Moses

In his famous essay on Moses, Asher Ginsberg (Ahad Ha’am 1856–1927), an influential Zionist thinker, recasts the revelation at the burning bush as Moses encountering his internal voice. His heroic Moses is shadowed by other, more melancholic figures, such as Jeremiah, and even Muhammad, as imagined by Thomas Carlyle. Rather than a figure of strength and power, Ahad Ha’am’s Moses comes to express the anxieties and ambivalences of early Zionism.

Falling face-down on the ground, with hands and feet outstretched, was a common gesture of honor and respect in the Bible. Why is prostration only performed today on the High Holidays?

Moses issues an ultimatum to God: “If you don’t forgive Israel, erase me from Your book” (Exodus 32:32). God forgives Israel but erases Moses from the Torah portion of Tetzaveh anyway because the curse of a Torah scholar always comes true. Here is the story of how this medieval midrash came about, and how it developed into the modern myth that Tetzaveh is the only portion after Moses’ birth that is missing his name.

Ibn Ezra’s Secret of the Priesthood.

Was Abraham the founding father of what became the Jewish people, only the precursor of Moses? Alternatively, does he represent the human ideal, from which his descendants went astray, but that can be partially achieved through observance of the Torah?

Both Philo of Alexandria (c. 25 B.C.E. – 50 C.E.) and some later rabbinic interpreters insist that Moses remained celibate so that he might always be pure and ready to hear YHWH, but each arrived at this conclusion through a different approach.

Israel’s cries for help in Egypt reach all the way to God, upon “the Mountain of God” in Midian. In response, God sends Moses, a local shepherd, to free them.

The description of Deborah as a judge and prophetess is brief, but through her speeches and actions, and in contrast with other characters, she emerges as a prophet modeled after Moses.

In Exodus, the daughter of Pharaoh is presented as an empathetic princess who saves the infant Moses after discovering him in the Nile and raises him as one of her own. Late Second Temple and rabbinic writers reimagine her based on their own values, and even give her a name.

Moses transformed into an angel, sat upon the divine throne, and was an instantiation of the Greek God, Hermes: These are some of the ways Second Temple authors reimagined Moses.

When Moses sees an Egyptian striking a Hebrew, he kills the Egyptian. Does Moses get involved because he knows he is a Hebrew or does he act out of a sense of justice?

What happens to Moses’ face after his encounter with God on the mountain: Does he radiate light or grow horns? Ancient Near Eastern iconography can help us understand what Exodus 34:29–35 is trying to communicate.

YHWH’s first revelation to Moses at a sneh סְּנֶה, “bush,” signifies that it is not a future site of worship and foreshadows the revelation at Sinai.

The Israelite men are commanded to separate from their wives before the revelation at Sinai. The rabbis learn from this that Moses permanently separated from his wife (Num 12), to be available to speak with God at all times. Joseph ibn Kaspi (14th c.), however, claims that this distorts the plain meaning of the text and that celibacy is an affront to Jewish values.

In the Torah, Aaron, Miriam, and Moses are siblings; Aaron is the biological ancestor of all priests, Moses is the redeemer of Israel from Egypt, and Miriam, their sister, leads the Israelite women in song. But what can we reconstruct about who these ancient figures may have been?

Moses and Gideon are each called upon to deliver Israel from its enemies, and each poses questions in response. And yet, a close comparison of the stories demonstrates a sharp contrast between the two characters; surprisingly, Gideon is more faithful than Moses.

Moses gives several instructions to the Israelites concerning manna: How it should be gathered, prepared, consumed, and preserved, and what to do with it on Shabbat. The phrasing and details of these instructions are Moses’ creative elaboration of God’s original laconic command.

The story of Moses follows a pattern that is typical of ancient Near Eastern fugitive hero narratives. However, when Moses goes to Mount Horeb, the plot deviates from the usual “divine encounter” feature. What does this tell us about the composition of the story of Moses and the Burning Bush?

The western wall of the ancient synagogue in Dura Europos (245 C.E.) is covered with a series of wall paintings depicting the story of Moses. What can we learn by a close reading of these panels?

Set against the Pharaonic Solomon, Jeroboam frees Israel from servitude and founds the Northern Kingdom. Hadad plays a similar role on behalf of the Edomites. Why are these two “rebels” depicted as heroes?

A rose by any other name

She named him Moses (מֹשֶׁה) explaining, “I drew him (מְשִׁיתִהוּ) out of the water” (Exod 2:10).

Ancient scribes would write as if Moses was the author, or they would claim that a tradition was originally stated by Moses, but they did not intend to convey a historical fact with this description. Instead, they meant that a given tradition was “authentically” Jewish, or God’s will and that Moses would have approved. I call this phenomenon “Mosaic Discourse.”

The Talmud has God congratulating Moses for shattering the Tablets, however, a midrash criticizes him for venting his anger, quoting the verse, “Anger resides in the bosom of fools” (Ecclesiastes 7:9). Was his act commendable or lamentable? 

A struggling ex-slave and single mother labors against all odds to raise her son and shield him from the prejudices of the surrounding community.

After commissioning Moses at the burning bush, God commissions Moses again in Midian, and then again on his way to Egypt. In this third commission, God instructs Moses to tell Pharaoh, “Let My son go, that he may worship Me, yet you refuse to let him go. Now I will slay your firstborn son” (Exod 4:22-23). How does this narrative fit into the exodus story?

The revelation at Sinai emerged as central to Israel’s story in the Persian period. No biblical text outside the Torah mentions it until its unique inclusion in the historical prologue of the Levites’ prayer in Nehemiah 9:13-14. A later scribe redacted the Sinai verses to further include a reference to the Torah of Moses.

The details of Moses birth story do not entirely cohere. By examining the midrash, and sifting through layers of the Torah text itself, we uncover a series of problems and solutions in the story which help to elucidate the way the text and its traditions evolved over time.

The Torah describes the Levites as a landless Israelite tribe who inherited their position by responding to Moses’ call to take vengeance against sinning Israelites. This account masks a more complicated historical process.

The significance—or lack thereof—of family pedigree in matters of individual excellence and righteousness.

Is Moses raised by an Egyptian princess? Does he kill an Egyptian man? Does he run away to Midian and marry the daughter of a Midianite priest? Not according to P, which cleanses Moses of these problematic elements.

In a polemical response to Christian and Jewish allegorical interpretation of the Torah’s laws, Bekhor Shor writes that just as God speaks to Moses “clearly and without riddles” (Num 12:8), so too the Torah is clear and means what it says, and should not be interpreted allegorically.

...but who inspired whom?

A Pagan “Prophet Like Moses”