By now, the astute reader may have noticed something a little worrying about the story I’ve been telling this week: a distinct absence of female characters. We’ve had Moses, Aaron, Jethro and Pharaoh, and not one named woman. It’s not … Continue reading
Every contemporary Middle Eastern culture I know anything about places a high value on being a good host, and what I’ve read of the Torah suggests to me that this has always been so. In Genesis we have the story … Continue reading
So far, our heroes have fallen into slavery and escaped. All well and good. We’re about a third of the way into the Book of Exodus, but most of the action has already happened; it really gets kind of slow … Continue reading
Once Moses accepts his commission and persuades the Israelites to listen to him, he is fairly well prepared for the difficulty of actually winning freedom. In chapter 7 God warns him quite clearly that Pharaoh won’t listen, and there’s going … Continue reading
For today, have something I wrote a couple of weeks ago and sent to Andrew: I’m re-reading the beginning of Exodus, in preparation to write a piece for the Occupy Judaism Haggadah. The piece will be about the practical impossibility … Continue reading
I think Moses is the most important character in the Bible. He not only leads his people out of slavery, but he somehow keeps them together and alive through forty years of wandering through the desert. And yet, while he’s … Continue reading
