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Today in History: Moses (1393-1273 BCE) |
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Posted By: abelajohnb
Moses was born in Egypt on the 7th of Adar of the year 2368 from creation (1393 BCE), at a time when the Israelites was slaves to the rulers of the land and subject to many harsh decrees. He was the third born of Jocheved and Amram's three children -- his brother Aaron was his senior by three years, and his sister Miriam by six.
When he was three months old, Moses was hidden in the Nile to escape Pharaoh's decree that all male Hebrew children be drowned; he was retrieved from the river by Pharaoh's daughter, Batyah, who raised him in the palace. At age 20, Moses fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian he saw beating a Jew and made his way to Midian, where he married Zipporah, the daughter of Jethro, and fathered two sons, Gershom and Eliezer.
When he was 80 years old, Moses was shepherding his father-in-law's sheep when G-d revealed himself to him in a burning bush at Mount Horeb (Sinai) and instructed him to liberate the Children of Israel. Moses took the Israelites out of Egypt, performed numerous miracles for them (the ten plagues in Egypt, the splitting of the sea, extracting water from a rock, bringing down the manna, and numerous others), received the Torah from G-d and taught it to the people, built the Mishkan (Divine dwelling) in the desert, and led the Children of Israel for 40 years as they journeyed through the wilderness; but G-d did not allow him to bring them into the Holy Land. Moses passed away on his 120th birthday on Mount Nebo, within sight of the land he yearned to enter.
There's no mention of Moses in the first book, Genesis. That makes sense -- he wasn't born yet. The word "Moses" appears only a few times in the fifth book, Devarim (Deuteronomy). That, too, is understood -- the whole of Devarim is a 37-day long speech which Moses delivers to the people of Israel before his passing. Throughout Devarim's eleven Parshahs we hear his speaking voice -- "At that time G-d said to me...", "And then we journeyed forth..." (in contrast, the rest of the Torah is written in the third person -- "And G-d spoke to Moses...", "And Moses ascended the mountain...", etc.)
In the other three books, the name "Moses" appears many times in every Parshah -- often dozens of times on a single page. In every Parshah, that is, except one: the section of Tetzaveh (Exodus 27:20-30:10) includes not a single mention of Moses' name.
The Baal HaTurim commentary on Torah explains this phenomenon as a consequence of something that Moses said to G-d in the wake of the sin of the Golden Calf. When the people of Israel betrayed their covenant with G-d just 40 days after receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, G-d told Moses that He plans to destroy the errant nation and build a new and better people from Moses' descendents. Moses pleaded and argued on the people's behalf, finally saying to G-d: "Now, if You will forgive their sin... But if You won't, blot me out from the book that You have written" (Exodus 32:32). This is why, says the Baal HaTurim, Moses' name is missing from the Parshah of Tetzaveh.
The Parshah of Tetzaveh serves as a glorious monument to Moses' great deed and to what it achieved. For while his "name" is indeed absent from the Parshah, his nameless essence pervades it all the more for his named absence. This can be seen in the very first sentence of Tetzaveh, which records G-d's words to Moses: "And you shall command the children of Israel..." In the Parshah's very first word -- v'atah, "and you" -- Moses is there. Not by his name, but by his name-transcending "you".
Why Tetzaveh? Adar 7 -- Moses' birthday and the date of his passing -- always falls in proximity to this week in which the Parshah of Tetzaveh is read in the annual Torah reading cycle, making it a most fitting week in which to be introduced to the quintessential "you" of Moses.
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Posted: 03/14/08 2:22pm - Total Views: 522 - Category: Bible Studies
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papillionkiller |
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Posted by:
papillionkiller 
(Posted: 03/14/08 10:01pm)
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Thank you for this.
Moses is never taught enough.
Nor understood as much as his life should be.
We miss a lot not knowing our history as Christians.
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^back to top^
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kreynolds |
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Posted by:
kreynolds
(Posted: 03/15/08 5:09am)
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Thank you for this history lesson! I never knew about this particular part.
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^back to top^
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Member Biography |
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Raised in a private Christian school until his senior year, Mr. Abela has been around the Christian Faith nearly his entire life. Shortly after entering High School he became involved in researching his Native American heritage and soon found himself deeply involved in the Native American religion. Shortly before his...
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