This week's sedra is spiritually super-charged. The Ten Commandments appear once again, the Shema is given, as is the charge to teach our children, and more. But the last mitzvah which Moshe performs in his life - according to chazal, on the very day of his death, 7 Adar - is to designate three cities of refuge east of the Jordan River; namely, Bezer, Ramot and Golan.


Why was this mitzvah in particular the final achievement in Moshe's life? It seems like a pretty obscure act, especially if we consider that these cities would not come under Israel's control for many years to come - only in Yehoshua's time, after the "west bank" was subdued. Why does Moshe's existence in this world come to a close with this specific mitzvah?


We'll come back to that question in a moment. But first, let's examine an oft-neglected verse in our parsha. Moshe wants to impress upon Bnei Yisrael just how miraculous their journey from Egyptian slavery to nationhood was. He says to them: "Since Time began, has anyone ever seen anything so great? G-d speaking from amidst the fire,

Has this ever happened to another people?

with signs and wonders, one nation being extricated from within another nation and establishing themselves? Has anyone in history ever even dared to claim such an awesome event?"


So amazing and miraculous was our deliverance from Egypt that not only did it never occur in history before or since, but no one even had the audacity to try to invent such an unbelievable scenario.


But Moshe's dramatic statement was not just a history lesson. It was a prophecy from the mouth of our greatest prophet, foretelling that such a thing would happen on our behalf yet again. For when the modern State of Israel was established, we again had the merit to witness a people emerging out of other peoples and returning to our land to reclaim our Divine heritage. From virtually every country where Jews had been exiled, we marched back to Israel amid signs, wonders, wars and miracles.


Has this ever happened to another people? While many countries throughout history gained their independence - Hong Kong, for example, recently freed itself from British occupation and returned to Chinese rule - no other people, scattered to seven continents, ever returned to its ancestral homeland and re-established their sovereignty, language and culture.


I suggest that this is the significance of Moshe's last mitzvah. He was subtly telling Am Yisrael that it may take many, many years, during hich we undergo trial and trauma in the Exile, but eventually we shall affirm our destiny by living in our own land and taking control of all those places which HaShem promised to us - on both sides of the Jordan: from Be'ersheva to Bezer, from Ginot Shomron to Golan, from Ra'anana to Ramot.