Do the titles \u201cmaster\u201d and \u201cteacher\u201d themselves affirm that he is larger than life, an individual forever of central importance, beginning with the events described in this week\u2019s Torah portion, Shemot<\/em> (Exodus 1:1-6:1), and continuing to this very day?<\/p>\nI prefer to believe that it is the suffix of the word \u201cRabbenu<\/em>,\u201d the \u201cnu<\/em>\u201d which means \u201cour,\u201d that makes Moshe special. He is \u201cour\u201d master, \u201cour\u201d teacher, the outstanding personage of the Jewish people. In a sense, he is the property of the faith of Judaism, to the exclusion of other faiths and other nations.<\/p>\nTrue, he is revered by our \u201csister\u201d religions and is honorably mentioned in their sacred writings. For other faiths, he is a prophet, a hero, perhaps even a \u201csaint.\u201d But he is not their teacher, not their masterful authority figure. The Torah, the comprehensive guide to every aspect of our lives as Jews, is Torat<\/em> Moshe<\/em>. The Torah is our guide in life, and Moshe is our shepherd.<\/p>\nMany of us are not aware of the fact that Moshe has been claimed by non-Jews besides the other Abrahamic religions. His very identity as a Jew, an Israelite, has been challenged from many directions. It has been maintained by many who argue that he was an Egyptian, a prince of Egypt, who sought further power and a loftier position of leadership by aligning himself with the enslaved Israelites.<\/p>\n
Such arguments were advanced in ancient times and persisted in recent generations in German literature and in Hollywood productions.<\/p>\n
One fascinating argument for Moshe\u2019s non-Jewish origins was advanced by a famous Jew who had his own bone to pick with religion in general and with Jewish religion in particular. I refer to Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, and the author of Moses and Monotheism<\/em>.<\/p>\nFreud published this work later in his life, when his influence and fame were at their peak, and it met with approval from many quarters. It also met with a cascade of criticism and vociferous opposition from defenders of the Jewish faith, those who insisted that Moshe was Rabbenu<\/em>, \u201cour\u201d teacher.<\/p>\nOne such critic was a mid-twentieth century writer named Chaim Greenberg (1889-1953). Greenberg was a Labor Zionist activist and prolific writer who was among the most severe critics of the American Jewish community\u2019s response to news of the Holocaust. Although some of his many writings have been translated into English, I possess a multi-volume collection of his Yiddish essays that I find very perceptive, and that express many traditional Jewish values in a manner which only the Yiddish language can fully capture.<\/p>\n
Greenberg wrote a searing rebuttal to Freud\u2019s thesis in 1939, going so far as to mock it as nonsense. I do not know whether his rebuttal had any great impact upon the rest of the world, which was then distracted, to say the least, by the rise of Nazism. But I do know that many Jews were grateful to Greenberg for demolishing Freud\u2019s contention that not only was Moshe an Egyptian, but that monotheism itself had its origins in ancient Egyptian culture.<\/p>\n
I imagine that many Jews were then quite pleased that Greenberg\u2019s rebuttal issued from a distinctly non-rabbinic source, from a Labor Zionist publicist with impeccable secular credentials. I should add that my readings of Greenberg\u2019s many works have led me to admire his Yiddishe<\/em> neshama<\/em> and thorough familiarity with a wide range of traditional Torah sources.<\/p>\nThe rebuttal to which I refer is included in Greenberg\u2019s collection of essays entitled Yid un Velt<\/em> (\u201cThe Jew and the World\u201d). The title of the essay is \u201cMoshe Rabbenu Foon Der Gantzer Velt<\/em>\u201d (\u201cMoses Our Teacher of the Entire World\u201d). Note the implication that although Moshe had universal impact, he remained Rabbenu<\/em>, \u201cour\u201d teacher.<\/p>\nBut the essay\u2019s title comes from a long-forgotten Yiddish nursery rhyme, which translates as follows:<\/p>\n
Moshe Rabbenu of the entire world (velt<\/em>),<\/p>\nThrow me down a small sack of money (gelt<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n What will you do with the small sack of money?<\/p>\n
I will buy myself a little wagon.<\/p>\n
What will you do with the little wagon?<\/p>\n
I will load it with little pebbles.<\/p>\n
What will you do with little pebbles?<\/p>\n
I will build myself a little shul<\/em>.<\/p>\n What will you do in the little shul<\/em>?<\/p>\n I will daven Mincha<\/em> and Maariv<\/em>!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\nThe meaning of this childlike poem is quite clear. The child conceives of Moshe as simultaneously \u201cour\u201d Teacher and the Teacher of the entire universe. But he carries within his pure and innocent soul the conviction that the ultimate \u201cuniverse\u201d is the little shul<\/em> and the Jewish evening prayers!<\/p>\nMy experience as a child psychologist has led me to take children\u2019s songs, nursery rhymes, and fairy tales quite seriously. But the long-forgotten song I just shared with you is merely the opening of Greenberg\u2019s long-forgotten essay.<\/p>\n
After commenting with his own sense of pride in the Jewish Moshe Rabbenu<\/em>, he shares this comment from the works of the greatest of all Jewish poets, Rabbi YehudaHaLevi. Here is what he writes, in my own inadequate translation from his lucid and vibrant Yiddish:<\/p>\n\u201cHow did Rabbi Yehuda HaLevi put it so many centuries ago? He insisted that Israel received its place in world history not thanks to Moshe Rabbenu<\/em>. Quite the contrary\u2014Moshe Rabbenu<\/em> became great because of Israel! Therefore, Jews refer to themselves not as Moshe\u2019s people, but as God\u2019s people.<\/p>\n\u201cMoshe alone, without a people prepared to accept the Torah and travel with him to Mount Sinai, would never have become Moshe Rabbenu<\/em>! His teachings would have been neglected and forgotten by world history.\u201d<\/p>\nMoshe owed his glory to the Jewish people who followed him into the desert and who follow him to this day. Therefore, the Jewish people \u201cown\u201d him. He was, and remains, Rabbenu<\/em>\u2014 \u201cour\u201d teacher.<\/p>\nIndeed, \u201cTorah tziva lanu Moshe, morasha Kehilat Yaakov<\/em>. The Torah Moshe commanded us is the heritage of the Congregation of Yaakov\u201d. (Deuteronomy<\/em> 33).<\/p>\n
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