goodbye to those lost in this war - the hostages murdered in captivity, the victims of the war in Gaza, members of the IDF killed in service of the state of Israel; but we begin again, just as we return to the beginning of Genesis and look towards a new future for the hostages rescued and with hope for a new future in the middle east.

So as we dance with the Torah this Simchat Torah, may we hold these words close - not as relics of the past, but as living truths that we still see unfold before us today.

1. https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.34.10?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en

2. https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.34.10?lang=bi&lookup=%D7%A0%D6%B8%D7%91%D6%B4%D6%A5%D7%99%D7%90&with=Lexicon&lang2=en

3. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/trump-lashes-israel-iran-dont-know-f-re-rcna214712

4. https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.34.10?lang=bi&lookup=%D7%A4%D6%BC%D6%B8%D7%A0%D6%B4%D6%96%D7%99%D7%9D&with=Lexicon&lang2=en

5. https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.34.12?lang=bi&lookup=%D7%A0%D6%B8%D7%91%D6%B4%D6%A5%D7%99%D7%90&with=Lexicon&lang2=en

6. https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.34.12?lang=bi&lookup=%D7%A0%D6%B8%D7%91%D6%B4%D6%A5%D7%99%D7%90&with=Lexicon&lang2=en