The Biblical character Moses, who led the Israelites out of Egypt and through their wanderings in the wilderness, is discussed extensively in rabbinic literature. Such literature and commentaries contain various expansions, elaborations, and inferences beyond what is presented in the Bible itself.
Overview
Of all Biblical personages, Moses has been chosen most frequently as the subject of later legends, and his life has been recounted in full midrashic detail in the poetic Aggadah. As liberator, lawgiver, and leader of the Children of Israel, who he transformed from an unorganized horde into a nation, he occupies a more important place in popular legend than the Patriarchs and all the other national heroes.JewishEncyclopedia.com - MOSES His many-sided activity also offered more abundant scope for imaginative embellishment. A cycle of legends has been woven around nearly every trait of his character and every event of his life, and groups of the most different and often contradictory stories have been connected with his career.
Biography The beginnings
Moses's influence and activity reach back to the days of the Creation. Heaven and earth were created only for his sake.Leviticus Rabbah 36:4 The account of the creation of the water on the second day, therefore, does not close with the usual formula—"And God saw that it was good”—because God foresaw that Moses would suffer through the water.Genesis Rabbah 4:8 Although Noah was not worthy of being saved from the Flood, he was saved nevertheless because Moses was destined to descend from him.Genesis Rabbah 26:15 The angels that Jacob in his nocturnal vision saw ascending to and descending from heaven were really Moses and Aaron.Genesis Rabbah 68:16
The birth of Moses as the liberator of the people of Israel was foretold to Pharaoh by his soothsayers, in consequence of which he issued the cruel command to cast all the male children into the river.Exodus 1:22 Later on, Miriam also foretold to her father, Amram, that a son would be born to him who would liberate Israel from the yoke of Egypt.Sotah 11b, 12a; Megillah 14a; Exodus Rabbah 1:24; Sefer ha-Yashar Shemot, pp. 111a, 112b; compare Josephus, "Antiquities" 2:9, § 3
Moses was born on Adar 7,Talmud Megillah 13b in the year 2377 after the creation of the world.Book of Jubilees, 47:1 He was born circumcised,Sotah 12a and was able to walk immediately after his birth;Yalkut Shimoni, Wayelek, 940 but according to another story he was circumcised on the eighth day after birth.Pirkei De-Rabbi Eliezer 48 A peculiar and glorious light filled the entire house at his birth,ib.; Sefer ha-Yashar p. 112b indicating that he was worthy of the gift of prophecy.Sotah l.c. He spoke with his father and mother on the day of his birth and prophesied at the age of three.Midrash Petirat Mosheh, in Jellinek, "B. H." 1:128 His mother kept his birth secret for three months when Pharaoh was informed that she had borne a son. The mother put the child into a casket, which she hid among the reeds of the sea before the king's officers came to her.Jubilees, l.c. 47; Chronicle of Moses in Jellinek, "B. H." 2:3; Sefer ha-Yashar p. 112b For seven days his mother went to him at night to nurse him, his sister Miriam protecting him from the birds by day.Jubilees, l.c. 4
Rescue by Pharaoh's daughter
Then God sent a fierce heat upon Egypt,Chronicle of Moses l.c. and Pharaoh's daughter Bithiah,compare I Chronicles 4:18; Tarmut [Thermutis], according to Josephus, l.c. and Jubilees, l.c. who was afflicted with leprosy, went to bathe in the river. Hearing a child cry, she beheld a casket in the reeds. She caused it to be brought to her and, on touching it, was cured of her leprosy.Exodus Rabbah 1:27 For this reason, she was kindly disposed toward the child. When she opened the casket, she was astonished at his beauty,Philo, "Vita Mosis," 2 and saw the Shekinah with him.Exodus Rabbah 1:28 Noticing that the child was circumcised, she knew that the parents must have been Hebrews.Sotah 12b
Gabriel struck Moses to make him cry and arouse the pity of the princess. She wished to save the child, but as her maids told her she must not transgress her father's commands, she set him down again.Midrash Abkir, in Yalkut Shimoni, Exodus 166 Then Gabriel threw all her maids down;Sotah 12b; Exodus Rabbah 1:27 and God filled Bithiah with compassion,Yalkut Shimoni, l.c. and caused the child to find favor in her eyes.Midrash Vayosha in Jellinek, l.c. 1:41 She took the child up, saved him, and loved him much.Exodus Rabbah l.c. This was on the sixth day of the month of Sivan; according to another version, on Nisan 21.ib.
When the soothsayers told Pharaoh that the redeemer of Israel had been born and thrown into the water, the cruel edict ordering that the children be thrown into the river was repealed.Exodus Rabbah 1:29; Sotah l.c. Thus, the casting away of Moses saved Israel from further persecution. According to another version, 600,000 children had already been thrown into the river, but all were saved because of Moses.Genesis Rabbah 97:5
His upbringing
Bithiah, Pharaoh's daughter, took the child to nurse him, but he refused the breast.Midrash Vayosha l.c. Then she gave him to other Egyptian women to nurse, but he refused to take nourishment from any of them.Josephus, l.c. 2:9, § 5; Sefer ha-Yashar p. 112b; Sotah 12b; Chronicle of Moses p. 3 The mouth destined to speak with God might not take unclean milk.Sotah l.c.; Chronicle of Moses l.c. Bithiah, therefore, gave him to his mother to nurse.
Another legend says that he did not take any milk from his breasts. Bithiah then adopted him as her son.Sefer ha-Yashar p. 113b Aside from the name "Moses" which Bithiah gave to him,Exodus 2:10 he had seven names,Leviticus Rabbah 1:3 or according to other stories ten, other names given to him by his mother, his father, his brother Aaron, his sister Miriam, his nurse, his grandfather Kehat, and Israel.Chronicle of Moses p. 3; Sefer ha-Yashar p. 112b; Megillah 13a These names were: Jared, Abi Gedor, Ḥeber, Abi Soko, Jekuthiel, Abi Zanoah, and Shemaiah ("Shama 'Yah" meaning "God has heard"), the last one being given to him by Israel. He was also called "Heman".[i.e., נאמן; Numbers 12:7] Bava Batra 15a
Moses was a very large child at the age of three.Exodus Rabbah 1:32; compare Josephus; l.c.; Philo, l.c. At this age, sitting at the king's table in the presence of several princes and counselors, he took the crown from Pharaoh's head and placed it on his own.Chronicle of Moses l.c.; for another version see Midrash Vayosha l.c. The princes were horrified at the boy's act, and the soothsayer said that this was the same boy who, by their former predictions, would destroy the kingdom of Pharaoh and liberate Israel.Josephus, l.c.; Midrash Vayosha l.c. Balaam and Jethro were at that time also among the king's counselors.Sotah 11a; Sanhedrin 106 Balaam advised the king to kill the boy at once, but Jethro (other sources say it was Gabriel in the guise of one of the king's counselors) noted that the boy should first be examined, to see whether he had sense enough to have done such an act intentionally. All agreed with this advice. A shining piece of gold, a precious stone, and a live coal was placed on a plate before the boy to see which of the two he would choose. The angel Gabriel then guided his hand to the coal, which he took up and put into his mouth. This burned his tongue, causing him difficulty in speaking;compare Exodus 4:10 but it saved his life.Midrash Vayosha l.c.; Chronicle of Moses l.c.; Sefer ha-Yashar l.c.; Exodus Rabbah 1:31
Moses remained in Pharaoh's house fifteen years longer.Chronicle of Moses l.c.; Midrash Vayosha l.c. According to the Book of Jubilees, he learned the Ashuri script from his father, Amram. During his sojourn in the king's palace, he often went to his brethren, the slaves of the Pharaoh, to share their sad lot. He helped anyone who bore a heavy burden or was too weak for his work. He reminded Pharaoh that an enslaved person was entitled to some rest and begged him to grant the Israelites one free day in the week. Pharaoh acceded to this request, and Moses accordingly instituted Shabbat as a day of rest for the Israelites.Exodus Rabbah 1:32; Sefer ha-Yashar p. 115a
Flight from Egypt
Moses' killing of the Egyptian was not considered murder, for the Egyptian merited death because he had forced an Israelite woman to commit adultery with him.Exodus Rabba 1:33 Moses was at that time eighteen years of age.Chronicle of Moses l.c.; "Midrash Vayosha" l.c.; "Book of Jasher" l.c. According to another version, Moses was then twenty, or possibly forty, years of age.Exodus Rabba 1:32, 35 These divergent opinions regarding his age at the time when he killed the Egyptian are based upon different estimates of the length of his stay in the royal palace,Yalkut Shimoni, Shemot, 167; Genesis Rabba 11 both of them assuming that he fled from Egypt immediately after the slaying.
Dathan and Abiram were bitter enemies of Moses, insulting him and saying he should not act as if he were a member of the royal house since he was the son not of Bithiah, but of Jochebed. Previous to this, they had slandered him before Pharaoh. Pharaoh had forgiven Moses for everything else but would not forgive him for killing the Egyptian. He delivered him to the executioner, who chose a very sharp sword with which to kill Moses, but the latter's neck became like a marble pillar, dulling the edge of the sword."Midrash Vayosha" l.c. Meanwhile, the angel Michael descended from Heaven and took the form of the executioner, giving the latter the shape of Moses and so killing him. He then took up Moses and carried him beyond the frontier of Egypt for a distance of three, or, according to another account, of forty days.Chronicle of Moses l.c.; "Book of Jasher" p. 115b According to another legend, the angel took the shape of Moses and allowed himself to be caught, thus allowing the real Moses to escape.Mekhilta, Yitro. 1 [ed. Weiss. 66a]; Exodus Rabba 1:36
King in Ethiopia
The fugitive Moses went to the camp of King Nikanos, or Kikanos, of Ethiopia, who was at that time besieging his own capital, which had been traitorously seized by Balaam and his sons and made impregnable by them through magic. Moses joined the army of Nikanos, and the king and all his generals took a fancy to him because he was as courageous as a lion, and his face gleamed like the sun."Book of Jasher" p. 116a; compare Bava Batra 75a
When Moses spent nine years in the army, King Nikanos died, and the Hebrews were made general. He took the city, driving out Balaam and his sons Jannes and Jambres, and was proclaimed king by the Ethiopians. He was obliged, in deference to the wishes of the people, to marry Nikanos' widow, Adoniya,compare with whom he did not, however, cohabit.Chronicle of Moses l.c.; "Book of Jasher" p. 116b Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses on account of the Cushite (Ethiopian) woman whom he had married. He became king at age 27 and ruled Ethiopia for 40 years, considerably increasing the country's power. After forty years, his wife, Queen Adoniya, accused him before the princes and generals of not having cohabited with her during the many years of their marriage and of never having worshiped the Ethiopian gods. She called upon the princes not to suffer a stranger among them as king but to make her son by Nikanos, Munahas, or Munakaros, king. The princes complied with her wishes but dismissed Moses in peace, giving him great treasures. Moses, now 67 years old, went from Ethiopia to Midian.