Jewish Life of the Month: Moses
Rebecca Keys
Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Moses
Dates
Biblical period
Impact
No figure looms larger in Jewish culture than Moses, and few have stories more enigmatic. Who was Moses? Orphan. Prince. Fugitive. Shepherd. Negotiator. Leader. But he never made it to the Promised Land.
Famous Quote
"Let my people go"
By Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
Published November 22, 2016
240 pages
“A rich, erudite study”
—Kirkus Review, Starred Review
An unprecedented portrait of Moses's inner world and perplexing character, by a distinguished biblical scholar
No figure looms larger in Jewish culture than Moses, and few have stories more enigmatic. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, acclaimed for her many books on Jewish thought, turns her attention to Moses in this remarkably rich, evocative book.
Drawing on a broad range of sources—literary as well as psychoanalytic, a wealth of classical Jewish texts alongside George Eliot, W. G. Sebald, and Werner Herzog—Zornberg offers a vivid and original portrait of the biblical Moses. Moses's vexing personality, his uncertain origins, and his turbulent relations with his own people are acutely explored by Zornberg, who sees this story, told and retold, as crucial not only to the biblical past but also to the future of Jewish history.