Legendy Židů - svazek 3

The third volume of the Legends of the Hebrews deals with "Moses in the wilderness". Louis Ginzberg has also applied his extraordinary knowledge of Jewish symbolism. In his own words: At the time the people of Israel came out of Egypt - when the house of Jacob broke away from the people speaking a foreign language - "Jacob became His sanctuary and Israel His dominion." Jewish legend attempts to describe how God's sanctuary, Israel's religion, and His dominion, i.e., the beginnings of Israel as a nation, gradually came into being in the period between the Exodus and the entry into the Holy Land. Moses is described here not only as Israel's greatest religious leader, but also as the first national leader; he is "the wisest of the wise, the father of the prophets," but also "king in the land of Jeshurun when the leaders of the people gathered together with the tribes of Israel." Hence Moses' unique position in Jewish legend, to which neither Abraham, the friend of God, nor Solomon, the wisest of men, nor Elijah, the helper in time of need, can lay claim. The great religious and national institutions, such as the Sabbath, the tabernacle, and the many other "commandments of God revealed to Moses," are intrinsically bound up with his life and work. Through the miracle of the manna, the sanctification of the Sabbath became an existential matter for Moses, and it was in fact he who erected the first tabernacle, the tent of meeting.

Czech edition