Moses De Leon example essay topic

Two men are walking to temple. The older man says to the younger man, "So, do you know why the Jewish people aren't voting for President Bush?" The younger man replies with an inquisitive "No."Well", says the older man, "the last time the Jewish people followed a Bush they wound up wandering in the Desert". This recent political joke is in reference to the Exodus story of Moses and the burning bush. As stated in the bible it reads: "Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father in law, the priest of Midian. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of Elohim. The angel of YHVH appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush.

He gazed: the bush is b lasing fire yet the bush is not consumed!" (Exodus 3: 1-2) Exodus is the second of the five "books of Moses" that tells the story of the Exodus of Israelites from Egypt through the Sinai Desert. When Moses was born, the Israelites were oppressed by the Egyptian Pharaoh and bound to a harsh life of labor taking part in building some of the great public works of Egypt such as the pyramids, fortresses, and installations to regulate the flow of the Nile River. For fear that the Israelite population would continue to increase, the Pharaoh insisted that every male Hebrew child would be killed at birth. Ironically, during this oppressive period, Moses, the "future deliverer of Israel", was born.

To protect his life, his mother sent him down the Nile in a specially woven ark. He was found by the Pharaoh's daughter who took him in and, to add to the irony, she hired his mother to be his foster nurse. The baby boy grew up and was adopted into the Pharaoh's household and named Moses. His name is derived from the Egyptian root "more" meaning "son", but in the Bible, it is said to hale from the Hebrew root meaning "drawn out of the water". Even though Moses, was raised as an Egyptian, he knew that he was truly Hebrew.

After seeing an Egyptian taskmaster cruelly beating a Hebrew, Moses became so furious that he murdered the Egyptian. Fearing that the Pharaoh would find out what he had done, Moses fled to the wilderness, "the eternal safe retreat of outcasts from ancient society and of those in revolt against authority". Moses found himself in the Sinai Desert amongst other Semitics and befriended a family in which he was adopted into, and, later married into. With his father in law, Jethro, Moses moved from place to place with flocks in search of a place where vegetation was not scorched by the hot summer Sinai sun. In the mountains of the central Sinai range, he saw the vision of the burning bush that ordered him, by God, to return to Egypt and deliver his people from the harsh life of slavery instilled by the Pharaoh. The Zohar, supposedly written by the Spanish Jewish Mystic Moses de Leon, presents some interesting additions to the excerpt from Exodus chapter 3.

Several hundred years ago, de Leon passed around booklets of teachings and tales never heard or seen before by others of his community. De Leon claimed to others that he had only copied the information from an ancient book of wisdom written by a well known teacher of the second century who lived in Israel, Rabbi Shim " on son of Yohji. According to de Leon, after Rabbi Shim " on's death the book became a secret and was handed down to only a select few, including himself, and felt that he was to share the age old secrets by copying portions from the original book and selling them. When a young man named Isaac son of Samuel heard of the secret midrash teachings of Rabbi Shim " on he began a search for de Leon.

After finding de Leon in Valladolid, Spain, Isaac agreed to meet with de Leon in Avila to view the secret manuscript. However during his journey to Avila, Moses de Leon fell ill and died. When Isaac heard of de Leon's death, he went to Avila to find the truth of the secret book. There, someone told him that Moses de Leon's widow said she had witnessed her late husband write the book from his own thoughts, Rabbi Shim " on was not the author. Even with this information, people still believed that the book was written by Rabbi Shim " on.

By the middle of the sixteenth century, many mystics and Kabbalists viewed the Zohar as an important sacred text along with the Bible and Talmud. The first revelation that the Zohar, meaning radiance, brings to light concerning the burning bush comes from Rabbi Judah who states that "Moses was not like other prophets" because those who get too close to a fire are usually burned or affected. However, Moses came very close to the fire and he was not burned and according to the biblical passage, it does not even seem that Moses had any fear of approaching the fire. With this Rabbi Abba states that his name means "from water" and that someone who is drawn from water will have no fear of fire and nor will they be affected by fire as Moses, was not. Next, Rabbi Judah points out that Moses distinction from other prophets by quoting that "From the place Moses was hewn, no other human was hewn". According to the dictionary hewn is defined as "To form or shape with a sharp instrument; to cut".

I interpret this to mean that Moses was made or shaped from a far more special place than other humans. This conforms to the next idea stated by Rabbi Yohanan that "Moses was arrayed in all ten spheres, as it is written: 'He is trusted throughout My household' (Numbers 12: 7). The ten spheres that the Rabbi is referring to are the Ten Sefirot which are said to be the direct image of the divine, God. Therefore, if Moses was "arrayed", or displayed throughout these ten aspects of the divine, he is viewed as almost divine himself for most of the human race can not even connect with one of the Ten Sefirot.

We know that the statement, "He is trusted throughout My household" is from God because the word my is capitalized. The notion that Moses is not just a member of his house or part of his house but rather "entrusted" even further implies Moses' importance above other human beings. The Rabbis then introduce a person by the name of Balaam and compare Moses to him. They begin with a quote for Deuteronomy 34: 10, "Never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses" and Rabbi Joshua son of Levi took it to mean that "in Israel none arose, but among the nations of the world on did!" Who was that?

Balaam". According the Encyclopedia Judaica Balaam was a "heathen prophet". In the biblical account, Balak, the King of Moab, requested for Balaam to curse the Israelites when they approached his country during the journey from the wilderness to Canaan. Instead, under Divine inspiration, Balaam uttered blessings. While it is enforced that Balaam was a heathen, he was still a prophet of God. According to the Talmud, like Moses, he was raised among the nations and equal in power to Moses, but he was still seen as evil or wicked while Moses was more positively viewed.

Balaam was one of the Pharaoh's counselors that advised him to cast all male children into the Nile, a fate that was forced on to Moses. Also, the words that a Jew states each morning when entering the synagogue, "How goodly are thy tents O Jacob, thy dwelling-places O Israel" are the words of Balaam from when he was suppose to be cursing the Israelites and praised them instead. In some ways it seems that the Rabbis viewed Balaam greater than Moses because they were emphasizing the importance of him by saying that in Israel there was never a prophet like Moses, but in "all the world" there was, Balaam. When Rabbi Shim " on hears of the comparison between Moses and Balaam he states, "Black resin mixed with finest balsam?

God forbid!" I feel that he was trying to emphasize the dramatic good versus evil difference of the two. Balaam, the black resin which is an excretion from a plant, is viewed by many rabbis as an immoral figure, "Balaam the wicked" (A vot, 5: 19). Moses represents the balsam which is defined by the Webster's Dictionary as, "an aromatic and usually oily and resinous substance flowing from various plants". Therefore Moses is the aromatic, or sweet version, of Balaam, the black resin. Rabbi Shim " on continues to say that:" Moses actions were high; those of Balaam, low. Moses worked wonders with the holy crown of the supernal King above, Balaam worked black magic with the nethermost crowns, unholy, below.

Because of this 'the Israelites slew Balaam son of Be " or, the sorcerer, with the sword' (Joshua 13: 22). If you think he was any higher go ask his ass!" Moses, set out to help the people of Israel, he had good intentions. Balaam, a soothsayer sent to curse the Israelites under the guidance of an "unholy crown", Balak, King of Moab. On his way to Moab, in defiance of God, an angel sent by God with a sword in hand, stood in the way of Balaam riding his ass. The ass knew the angel was there and tried to refuse to continue even while receiving angry beatings from Balaam. Finally, Balaam saw the angel and accepted the message from God in which he continued to Moab and instead of cursing the Israelites he praised them with the speech mentioned earlier that a Jew says upon entering the synagogue.

I feel that the reference to the sword in Rabbi Shim " mon's statement is to that of the angel's on Balaam's fateful day that lead him to temporarily convert to Israel's faith. Later in life though, Balaam deflected from the faith and began to work against it until he was killed in a battle between Israel and the Midianites. The sword the angel held was that of the people of Israel. Balaam was eventually killed by the sword of Israel.

To conclude his statement, the Rabbi states that if you still feel that Balaam was a good, faithful person, ask his ass who he rode upon, and suffered his thrash. The Zohar, then continues with Rabbi Yose who seems to understand that "there is high and low, right and left, compassion and judgment, Israel and the idolaters!" He understands the distinction between a good prophet and bad prophet. When he speaks of the right and left, I feel that this is in direct reference to the left side of the Ten Sefirot which represents, evil, "Din", and judgment, while the right side represents the good. The legs of the Sefirot are "Hod", evil left side, and "Nezah", good right side, which are understood as prophecy itself. In the Zohar's diagram of the Sefirot, Moses' name is listed under Nezah, the good prophet. With this explanation, Rabbi Yose understood that even according to the description of the Divine, there is good prophecy and bad prophecy.

Rabbi Judah refers back to the earlier statement that perhaps Balaam was seen as more powerful or seen as higher than Moses by saying:" As Moses was one of a kind among all prophets high and holy, so Balaam was one of a kind among unholy prophets and sorcerers below. Yet from every angle, Moses was up above and Balaam was down below. So many levels separate the two!" Even though Balaam is referenced as an important prophet, he was not a "good" prophet like Moses. Moses is in direct proportion with heaven and Balaam with hell. One can not be better than the other because they represent opposite ends of the Earth.

Rabbi Yohanan then goes to say that "Moses was worried that Israel might perish from the harsh bondage God forbid! ... the Angel of YHVH appeared to him in a flame of fire... showing that Israel is enslaved, but 'the bush is not consumed!' " The rabbi was pointing out the uplifting symbolism of the story. All though the bush seemed to be burning, or hurting as the Israel population had been, it was not consumed by the fire, the bush was still alive. Even though the Israelites were suffering from harsh treatment and facing eradication, they had hope and faith for a better life. A life which Moses helped to bring them following his command from God. The excerpt from the Zohar concerning Moses and the burning bush ends with an uplifting quote, "Happy are Israel! The Blessed Holy One has separated them from all nations and called them His Children, as it is written: 'You are children of YHVH your God!' (Deuteronomy 14: 1) " The people of Israel had endured a great deal of suffering in which most people would begin to question their faith in God.

However, through this suffering, those of Israel have continued to separate themselves from others and persevered to serve their Lord. I feel that this story is very important concerning the history of the struggles that Jews have faced and overcome. Although, the joke at the beginning of this paper obviously seems to mock the story of Moses and the burning bush, the fact that the story is still remembered today and understood by the masses that it only further depicts the story's vital significance to the Jewish religion. I see the joke as only a continued remembrance of the Prophet Moses and his struggles for Israel..