The Story of Moses

Shri Nathji used to speak about Moses. He was particularly fond of this one story of Moses, the Prophet of the Jews, who was said to have lived about 2000 years ago.

“Moses went to the top of Mount Sinai and insisted that God reveal Himself to him.

‘Rabbe arani!’ he cried out, asking God to reveal Himself.

‘Lan taraani!’ came a voice from the Heavens, ‘No you cannot see me!’

“When Moses insisted, God revealed Himself, and the mountain caught fire. The scene was so powerful that Moses fell down unconscious.”

Shri Nathji was fond of quoting the verse:

“Ab kyoon Moosaa hain gash men khaamosh,

paihle na samhal ke guftagoo ki!

“Why lies Moses silent in a stupor,

Should he not have conversed with care?”

Moses was, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed. Also called Moshe Rabbenu in Hebrew. He is the most important prophet in Judaism, and is also considered an important prophet in Christianity and Islam, as well as a number of other faiths.

According to the Book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when his people, the Children of Israel, were increasing in number and the Egyptian Pharaoh was worried that they might help Egypt's enemies. Moses' Hebrew mother, Jochebed, hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and the child was adopted as a foundling by the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave-master, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian where he encountered the God of Israel in the form of a "burning bush". God sent Moses to request the release of the Israelites. After the Ten Plagues, Moses led the Exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt and across the Red Sea, after which they based themselves at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. After 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses died within sight of the Promised Land.

Rabbinical Judaism calculated a lifespan of Moses corresponding to 1391–1271 BCE.

After Moses had reached adulthood, he saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew. Moses killed the Egyptian and buried his body in the sand. Moses soon discovered that the affair was known, and that Pharaoh was likely to put him to death for it; he then fled from Egypt across the Sinai Peninsula. In Midian he stopped at a well where he protected seven shepherdesses from a band of rude shepherds. The shepherdesses' father Hobab adopted him as his son. Hobab gave his daughter Zipporah to Moses in marriage, and made him the superintendent of his herds. Moses lived in Midian for forty years as a shepherd, during which time his son Gershom was born. One day, Moses led his flock to Mount Horeb. There he saw a bush that burned, but was not consumed. When Moses came to look more closely, God spoke to him from the bush, revealing his name to Moses. God commanded Moses to go to Egypt and deliver his fellow Hebrews from bondage

According to the Bible, after crossing the Red Sea and leading the Israelites towards the desert, Moses was summoned by God to Mount Sinai, also referred to as Mount Horeb, the same place where Moses had first talked to the Burning Bush, tended the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, and later produced water by striking the rock with his staff and directed the battle with the Amalekites.

Moses stayed on the mountain for 40 days and nights, a period in which he received the Ten Commandments directly from God. In Jewish tradition, Moses is referred to as "The Lawgiver" for this singular achievement of delivering the Ten Commandments.

A short video on the life of Moses can be viewed bellow: -