Immediately before Moses’ death, God told him: “Behold, your days are drawing near to die” (Deuteronomy 31:14). The concept latent in this phrase is that ultimately no person can prevent his own death when the time arrives. This phrase also alludes to the fact that Moses did not die because of his own sins, but rather because of the death that was decreed on the entire human race because of the sin of Adam the first man.

“The Lord said to Moses: Behold, your days are drawing near to die”…this is what the verse said: “There is no man who rules the spirit, to retain the spirit” (Ecclesiastes 8:8). Rabbi Yehuda says: No person has dominion over the angel of death, to eliminate it from him…Rabbi Shimon ben Halafta says: A person cannot craft weapons and be saved from the angel of death. What is the meaning of: “And there is no dominion over the day of death” (Ecclesiastes 8:8)? A person cannot say to the angel of death: Wait for me until I settle my accounts or until I instruct my household, and after that I will come….

Alternatively, Rabbi Levi said: To what can this matter be compared? It can be compared to a pregnant woman who was incarcerated in prison. She gave birth to a son, and the child grew. The king passed in front of the prison and that child began shouting: My lord the king, why am I incarcerated in prison? The king said to him: You are placed there due to the crime of your mother. So Moses said: Master of the Universe, there are thirty-three sins punishable by excision, and if a person violates one of them he is liable to be killed by Heaven. Did I violate even one of them? Why are you decreeing death upon me? God said to him: You are dying due to the sin of Adam the first man, who introduced death to the world. (Devarim Rabba 9)