Or HaChaim on Numbers 7:1/אור החיים על במדבר ז׳:א׳

1 ביום כלות משה, on the day Moses completed, etc. Rabbi Levi in Midrash Hagadol on our verse claims that the word כלות is written without the letter ו. In our editions of the Torah it is spelled with the letter ו. How is it possible that scribes could take liberties with the spelling of the Torah? Such a situation would lead to apostasy and a denigration of the respect in which the scholars are held! You should know that the text of our sacred Torah, including every vowel has been carefully counted. Every letter or even crown is sacred enabling us to derive meanings from it. Let me give you a small example of how important an even minute departure from the accepted spelling would be. There are letters which are noticed only by the way they are pronounced, letters which do not even appear in the written text. An example of such a letter is the letter ו before the final ע in the word יהושע. When pronounced properly, we hear that there is a vowel shuruk which does not appear in the written text. On the other hand, such a vowel does appear in the written text in the same word between the letter ה and ש although it cannot be heard when we read the word aloud. This little example ought to alert the intelligent student to the fact that there can never be a question of altering the spelling in the written Torah such as adding a letter ו in the word כלות in our verse, even if only to ensure that the word would be pronounced correctly. If the Torah decided to write a letter ו in a place where we would not have expected it it serves to alert us to hidden meanings in the text. It may have been the intention of the Torah to include three letters of the holy name of G'd in the name of the righteous יהושע. If the Torah had written the letter ו before the letter ע and had omitted the letter ו after the letter ה, we would not have noticed that the Torah had intended to include the first three letters of the tetragram in the name of Joshua. When our sages speak about the word כלות being written without the letter ו, they mean that the letter ו which does appear in the text is to be viewed there as if it were only "on loan." The intelligent student will appreciate that this was the mystical dimension of Moses on whom was fulfilled the verse in Jeremiah 31,21 that נקבה תסובב גבר, that "the female will enclose the male." Moses' exclusive preoccupation with putting together the Tabernacle is alluded to in the word כלות a reference to the "groom-bride" relationship between him and the Tabernacle. When the Midrash says that the word כלות is spelled כלת, the author merely wishes to draw our attention to this relationship of bride and groom. The physical presence of the letter ו in the written text is an allusion to Moses, the גבר, i.e. the male. Inserting the ו into the word כלת is a clear indication of the male-female relationship between the two. No human being has the right to make up such an explanation out of his own mind. Such interpretations are traditional and reflect inspiration by the Holy Spirit.