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Rav Yehoshua bar Abba quotes Rav Giddel in the name of Rav, as teaching that the last eight pesukim of the Torah have a unique status – that “an individual reads them in the synagogue” – that they are a unique single unit. What is special about these last eight pesukim?
Rabbi Yehuda says that Moshe could not possibly have written the last eight pesukim of the Torah, which open with the words “So Moshe the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab” (Devarim 34:5). How could Moshe be alive and writing that he had died!? Therefore he concludes that Yehoshua completed the last few verses of the Torah.
Rabbi Shimon rejects the possibility that the Torah was not completed by Moshe in its entirety, since the Torah describes Moshe handing the complete book to the children of Levi (see Devarim 31:26). The picture that he paints of the writing of the Torah, is Moshe writing according to the instructions of God, and beginning with the last eight pesukim, God told Moshe what to write, and Moshe wrote according to those instructions be-dema.
This term, be-dema – apparently a reference to tears – is the subject of discussion among the rishonim and aḥaronim which we explore.