Architects for Jewish Living: A Series
Moses: The Devoted Shepherd
by Rabbi Benjamin H. Englander
The roots of Judaism can be traced into the dim past. The Jewish civilization did not suddenly grow into maturity, but developed slowly over the centuries. The rabbis in the Midrash, one of the earliest commentaries on the Bible, frequently refer to the fact that the Patriarchs observed the Torah several hundred years before Sinai. The outstanding trait of the tribe of Levi was that they observed the Sabbath during the Egyptian bondage. Certainly, no one can question the antiquity of the rite of circumcision, since it was practiced from the days of Abraham. What does all this point to?
In the diggings of the archaeologists, evidence of cultures and traditions have been found that are very similar to Judaism. For example, the Code of Hammurabi, a king who lived twenty-one centuries BCE -- four thousand years ago -- shows distinct similarity to the Ten Commandments in the Torah. Other research scholars trace Jewish customs and ceremonies, religious observances, folkways and folklore to sources more ancient than the Jewish people. In 1929, an archaeological expedition was digging in a pile of rubble at Ras Shamra on the Northern coast of Palestine, when they discovered a number of inscriptions. When these were deciphered, they were found to be religious, ethical, and ritual texts of an ancient Canaanite sect, dated about thirty-two centuries ago, at the time of the Patriarchs. They have since been studied, and have thrown some new light upon events in the Bible. This historical and critical approach to Judaism does not, to my mind, detract either from the sanctity or the worthwhileness of the Jewish way of life. Though it is a departure from the Sinaitic approach, it should not impair our reverence.
In the Ethics of the Fathers, we are told that ten generations elapsed from Adam to Noah, and another ten from the flood in the days of Noah to Abraham. It seems to me that these rabbis were implying that Abraham was the culmination of a general development and growth of the monotheistic idea. When Abraham proposed monotheism, he found fertile soil for his seeds. Just like Einstein's Theory of Relativity was made possible by previous progress, the atom bomb and atomic energy is the result of prior discoveries. Abraham's monotheism was a climax to long years of mental and spiritual search and growth. It was a culmination of contributions from the generations that had preceded Abraham.
The Torah clearly indicates that Adam and Noah were the recipients of God's word. We find the Noahide code for religious life in Genesis IX: 3-7:
1. The establishment of courts of justice
2. The prohibition of blasphemy
3. The prohibition of idolatry
4. The prohibition of incest
5. The prohibition of bloodshed
6. The prohibition of robbery7. The prohibition of eating the flesh of a live animal
From this point of view, the road Judaism traveled in its development becomes clearly visible, and we recognize these master pilots who steered its course around the dangerous curves in the valley of time. These were "the architects of Judaism" whose lives and contributions we hope to bring to the attention of the congregation in forthcoming lectures during the course of the year on several Friday nights.
Moses stands out as the greatest of them all. He is the architect of architects and the builder of builders, for he gave greatest direction and definition to the course which Judaism was to take through untold generations when he placed in the hands of his people the Torah, the five books that go by his name.
Moses was born in Egypt in the thirteenth century BCE, thirty-three hundred years ago, during the period of greatest oppression of the descendants of Jacob. His biography is related to us in the Bible in sparse detail, much of it is left to legend and imagination. This we know: Vayikach ish mibeit Levi. His parents were from the House of Levi.
Sigmund Freud, the eminent psychologist, turned biblical exegist to besmirch the honored name of Moses and claimed he was the illegitimate son of the princess. To hide her embarrassment, she claimed him to be a child of the Hebrews. However, the Bible anticipates Freud and gives him this information -- "Amram of the House of Levi" was his father and "a woman of the House of Levi" was his mother. This is also the greatness of our Torah -- our leaders, regardless how great, are human. They are born in the same travail as other children. They have their failings, and Moses did not lack for them, but they became great by their contribution to Judaism and Jewish life.
His mother saved him from the death meted out by the cruel edict of the reigning Pharaoh. When his mother, Yocheved, set him adrift on the Nile, Moses was found by the daughter of Pharaoh, who adopted him. Thus is the irony of history. He was reared as a prince in the palace of Pharaoh, who sought to prevent the birth of just such a man. Evidently Moses kept in close contact with his own people. His natural mother, through the connivance of his sister Miriam, was engaged to be his nurse. However, in the freedom of the royal house, he learned to resent the abject slavery of his people. In a fit of temper, he slew the Egyptian who had dared to strike a fellow Jew.
When he reprimanded two Jews who were fighting between themselves, he discovered that his act against the Egyptian was known, and resented. They could not understand his indignity because they were afflicted by the slave mentality. Moses fled to Midian to save his life. There he married the daughter of Jethro, a priest in Midian. While looking after the flocks of his father-in-law in the desert, he received the Divine call from the midst of a burning bush to go back to Egypt and bring forth Israel from Egyptian bondage. We need not dwell upon the details of his efforts: the Ten Plagues, the Exodus, the Crossing of the Red Sea and arrival at Sinai.
Of the many titles given to Moses, that of lawgiver is of particular significance for the development of Jewish spiritual life. His greatest legacy was the Torah, also called the Five Books of Moses, which summed up the history of Israel from creation to his death. In an organized written form, he preserved the ritual and religious beliefs that were treasured by the people that had undoubtedly been passed on from generation to generation by word of mouth. He established the unchallenged authority of the Torah, and made the Covenant between God and the Jewish people at Sinai. V'zot hatorah asher sam Moshe lifnei B'nai Yisrael al pi Hashem b'yad Moshe. "This is the Torah that God gave through the hands of Moses to the people of Israel."
No longer would the Jews depend upon the oral traditions of the past, but their course would be charted, their religious services defined, and their societal obligations explicitly enumerated.
Moses was the man who could answer the Divine call, and meet the challenge of the hour. He gave direction not only to his own people, but as civilizations emerged, to all mankind. Yet, we must remember that he was human, subject to all of man's frailties. He was difficult of speech, and he had to take his brother Aaron with him to act as a spokesman. Devoted shepherd that he was, the people of Israel sometimes tried his patience, when they did not always accept his teachings graciously. The mumbling of the people that Egyptian bondage was better than the hardships of the desert, the revolt of Korach and his followers against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, the backsliding into idolatry, the making of the Golden Calf -- these were enough to try the most patient of men. Nevertheless, he was the seer of seers, the patient teacher of the people whom he loved. He was the servant of God, and brought His word to man.
One teacher was not enough to overcome the influence of environment, and in the course of history, we find that Israel frequently deviated from the path Moses had indicated. The prophets who followed him railed against the recalcitrant people for their sins, and called them back to the ideal -- of the One God whom they were to worship and obey. For almost one thousand years after Moses, the spiritual leaders of Israel, the judges, and the prophets, deepened and broadened the teachings of Moses. They developed the concepts of social justice, the brotherhood of man, world peace, and the universality of God. It was only after the destruction of the First Temple in the sixth century BCE that Abraham's monotheism taught by Moses became firmly rooted with his descendants. It was upon the foundations that Moses had cast and within the framework he delineated that future architects were to build the Jewish spiritual skyscraper.