Moses, Aaron And Miriam - Judaism 101

☰ Moses

Moses was the greatest prophet, leader and teacher that Judaism has ever known. In fact, one of Rambam's 13 Principles of Faith is the belief that Moses' prophecies are true, and that he was the greatest of the prophets. He is called "Moshe Rabbeinu" (משֶׁה רַבֵּינוּ) that is, Moses, Our Teacher/Rabbi. Interestingly, the numerical value of "Moshe Rabbeinu" is 613: the number of mitzvot that Moses taught the Children of Israel! Rabbeinu is sometimes spelled without the Yod (י), adding up to only 603, but then you add the 10 Commandments that he brought down from Sinai and we're back to 613. Moses is described as the only person who ever knew G‑d face-to-face (Deut. 34:10) and mouth-to-mouth (Num. 12:8), which means that G‑d spoke to Moses directly, in plain language, not through visions and dreams, as G‑d communicated with other prophets.

Moses was born on 7 Adar in the year 2368 from Creation (circa 1400 BCE), the son of Amram, a member of the tribe of Levi, and Yocheved, Levi's daughter (Ex. 6:16-20). Unlike the heroes of many other ancient cultures, Moses did not have a miraculous birth. Amram married Yocheved, and she conceived, and she gave birth (Ex. 2:1-2). The only unusual thing about his birth is Yocheved's advanced age: Yocheved was born while Jacob and his family were entering Egypt, so she was 130 when Moses was born.

Moses was born in a very difficult time: Pharaoh had ordered all male children born to the Hebrew slaves to be drowned in the river (Ex. 1:22). Yocheved hid her child for three months, and when she could no longer hide him, she put him in a little ark and placed it on the river where Pharaoh's daughter bathed (Ex. 2:2-3). Pharaoh's daughter found the child and had compassion on him (Ex. 2:6). She named him Moses, from the Hebrew root משה meaning "draw out," because Moses was drawn out of the river (Ex. 2:10). Tradition teaches that various members of Moses' family had given him ten different names before that time, but the Torah refers to him only as Moses, out of respect for the kindness that Pharaoh's daughter showed by adopting him, raising him and saving him from her father's death sentence. Some modern scholars point out that M-S-S was common in Egyptian names and means "son of" as in the name Ramases (son of Ra), but it is worth noting that Moses' name in Hebrew is M-Sh-H, not M-S-S. According to one Jewish source, Pharaoh's daughter actually named him Minios, which means "drawn out" in Egyptian, and the name Moshe (Moses) was a Hebrew translation of that name, just as a Russian immigrant named Ivan might change his name to the English equivalent, John.

At the suggestion of Moses' sister Miriam, Pharaoh's daughter hired Yocheved to nurse Moses until he was weaned (Ex. 2:7-10). Little is known about Moses' youth after that time. The biblical narrative skips from his adoption by Pharaoh's daughter to his killing of an Egyptian taskmaster some 40 years later. One traditional story of Moses' childhood tells that one day he was sitting on Pharaoh's knee and took the crown off of Pharaoh's head and put it on. The court magicians took this as a bad sign and demanded that he be tested: they put a brazier full of gold and a brazier full of hot coals before him to see which he would take. If Moses took the gold, he would have to be killed. An angel guided Moses' hand to the coal, and he put it into his mouth, leaving him with a life-long speech impediment (Ex. 4:10).

But clearly Yocheved instilled in Moses a knowledge of his heritage and a love of his people that could not be erased by the 40 years he spent in the antisemitic court of Pharaoh. His compassion for his people was so great that he could not bear to see them beaten by Pharaoh's taskmasters. One day, when Moses was about 40 years old, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave, and he was so outraged that he struck and killed the Egyptian (Ex. 2:11-12). But when both his fellow Hebrews and the Pharaoh condemned him for this action, Moses was forced to flee from Egypt (Ex. 2:14-15).

He fled to Midian, where he met and married Zipporah, the daughter of a Midianite priest (Ex. 2:16-21). They had a son, Gershom (Ex. 2:22). Moses spent 40 years in Midian tending his father-in-law's sheep. A midrash tells that Moses was chosen to lead the Children of Israel because of his kindness to animals. When he was bringing the sheep to a river for water, one lamb did not come. Moses went to the little lamb and carried it to the water so it could drink. Like G‑d, Moses cared about each individual in the group, and not just about the group as a whole. This showed that he was a worthy shepherd for G‑d's flock.

I'm sure everyone knows what happened next - if you haven't read the book, then you've certainly seen the movie. G‑d appeared to Moses via a burning bush and chose him to lead the people out of Egyptian slavery and to the Promised Land (Ex. Chapters 3-4). With the help of his brother Aaron, Moses spoke to Pharaoh and triggered the plagues against Egypt (Ex. Chapters 4-12). He then led the people out of Egypt and across the sea to freedom, and brought them to Mount Sinai, where G‑d gave the people the Torah and the people accepted it (Ex. Chapters 12-24).

G‑d revealed the entire Torah to Moses. The entire Torah includes the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) that Moses himself wrote as G‑d instructed him. It also includes all of the remaining prophecies and history that would later be written down in the remaining books of scripture, and the entire Oral Torah, the oral tradition for interpreting the Torah, that would later be written down in the Talmud. Moses spent the rest of his life writing the first five books, essentially taking dictation from G‑d to describe what happened around him.

After Moses received instruction from G‑d about the Law and how to interpret it, he came back down to the people and started hearing cases and judging them for the people, but this quickly became too much for one man. Upon the advice of his father-in-law, Yitro, Moses instituted a judicial system (Ex. 18:13-26).

Moses was not perfect. Like any man, he had his flaws and his moments of weakness, and the Bible faithfully records these shortcomings. In fact, Moses was not permitted to enter the Promised Land because of a transgression (Deut. 32:48-52). Moses was told to speak to a rock to get water from it, but instead he struck the rock repeatedly with a rod, showing improper anger and a lack of faith (Num. 20:7-13).

Moses died in the year 2488, just before the people crossed over into the Promised Land (Deut. 32:51). He completed writing the first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) before he died. There is some dispute as to who physically wrote the last few verses of Deuteronomy, discussing Moses' death, mourning for him and eulogizing him (Deut. 34:5-12): according to some, Moses wrote these last few verses from a vision of the future, but according to others, the last few verses were added by Joshua after Moses' death. In any case, these verses, like everything else in the Torah, were written by G‑d, and the actual identity of the transcriber is not important.

Moses' position as leader of Israel was not hereditary. His son, Gershom, did not inherit the leadership of Israel. Moses' chosen successor was Joshua, son of Nun (Deut. 34:9).

Moses was 120 years old at the time that he died (Deut. 34:7). That lifespan is considered to be ideal, and has become proverbial: one way to wish a person well in Jewish tradition is to say, "May you live to be 120!"

As important as Moses was to the Children of Israel, it is always important to remember that Moses himself was not the deliverer or redeemer of Israel. It was G‑d who redeemed Israel, not Moses. Moses was merely G‑d's prophet, His spokesman. The traditional text of the Pesach haggadah does not even mention Moses' name. In order to prevent people from idolatrously worshipping Moses, his grave was left unmarked (Deut. 34:6).