Who was Moses and why was he important to the tradition of judaism?

Answer 1

Moses is considered the greatest of leaders in Jewish history. Various traditions hold that he also either wrote the Torah or received it from God at Mt. Sinai.

Answer:

Moses was born 245 years after the death of Abraham. Pharaoh had decreed that Israelite boys be killed (Exodus ch.1), but the daughter of Pharaoh took pity on the infant Moses (Exodus ch.2) and raised him as her own son. He was forced to flee after killing a cruel Egyptian taskmaster, and went to Midian, where he wedded the daughter of Jethro. He eventually achieved the highest level of prophecy (Deuteronomy ch.34) and was called upon by God (Exodus ch.3).

The importance of Moses cannot be overstated. He brought the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery (Exodus ch.12). He received the Torah from God (Exodus 24:12) and later recorded it in writing (Deuteronomy 31:24). He went up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights (Deuteronomy ch.9-10) and brought down the Two Stone Tablets with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18). He brought the Israelites into the covenant with God (Exodus ch.19 and ch.24), and he oversaw the building of the Tabernacle (Exodus ch.35-40). He was the humblest of men and the greatest of prophets (Numbers ch.12).

Answer 2

Moses was born when the Hebrews were slaves in Egypt to a Hebrew family, his mother was Yocheved, at that time Jewish males at birth were thrown into the Nile to drown by decree of the Pharoh, Yocheved in a deserate attempt to save her son put him in a basket and set him in the Nile and he floated by the Pharoh's daughter who loved him at first sight and adopted him. He grow up the Prince of Egypt, when he grew older he was walking around and saw an Egyption beating a Jewish slave to make him work harder, and in a fit of rage, Moses kills him. Confused and upset he left Egypt and ended up in a place called Midian, where he worked as a sheperd for a kind man named Yitro (in Englsih I think he's Jethro) and married his daughter Tsiporah. years later he came across a bush that was on fire, but the fire wasnt consuming the bush, he came closer and God began talking to him through the bush. He told him to go to Egypt and demand that his people be let go from slavery, he reluctantly agrees and many years later he has the Hebrews under his leadership and he takes them out of Egypt and through the Negev Desert and is basically their leader. He's known as one of the most humble and kind human beings, and somethimes people call him the deliverer even though god didnt allow him in the Promise Land

Answer 3

Moses made Judaism into its permanent form, by conveying God's Torah to the Israelites. From there, Judaism has influenced its daughter-religions (Christianity and Islam), and has shaped the Western world in general.

Quote:
"I will insist that the Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation ... fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations" (John Adams, 2nd President of the United States).
"Certainly, the world without the Jews would have been a radically different place. Humanity might have eventually stumbled upon all the Jewish insights, but we cannot be sure. All the great conceptual discoveries of the human intellect seem obvious and inescapable once they had been revealed, but it requires a special genius to formulate them for the first time. The Jews had this gift. To them we owe the idea of equality before the law, both Divine and human; of the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person; of the individual conscience and of the collective conscience and social responsibility" (Paul Johnson, Christian historian, author of A History of the Jews and A History of Christianity).

• The Jews' monotheistic religious tradition (Deuteronomy 6:4) shaped the Western beliefs about God.

• The 7-day week (Exodus ch.20), including a day of rest for everyone. This weekly rest was a concept unique to the Israelites.

• The concept of morality (Leviticus ch.18-19) was also the work of the Hebrews, including the dignity (Genesis 5:1) and value of a person (unlike idolatry, which had no moral character whatsoever; with worship of the gods accompanied by practices such as human sacrifice, "sacred" prostitution, and animal worship).

• Women's rights were carefully maintained in Judaism. Israelite women could own property, could initiate court cases, could have their own servants, and could own fields and businesses; and the Torah specifies marital rights for women (Exodus 21:10).

• Under Israelite law, everyone had recourse to the courts. A child, widow, wife, poor person, etc., could initiate legal action against any citizen to redress perpetrated harm. Compare this to those societies in which only mature, land-owning males had any legal status.

• The Western diet reflects some of the Judaic dietary law. With the exception of the pig, Western society does not eat species not contained in kosher law (Deuteronomy ch.14). Owls, mice, insects, rats, snakes, cats and dogs are not eaten by most Westerners and it is a direct result of Jewish culture.

• Parents are responsible for teaching children (Deuteronomy ch.11). Illiteracy among Israelites, in every generation, was rare. Universal education in the Western world is taken for granted today, yet this is a recent development. In Judaism, however, it goes back for more than 3300 years. Judaism has always maintained that education is the highest goal of man in his pursuit of godliness. This tradition has now been passed on to Western culture.

• Infants are to be cherished, protected and cared for, whether or not they turned out to be the gender you were hoping for. Compare this to societies in which unhealthy babies, or females, were killed.

• The Torah forbids cruelty to animals.

• Government is accountable to a higher authority. In other ancient societies, the monarch was all-powerful. Among the Israelites, however, the king was under the constant scrutiny of the Divinely-informed prophets, who didn't hesitate to castigate him publicly for any misstep in the sight of God. And, other than for the crime of rebellion, the king couldn't punish any citizen by his own decision. He was obligated by the Torah-procedures like everyone else (Talmud, Sanhedrin 19a).

• A robber repays double to his victim (Exodus 22:3), or works it off. Cutting off the hands of a robber is a punishable crime. Debtors are not imprisoned or harmed. They are made to sell property and/or work to repay what they owe. Compare this to the Roman practice by which anyone could accuse a man of owing them money and the debtor could be killed (Roman "Twelve Tables of Law" code, 3:10).

• Western jurisprudence is based in part upon Judaic Torah-observance. The Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and the laws that follow (Exodus ch.21-23) gave rise to a significant portion of modern law.

• It is the responsibility of the community to support the poor (Deuteronomy ch.15), the widow, the orphan, and the stranger passing through (Exodus 22:20-21).

It is important to note that all of the above were instituted among the Hebrews (a.k.a. the Israelites) thousands of years earlier than in other nations. Here's one example: Infanticide was practiced among classical European nations until it was stopped by the influence of Judaism and its daughter-religions. Professor and former President of the American Historical Association, William L. Langer (in The History of Childhood): "Children, being physically unable to resist aggression, were the victims of forces over which they had no control, and they were abused in almost unimaginable ways."

Answer 4

Moses and the Exodus from Egypt are absolutely foundational to biblical history and the development of Jewish tradition. However, we have no historical or archaeological evidence for the Exodus from Egypt. Almost all scholars now believe that the Israelites did not really conquer the land of the Canaanites, but were themselves rural Canaanites who left the region of the rich coastal cities and settled peacefully in the hitherto sparsely populated hinterland. This being the case, the Israelite tribes did not really flee with Moses out of Egypt after some 400 years there. Carol A. Redmount ('Bitter lives', published in The Oxford History of the Biblical World) says that recent research indicates that even more of the extant Exodus account than previously thought comes from periods during or after the Israelite monarchy or even the Babylonian Exile.
The story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt is so well attested in The Bible that some scholars believe there must be a historic basis behind the legend. They believe the Book of Exodus might be based in small part on a true story of a small band of escaping slaves who were found by the Midianites, near death in the desert, and nursed back to health and allowed to continue their journey northwards to be reunited with their Canaanite or Hebrew countrymen. On this view, there were no plagues of Egypt (and the Egyptian records support this), no parting of the Red Sea, no Ten Commandments and no Ark of the Covenant.
For more information, please visit: http://christianity.answers.com/theology/moses-in-history-and-tradition

Answer 5

Moses is absolutely essential to Judaism. Moses was an Israelite, a great-great grandson of Jacob. He was born 245 years after the death of Abraham. The time when Moses was born was when the Pharaoh ordered his people to kill all Jewish male infants because he (Pharaoh) was afraid that the Israelites would become too strong for him (Exodus ch.1-2). Moses' mother didn't want him to die. So she made a basket for him and put him in it to float in the Nile reeds. He was found by the Pharaoh's daughter, who took pity on him (Exodus ch.2) and raised him as her own son. He was forced to flee after killing a cruel Egyptian taskmaster, and went to Midian, where he wedded the daughter of Jethro. He eventually achieved the highest level of prophecy (Deuteronomy ch.34) and was called upon by God (Exodus ch.3). He brought the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery (Exodus ch.12). He received the Torah from God (Exodus 24:12) and later recorded it in writing (Deuteronomy 31:24). He went up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights (Deuteronomy ch.9-10) and brought down the Two Stone Tablets with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18). He brought the Israelites into the covenant with God (Exodus ch.19 and ch.24), and he oversaw the building of the Tabernacle (Exodus ch.35-40). He was the humblest of men and the greatest of prophets (Numbers ch.12).

Related subject:

After the Plagues and the Israelite Exodus, Egypt was in turmoil for decades, as we may understand from the Ipuwer papyri (Professor John van Seters, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology no. 50). This (and evidence for the Exodus in general) may be seen here:http://www.academia.edu/1651319/Is_the_Exodus_Story_Possible

http://www.biblicalchronologist.org/answers/exodus_egypt.php

And the wider picture. Archaeology and Biblical-Criticism in general:

http://judaism.answers.com/hebrew/does-archaeology-support-the-hebrew-bible

http://www.whoreallywrotethebible.com/excerpts/chapter4-1.php

http://www.pearlmancta.com/BiblicalcriticswrongRShlomoCohen.htm

Answer 6

Moses was the man (or prophet as he became) chosen by God to lead the Israelites out of slavery from Egyptians and into the "Promised land".