And so, we now wave goodbye in the Torah cycle to Yosef and move on to the book of Sh’mot (Exodus) and the life of Moshe (Moses). As an adopted child, the tale of Moshe has always held a bit of fascination for me.
Here’s a fellow born into a family of slaves, but through events he is unaware of most of his life, grows up knowing only the wealth and luxuries of life in the court of Pharaoh. We all know it happened, but how often does one take time to really ponder what it took for Moshe to walk away from that?
I mean, think about it. Food was plentiful. He could probably have married any woman – Egyptian or Semitic – he fancied. If he wanted to travel down the Nile on a yacht charter, he only needed to give the order. Life was easy, especially before he was anywhere close to an age where ascending to the throne was in the picture. Even then, the responsibilities of a Pharaoh were nothing strenuous compared to the duties of a Hebrew slave.
The B’rit haDashah book of Messianic Jews (Hebrews) calls this “forsaking the pleasures of sin for a season” and goes on to say that such selflessness was credited to him as righteousness. Yet does enjoying the only life you’ve ever known, a life of luxury, really qualify as sin? Say, on the same level as murder?
For most, perhaps not. But Moshe had a call on his life from haShem. To ignore that call? Sure, it would have been sin. But if one takes time to contemplate just how hard it was to walk away from all that, only then can one appreciate just how much Moshe gave up and how it could be “credited to him as righteousness” in the eyes of haShem.
Moshe is fascinating. I’m certainly glad to be digging into his life once again in the Torah cycle.
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