Moses in the Different Traditions - Two Encounters of Eilat Interfaith Encounter in January and February 2008:

Moses in Judaism

The most dominant figure in the Torah. The great legislator, the biggest prophet – no prophet rose as Moses. There is not much in Torah about Moses as a person.

Until the Middle Ages we do not know of people named Moses – out of awe to this great man.

The people do not love Moses but admire him. Aaron and Miriam are loved. The image of Moses is intensified after his death.

We also mentioned Freud's opinion that Moses was not Jewish and the Jews killed him.

Moses appears on two levels – the level of the Torah and the level of the Midrash.

There are many Midrashim on Moses' death. The Torah tells us that God berried Moses. No human knows his burial place, since God knows there will be destruction and exile, and if the Children of Israel will come to Moses' grave to ask for merci, Moses will ask God and God will not stand in front of his request and will pardon the people.

A lot was written about Moses. Also Ahad Ha'am dedicated to him a whole article which he named "Moses".

Moses is not mentioned in the Haggada of Pesach. The redeemer is God himself.

The attitude of the Sages of Blessed Memory after the Bar-Kochva rebellion was to diminish the images of the human heroes, in order to strengthen the belief in God and to prevent admiration of human leader that may lead to cult of personality.


Moses in the Druze Religion

Moses is mentioned since his moment of birth and nearly till the moment of his death. Pharaoh had a dream that one of the Hebrews will make his kingdom fall. Following the dream he ordered to kill every son of the Hebrews.

When Moses was in the Palace, one of Pharaoh's wise-men told him that it is this child that will make him fall, Then the test of the gold and fire was conducted.

Jethro prepared for Moses rod he was using. It was not a coincidence that Moses arrived at Jethro. The rod was talisman that protected Moses in Egypt. Midian is actually south Yamen, in the south of the Arab Peninsula.

Jethro sees how Moses leads the people and helps him organize the regime – through the council of 70 Elders and the judicial system.

Moses actually was in the Promised Land, which is from the Nile till the Euphrates, but the Land of Canaan he saw only from Mt. Nebo where he disappeared.

The Druze do not name children after Jethro or another prophet. There is no Druze child with the name Moses.


Moses in Islam

As in every year we have the fortune of hosting Dr. Shlomo Alon and we are grateful for this one.

We started with historical and literary introduction to the Koran.

Moses appears in 26 Suras out of the Koran 114 – 22 from the period of Mecca and 4 from the period of Medina. The Suras from Mecca have more religious passion.

According to the Koran Moses was a descendant of Abraham. He was chosen by God, as the Koran says in Sura 7 verse 144: Say (Moses) I chose you to be above the people when I sent you and talked to you.

Moses was tongue-tied, says the Koran in Sura 43 verse 52. Moses preaches Pharaoh and in Sura 7 there are 25 verses who deal with this.

According to the Koran Moses was both a prophet and a messenger, through whom the laws of the Torah were delivered. The issue of the receipt of the Torah appears in 12 Suras. God spoke with Moses "face to face".

His people hurt Moses a lot.

Many stories from the Torah appear also in the Koran: his being drawn out of the water, hitting the Egyptian, hitting the rock.

A prophet is one of Mohammad's spiritual fathers and the fact he is in the Bible strengthens his position and status. From the Muslim perspective the Nation of Israel do not have exclusivity over Moses. Moses' rod appears in different forms in the Koran.



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