Moses: A Human Life (Jewish Lives)

Buber’s articulation of the paradox of prophecy comes to mind: “It is laid upon the stammering to bring the voice of Heaven to Earth?”

Not knowing underlies all of Pharaoh’s persecution policies.

the singularly masculine “man Moses,” who becomes the “man of God”—discovers in himself an essentially feminine dimension.

An epidemic of deafness makes language futile. How should Moses speak in such a world?

These words emerge “from out of the Burning Bush,” from the thorny complexity of human pain.

The creation of a third subject (that exists in tension with the writer and the reader as separate subjects) is the essence of the experience of reading.

His first response to God’s call is a dual one: “Here I am!” . . . “Who am I?” (Ex. 3:4, 11).

Precisely when he witnesses human suffering, a new fraternal consciousness arises within him. Once he allows himself to see, he arrives obliquely at a knowledge of brotherhood. This is the meaning of va-yigdal—“he grew”: this is his first crisis of maturation.

Unable to comprehend their own history, they cannot truly hear God’s message or speak their own redemption.