Moses

Definitions:

Prior to having a serious discussion about the different religious divisions in Judaism Christianity and Islam, several words must be defined for the sake of clarity. These terms are used this way exclusively in this answer and may have different names or connotations elsewhere. (For example, the term defined here as "Movement" is typically called a "School" in the Islamic context.)

Religion: A faith cemented by acts and prayers which is relatively distinct.

Sect: A portion of a religion that believes other members of other sects to be improperly following the religion and thus not achieving that religion's central goal.

Movement: A portion of a sect whose members have a unique style of praying and living that is approved of by members of other movements in the same sect, but is representative of their interpretation of the sect's purpose.

Rite or Ritual: A repertoire of physical acts that takes place during worship or religious activities. These are usually different across geographic regions.

Judaism:

As to be expected, given such a relatively low population and low level of societal integration, Judaism has only two major sects. However, they have very different perceptions of each other and these are the Torah Jews and the Liberal Jews. The main divisions between these sects is the ability to use non-Judaic source content to abrogate and modernize Jewish teaching and practice. Torah Jews believe that such things represent a deterioration of Jewish identity and purpose whereas Liberal Jews see Jewish Identity to be more internal or ethnic and the religious aspect to be secondary. As a result, Torah Jews believe Liberal Jews to have "lost their way" and Liberal Jews see Torah Jews as being antiquated and "out of sync" with the modern world. Regardless of whether a person is a Torah Jew or a Liberal Jew, that person may also practice rites derivative of his ancestral region such as Eastern European customs, Iberian customs, North African customs, etc. These customs do not affect other Jews as perceiving him as Jewish and these rites are all co-equal.

Within the Torah Judaism Sect there are a number of movements distinguished by their level of integration with the non-Jewish World, their styles of prayer, and their level of conservatism. The Modern Orthodox are typically seen as the more liberal branch of Torah Judaism and typically wear Jewish paraphernalia (such as a Kippa and Tzitzit) although they will dress in a typical business-suit and work in Western companies. On the more conservative side are the Hasidim and Ultra-Orthodox who wear unique vestment at all times and are recognizable by their payyot (sideburn-curls).

Within Liberal Judaism there are a number of movements also distinguished by their level of integration with the non-Jewish World, their styles of prayer, and their level of conservatism. At the most liberal are Secular Jews who may make Jewish foods and sing Jewish songs, but rarely attend synagogue services and do not perform the daily acts required of Torah Jews. In Liberal Judaism there is a question as to how much Hebrew and how much Vernacular should be used in a Synagogue Service. Conservative Jews, on the more conservative side typically prefer more Hebrew, whereas Reform Jews prefer more Vernacular. Liberal Jews are often well-acclimated to non-Jewish society and may have many non-Jewish friends and contacts.

Christianity

There are six major sects in Christianity and some say even more, but the easiest way to break up Christianity is into these six categories: Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant, Oriental, Modern, and Mormon. Each of these groups believe the other groups are failing in their attempt to reach proper salvation through the Christ and as such have their own methods of attaining this goal.

Orthodox Christianity is the one of the oldest Christian Sects in the sense that it represents a fragment of the original Church and holds many doctrines in common with Catholicism as concerns the Sacraments. The disagreement between the Orthodox and Catholic is over leadership. The Orthodox maintain that the Church is a community of Patriarchs all with equal standing as opposed to a Pope with supreme power over all cardinals. Orthodox are most famous for praying with icons. There are several movements in Orthodox Christianity, the most famous being the Greek Orthodox and the Russian Orthodox, but there are also Georgian Orthodox, Bulgarian Orthodox, Slavic Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox.

Catholicism is also one of the oldest Christian Sects in the sense that it represents a fragment of the original Church. Catholics hold that all seven sacraments are necessary to be saved along with the proper Eucharist. Catholicism also has several co-equal rites such as the Roman Rite (the most popular), the Byzantine Rite, the Slavic Rite, and so on. All Catholics (and exclusively Catholics) recognize the infallibility of the Pope on certain matters and the Pope's rule over Christendom.

Protestantism incorporates a wide variety of different movements and in certain cases, different sects in its umbrella. As a result, it is hard to pin down Protestantism. It formed as a rejection of Catholic doctrine in some cases, especially as concerns Calvinists and Lutherans or Catholic power in some cases, especially as concerns Anglicanism/Episcopalianism and Presbyterianism. As Protestant doctrines most often derive from the idea that the Bible should be the only source of Christian belief, differing interpretations of the Bible have made Protestant movements most prone to splitting. New Protestant movements are being created all of the time, with the Evangelical Movement among the fastest growing forms of Christianity. Most African-Americans ascribe to Protestant movements such as the Baptist Church.

The Oriental Orthodox Churches are not a uniform group of churches, but this group represents all of the Churches of the Old World that do not fit neatly into the categories of Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant. These churches include the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Egyptian Coptic Church, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and the early Christian Heretical Religions (such as the Nestorians and Justinians). What makes these Christian sects unique is different in every case. The Ethiopians have additional holy books and a unique liturgy, the Coptics hold to Monophysite Heresy, the Armenian Church did not join with the Early Patriarchs of the Church, and so forth.

Modern Christianity refers to new movements of Christianity that have developed in the last 200 years. The most famous of these is the Jehovah's Witnesses, but there are numerous other similar churches. They engage in relatively cultish and insular behaviors and many focus quite strongly in Christian eschatology.

Mormonism is a uniquely American form of Christianity (that is to say it embodies many American cultural ideas and American locales not that exclusively Americans are Mormons). Mormonism holds the Divine Revelation extended beyond the Biblical Period, resulting in additional Testaments of His Will. The most famous of these new documents is the Book of Mormon. Additionally Mormons believe that Divine Revelation continues into the present day and the Elder Mormon Leadership has partial access to Divine Knowledge in order to arbitrate Questions of the Faith. Many Christians outside of Mormonism consider Mormonism to be a heresy as it does not hold to the Nicene Creed's understanding of the Trinity.

Islam

There are three main sects within Islam: Ahl Sunna (commonly called Sunni), Shi'a (commonly called Shiite) and Ibadi. The main distinction between them is who has the right to power over the community. However, as simple as that may seem at first blush, it lead to numerous smaller but significant differences.

Sunni Islam is the dominant sect of Islam worldwide and established the Rule of Intikhabat and Ashura (Elections) for Mohammed's successors. Sunni Islam has many different forms. The most common movement of Islam is Hanafi, which is dominant in South Asia, the Levant, north Mesopotamia, Turkey, and southeast Europe. Sunni also has a mystical movement called Sufism of which many submovements exist like the Turkish Dervishes. In recent times, Saudi Arabia has stimulated a submovement within the Hanbali movement called Wahhabism which is a fundamentalist strain of Islam.

Shiite Islam is the dominant sect of Islam in Iran and the surrounding area. It was originally the political faction supporting Ali as Mohammed's successor instead of the elections. This has led to the ascription of martyrdom to Ali's sons: Hassan and Hussein who wished to promulgate a Caliphate from what the Shiites see as the rightful line. The most prominent movement in Shiite Islam is the Ja'afari Movement. Shiite submovements have historically been quite varied leading to groups as different as the Ismailis and the Alawites, both groups existing outside of the majority Shiite area today. Former Shiite submovements have now exited the religion of Islam such as the Druze and the Baha'i. Shiite movements are unique in that the process of Ijtihad (Open Religious Jurisprudence) continues solely in Shiite Islam.

Ibadi Islam is the dominant sect of Islam in Oman. It is an offshoot of the third party in the Islamic Civil War (Fitna al-Kubra), the Kharijites (the other two parties were the Sunnis and the Shiites). Ibadi Islam is so small that it has no internal movements. Ibadi holds to a moderated version of the Kharijite purification requirements by limiting contact with unbelievers and increasing contact with proper believers. They also hold with the tradition Kharijite view of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs, namely that Abu Bakr and Omar were proper rulers, Othman was not and Ali lost favor when he agreed to the Arbitration with Mu'awiya.

In addition to the three main sects of Islam, there are also minor sects like the Ahmadiyya which are considered blasphemous (takfir) by the remaining Muslim sects. Ahmadiyya was founded by a prophet (Mirza Ghulam) and, according to most Muslims, this violates the Islamic concept that Mohammed was the capstone of the Prophets: the last and final prophet. The difference between Ahmadiyya versus Baha'i and Druze is that the Ahmadiyya still see themselves as Muslims whereas Druze and Baha'i do not.

Teyvat gomeh - Moses' mother fashioned a basket of bulrushes, which is a kind of reed growing in the river. She waterproofed it with mud and pitch. Nowhere does it state that the basket moved down the river. It may have remained in one spot, held by the reeds in the river.

See also:

More about Moses

All the laws of Leviticus. However, concerning Moses' personality we don't see very much in Leviticus, since according to tradition the Torah was dictated by God (Exodus 24:12) and Leviticus contains almost no descriptions of events. It is all laws. Even when it is Moses speaking or doing something (see Leviticus ch.8), he is doing so according to God's exact words. To learn about Moses, you would want to see Exodus, Numbers, plus a few passages in Deuteronomy.

There is, however, one passage in Leviticus (10:16-20) which is very significant. In it, Aaron corrects Moses for having forgotten the proper application of a certain law, and Moses immediately accepts Aaron's correction, implicitly admitting his mistake. This shows Moses' humility (see Numbers ch.12) and the fact that he knew that obedience to God is more important than his own honor.

To Jews this has the further significance of informing our belief that any human claiming infallibility is, by definition, a falsifier. If Moses could err, any human can and will err too.

It should be pointed out that Moses' expressing his displeasure (10:16) should not be seen as meaning that Moses was ever prone to anger. In every case in which Moses does this (Exodus 16:20, Numbers 31:14), it is in response to a violation (or a perceived violation) against a Torah-matter. He expressed displeasure to show the importance of obedience to God. Moreover, the Hebrew word for actual anger is not used in these passages.

See also:

Moses' biography