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The story of Moses is found in the Torah. The term Torah, Hebrew: תּוֹרָה, teachings or instructions, sometimes translated as the Law or the Five Books of Moses. It refers to the entirety of Judaism's founding legal and ethical religious texts. Moses was born at about 1400 BCE. According to the book of Exodus, he was born in a time when war threatened and the large increase in the number of his people concerned the Pharaoh lest they give aid and comfort to Egypt’s enemy. His Hebrew mother, Jochebed, hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and he ended up being adopted into the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave-master, Moses fled across the red Sea to Midian where he tended the flocks of Jethro, a priest of Midian on the slopes of Mt. Horeb. Mt. Horeb is usually identified with Mount Sinai, a mountain that was thought in the Middle Ages to be located on the Sinai Peninsula, but that many scholars now believe was further east towards Moses' home of Midian. That is where God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the Torah. Now the Torah is written by hand on the skin of a kosher animal. During Moses' absence from Egypt, the old Pharaoh had died and had been replaced by a new Pharaoh, known as the Pharaoh of the Exodus. After the Ten Plagues were unleashed on Egypt, Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of there. The Israelites found it necessary to encamp three times before passing the Egyptian frontier, some believe at the Great Bitter Lake while others propose sites as far south as the northern tip of the Red Sea. Then, they crossed the Red Sea, with the help of God splitting the water. They based themselves at Horeb and passed the borders of Edom. Moses received the Ten Commandments orally, not yet in tablet form, and other moral laws. He then commanded the people not to touch the mountain. Despite living to a hundred and twenty, Moses died before reaching the Land of Israel. This piece of literature is important because many different religions use the Torah. Jews use the Torah, Christians use the Torah and Old Testament, and Muslims believe in some aspects of the Torah. It is one of the reasons why the story of Moses has lasted and been represented over time.
BibliographyHodges, Margaret. Moses. San Diego: Harcourt Brace, 1999. Kirsch, Jonathan. Moses: A Life. New York: Ballantine Books, 1998. Patterson, Jose, Bushe, Claire, and Ripley, Edward. Angels, Prophets, Rabbis and Kings: From the Stories of the Jewish People. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1991.Wales, Jimmy and Sanger, Larry. "Moses." Wikipedia. 2000. Wikipedia. 05 Feb. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moses>. Accessed December 9, 2008.
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