Moses: A Life

Rating:
Summary: Kirsch is a detached biographer...
Review: ...too bad he is not a more passionate writer. He seems to miss so many crucial elements in the life of Moses. Yes, there is much missing about this great man known and loved by millions, but Kirsch seems to exult in the petty. He writes as an uninvolved observer of this extraordinary man. There is no love, no passion, no sense of deep respect for Moses in this text. I kept waiting for the page that would reveal some astonishing, delightful insight into this spiritual giant but I read in vain.
Kirsch chooses wonderful subjects but leaves the reader with less information and more questions than when they first picked up the book. More insightful and intiguing studies have been done on the life of Moses. I suggest looking elsewhere for inspiration, no offense to Kirsch.

Rating:
Summary: A Journey to the Top of the Mountain
Review: At this time of year, many of us will dust off our video copy of DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, prop our children in front of the tube, and bask in the glorious figure of Moses a la Hollywood.

But perhaps our time would be better spent getting to know the enigmatic figure presented in the Bible.

Jonathan Kirsch's book MOSES: A LIFE helps us to do just that. In clear prose, Kirsch attempts to knit together a portrait of one of the most influential figures in Western Culture...a figure who may not have even existed.

In so doing, Kirsch draws not only upon the Bible but also on other records related to the man credited with delivering God's Law. These sources include rabbinical literature as well as the writings of philosophers (Philo, Freud). While the result is not without its puzzles, the overall effect is that of understanding. It is perhaps fitting that Yahweh, the enigmatic God of the Hebrews, should pick as his messenger a man as complex and contradictory as himself.

Kirsch does not flinch from recounting these contradictions (nor does he allow sympathy for his subject to cloud the fact that no contemporary record of Moses--outside of the Bible--exists). Further, he is not above explaining some of the darker passages of Holy Writ--including God's attempted murder of the messenger he had just chosen to deliver his people (a truly bizarre and difficult passage). As a result, the popular myths about Moses fall. But what remains is a figure far more interesting.

Kirsch does assume that the reader is somewhat familiar with the J, E, P, D composition of the Pentatuch (a theory now widely accepted and explained very well in Friedman's WHO WROTE THE BIBLE?), and, at times, his examinations of rabbinical special pleading are tedious. But, overall, MOSES: A LIFE is a highly readable and interesting work, with much to offer for non-fundamentalist believers and non-believers alike.

Rating:
Summary: Don't read the ending
Review: Kirsch has provided an excellent resource on Moses. He details the life of Moses from scripture, then highlighting it and detailing it with Rabbinical additions, apocryphal stories, and the latest scholarly research. If he had left it with that, this book would be a must for anyone who cares about any of the top three monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. But in his summing-up, Kirsch beats us over the head with his own sanctimonious preaching, criticizing points of view he apparently doesn't understand or want us to. His rambling and occasionally spiteful insights may be applauded by those who think of religions as toilet paper -- all brands are pretty much the same and what matters is not the brand but your choice thereof -- but sincere Jews, Christians, and Moslems who actually believe what they say they believe (which is the modern definition of an extremist) will find these self-righteous musings a slap in the face. As far as the writing, there's too little variety of language, and words like "complied" and "ranted" become monotonous. Otherwise, the book is a good resource for beginning a study of Moses; and one should locate and read his sources more thoroughly than this book itself, which should go on the shelf with dictionaries and concordances, books that are good to have around when you need them but which you don't need to read through.

Rating:
Summary: The Real Moses? Who Knows!
Review: Since there is no archeological evidence that Moses ever existed, author Jonathan Kirsch uses the words of the bible,together with modern biblical scholarship to re-create the great prophet who exists between the lines of scripture. Kirsch goes through each chapter of the bible beginning with the book of Exodus and ending with the book of Deuteronomy and shows where various traditions and counter-traditions might have intersected. He shows the Moses who is portrayed as a great hero by the "Deuteronomist" and the Moses whose role is diminished by the "Priestly source." He discusses virtually every theory including the theory that their were two Moses and the first was murdered! This is surely not the book to read if you are a bible literalist (or an Orthodox Jew) and I certainly don't agree with all his points, being partial to the biblical story myself. But Kirsch is a lively writer and it is an interesting read nonetheless, as is Kirsch's "King David".

Rating:
Summary: Did Moses have horns?
Review: This book focuses in on more then Moses' life. If it just did that, you wouldn't need to buy it, you could just read a Bible. Instead, in "Moses, A Life", the author discusses Moses' life, from the perspective of many different people. Some of these stories are funny, others shocking, but they were all educational and insightful

My favorite passage in this book was the fact that, apparently, in some Bibles it says that Moses has horns. The author relates an experience where someone was starring at him, looking for horns, because the author is Jewish. It strikes me as a very funny scene. Yet, at the same time, it is sad. Here was someone, who read the Bible and took it very seriously, apparently mislead by a bad translation. How many people may have been mislead about more serious parts of the Bible?

In truth, according to this author, the Bible says that Moses was marked by his talks with God. After Moses meet with God, Moses covered his face. People who saw his face were shocked. It was this experience that was translated as Moses having horns. I never knew that Moses had to keep his face covered and also never knew that others thought Moses had horns. As such, items like this made this book very interesting to me.

There are many other examples. Did you know that God tried to kill Moses after he picked him to be his spokeperson to the Pharoah? Did you know that some believe Moses was a prince of Ethiopia? Did you know that the Jewish leaders may have had a secret code, which was given to Moses by God? Otherwise, how did he prove, to them, that he was God's messenger?

If you like interesting facts like this, you will enjoy this book. If you, however, are looking for a religious book, this book may not be you. This is not a book on theology. It is a book about history or religious history. If that is the type of book you like, you will love Mose's, A Life. For these types of people, I recommend it.