Something About Moses

“Suddenly it’s, 

‘I no longer have 

the chains of this role 

and 

this responsibility,’

He doesn’t have to be THAT Superman anymore.”

Moses KNEW he couldn’t create 

a Society of Free Men 

from a Generation 

born as slaves.

…So Moses kept His People wandering [in The Desert] 

until The Previous Generation has DIED.

From The Nile to The Borders of Canan at Gaza 

is an 8 Day Walk.

Moses made them walk round and around 

in circles in The Desert 

for 40 Years.

Rameses, Prince of Egypt :

The Slave who would be King. 

Captain, The Robe of State.

 

His Hebrew Mother brought it to the prison 

before she died. 

Kindly Old Soldier :

I'd rather this be Your Armor. 

Rameses, Prince of Egypt :

You will have need of A Scepter. 

Give me this binding pole. 

Here is your King's Scepter, 

and here is Your Kingdom, 

with The Scorpion, The Cobra, 

and The Lizard for subjects. 

Free them, if you will. 

Leave the Hebrews to me. 

Give this Prince of Israel one day's ration 

of bread and water. 

Kindly Old Soldier :

One day's ration? 

It will take many days to cross This Wilderness, 

if he can cross at all. 

Rameses, Prince of Egypt :

I commend You to Your Hebrew God 

who has No Name. 

If you die, it will be by His Hand, 

not by mine. 

Farewell, my one-time brother. 

Hyah! 

Into the blistering wilderness of Shur, 

The Man Who Walked with Kings now walks alone. 

Torn from the pinnacle of royal power, 

stripped of all rank and earthly wealth, 

a forsaken man without a country, without a hope, 

his soul in turmoil like the hot winds and raging sands that lash him with the fury of a taskmaster's whip. 

He is driven forward, always forward, 

by a God unknown, 

toward a land unseen... 

Into the molten wilderness of sin, 

where granite sentinels 

stand as towers of living death 

to bar his way. 

Each night brings 

the black embrace 

of loneliness. 

In the mocking whisper of the wind, 

he hears the echoing voices of the dark... 

Moses! Moses! Moses! 

Moses! Moses! Moses! 

His tortured mind wondering if they call 

the memory of past triumphs 

or wail foreboding of disasters yet to come 

or whether the desert's hot breath 

has melted his reason into madness. 

He cannot cool the burning kiss of thirst upon his lips nor shade the scorching fury of the sun. 

All about is Desolation. 

He can neither bless nor curse 

the power that moves him, 

for he does not know from where it comes. 

Learning that it can be more terrible 

to live than to die, 

he is driven onward through 

the burning crucible of desert, 

where holy men and prophets 

are cleansed and purged 

for God's Great Purpose --

Until at last, 

at the end of human strength, 

beaten into the dust 

from which he came, 

The Metal is ready 

for The Maker's Hand. 

And he found strength 

from a fruit-laden palm tree... 

and life-giving water flowing from 

The Well of Midian. 

Our Father is Jethro. 

He's Sheik of Midian. 

Jethro, Sheik of Midian :

Strength to you, Stranger. 

Moses :

I am Moses, 

Son of Amram & Yochabel. 

Health, Prosperity, 

Life to You, Jethro of Midian. 

Jethro, Sheik of Midian :

Sephora has told me of Your Kindness. 

Let us break bread while my daughter brings meat. 

You have come far.

 

Moses :

From Egypt. 

Jethro, Sheik of Midian :

Across The Desert on foot? 

He Who Has No Name surely guided your steps. 

Moses :

No Name. 

You Bedouins know 

The God of Abraham? 

Jethro, Sheik of Midian :

Abraham is The Father 

of many Nations. 

We are The Children of Ishmael, 

His Firstborn. 

We are The Obedient of God. 

Moses :

My People look to Him for Deliverance... 

but they are still in bondage. 

Jethro, Sheik of Midian :

Tomorrow we leave for the high pastures beneath God's Holy Mountain. 

My Tent would be favored 

if you joined us.

 Moses :

I am A Stranger in a strange land. 

I have no wealth, no skill as A Shepherd, and it is Death to give sanctuary to a runaway slave. 

Jethro, Sheik of Midian :

Slave? Death? 

Not among Our People. 

You have Wisdom. 

You need nothing more. 

And There are Seven here 

to teach you the tasks of A Shepherd. 

Sephora is The Eldest. 

You can learn best from her. 

Moses :

Oh. I will dwell in This Land. 

•••••

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

Today he sleeps. 

Moses :

Who sleeps? 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

He who has no name. 

Moses :

Does your god live on this mountain? 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

Sinai is his high place, his temple. 

Moses :

If this god is God, he would live on every mountain, in every valley. 

He would not be only the god of Israel or Ishmael alone, but of all men. 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

It is said he created all men in his image. 

Moses :

Then he would dwell in every heart, in every mind, in every soul. 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

I do not know about such things, but I do know that the mountain rumbles when God is there, and the earth trembles, and the cloud is red with fire. 

Moses :

At such a time, has any man ever gone to see him face-to-face? 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

No man has ever set foot on the forbidden slopes of Sinai. 

Why do you want to see him, Moses? 

Moses :

To know that He Is. 

And if he is, to know why he has not heard the cries of slaves in bondage. 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

Moses, it would be death to look upon his face. 

Moses :

How many of my people have died 

because he has turned away his face? 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

Can a man judge God? 

No, Moses. We cannot see his whole purpose. 

Even Ishmael did not know that God drove him into the desert to be the father of a nation. 

Is it not enough to know that he has saved you from the Pharaoh's anger? 

Moses :

How do you know that? 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

You walk like a prince, and you fight like a warrior. 

There is word in the caravans of a great one who was driven out of Egypt. 

Moses :

This is not the scepter of a prince, 

but the staff of a wanderer. 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

Then rest from wandering. 

My father has many flocks and no son to tend them. 

There would be peace of spirit for you, Moses, in our tents beneath the holy mountain. 

Moses :

You have strong faith in this god, Sephora... 

but for me, there is no peace of spirit 

until I hear the word of God from God himself. 

Moses :

In The Tent of Jethro, 

there is Dignity, Honor, 

Freedom, and Beauty... 

All that a man could ask of life, 

but my heart is still a prisoner of the past. 

I... I cannot choose now. 

Strength to You, Sheiks of Sinai. 

Strength to You, Sheiks of Sinai. 

May God guide Your Heart. 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

Oh, Moses! 

Tonight He is awake. 

Which of my sisters did you choose? 

Moses :

I made no choice, Sephora. 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

She was very beautiful, wasn't she? 

This woman of Egypt, who left her scar upon your heart. 

Her skin was white as curd, her eyes green as the cedars of Lebanon, her lips, tamarisk honey. 

Like the breast of a dove, her arms were soft... 

and the wine of desire was in her veins. 

Moses :

Yes. She was beautiful... 

as A Jewel. 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

A Jewel has brilliant fire, 

but it gives no warmth. 

Our Hands are not so Soft, 

but they can serve. 

Our Bodies not so White, 

but they are strong. 

Our lips are not perfumed, 

but they Speak The Truth. 

Love is not an art to us. 

It's Life to Us. 

We are not dressed in gold and fine linen. 

Strength and Honor are our clothing. 

Our tents are not the columned halls of Egypt, 

but our children play happily before them. 

We can offer you little... 

but we offer all we have. 

Moses :

I have not little, Sephora. 

I have nothing. 

Sephora, 

Daughter of Jethro :

Nothing from some... 

is more than Gold from others.

"Stories become unforgettable when they communicate sophisticated modes of being — complex problems and equally complex solutions — that we perceive, consciously, in pieces, but cannot fully articulate. It was for this reason, for example, that the biblical story of Moses and the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt became such a powerful touchstone for black slaves seeking emancipation in the United States:

  Go down, Moses, way down in Egypt land

  Tell old Pharaoh

  To let my people go.

  The biblical story of Exodus is properly regarded as archetypal (or paradigmatic or foundational) by psychoanalytic and religious thinkers alike, because it presents an example of psychological and social transformation that cannot be improved upon. It emerged as a product of imagination and has been transformed by constant collective retelling and reworking into an ultimately meaningful form that applies politically, economically, historically, personally, and spiritually, all at the same time. 

This is the very definition of literary depth—something that reaches its apogee in certain forms of ancient, traditional stories. 

The fact of that depth means that such accounts can be used diversely as a meaningful frame for any process of profound change experienced by any individual or society (stable state, descent into chaos, reestablishment of stability), and can lend that process multidimensional reality, context, powerful meaning, and motivation.

 The Emergence of the Unforgettable

  How might an unforgettable story come to be? What might precede its revelation? It is at the very least the consequence of a long period of observation. Imagine a scientist monitoring the behavior of a wolf pack, or a troop of chimps—indeed, any group of complex social animals. He or she attempts to identify regularities in the behavior of the individuals and the group (patterns, in a word) and to articulate those regularities—to encapsulate them in language. The scientist might first relate a series of anecdotes about animal actions emblematic of the general behavior of the species. He or she might then abstract even further, attempting to generalize across anecdotes with rule-like descriptions. 

I say “rule-like” because the animals are not following rules. Rules require language. Animals are merely acting out regularities. They cannot formulate, understand, or follow rules.

  But human beings? We can observe ourselves acting, as a scientist might — more accurately, as A Storyteller might. Then we can tell the stories to each other. 

The stories are already distillations of observed behavior (if they are not distillations, they will not be interesting; relating a sequence of everyday actions does not make for a good story). Once the story is established, we can analyze it, looking for deeper patterns and regularities. 

If that analysis is successful, we can generalize across anecdotes with the formulation of rules, and then we can learn, consciously, to follow those rules. 

Here is how this might happen. We all react judgmentally when a child or adult—or, indeed, a society—is acting improperly, unfairly, or badly. The error strikes us emotionally. We intuit that a pattern upon which individual and social adaptation depends has been disrupted and violated. We are annoyed, frustrated, hurt, or grief-stricken at the betrayal. This does not mean that each of us, reacting emotionally, has been successful at articulating a comprehensive philosophy of good and evil. We may never put our finger on what has gone wrong. However, like children unfamiliar with a new game but still able to play it, we know that the rules are being broken.

  Something precisely like this is portrayed in the biblical story of Exodus, the ancient account of the flight of the Hebrew slaves from their Egyptian masters. Moses, who leads the escaping people, is continually called upon by his followers to draw very fine moral distinctions when they struggle with one another and seek his advice. In consequence, he spends a very long time observing and contemplating their behavior. It is as if the desert prophet had to discover what rules he and his Israelite followers were already struggling to act out, prior to his receipt of the explicit commandments from God. Remember: Every society is already characterized by patterned behavior; otherwise it would be pure conflict and no “society” at all. But the mere fact that social order reigns to some degree does not mean that a given society has come to explicitly understand its own behavior, its own moral code. 

It is therefore no accident that in this story Moses serves as A Judge for his followers — and does so with sufficient duration and intensity to exhaust himself — before he receives the Ten Commandments:

  And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses sat to Judge The People: and The People stood by Moses from the morning unto the evening.

  And when Moses’ Father in Law saw all that he did to The People, he said, "What is this thing that thou doest to The People? Why sittest Thou thyself alone, and all The People stand by thee from morning unto even?"

  And Moses said unto his Father in Law, "Because The People come unto me to inquire of God:

  When they have a matter, they come unto me; and I Judge between one and another, and I do make them know The Statutes of God, and His Laws."

  And Moses’ Father in Law said unto him, "The thing that thou doest is not good.

  Thou wilt surely wear away, both Thou, and This People that is with thee: for this thing is too heavy for thee; Thou art not able to perform it thyself alone." (Exodus 18: 13–18)

  This difficult exercise in discrimination and judgment, observing and weighing, is an integral part of what prepared the biblical patriarch for the receipt of divine revelation. 

If there had been no behavioral base for those rules — no historical precedent codified in traditional ethics, no conventions, and no endless hours of observation of the moral patterns — the commandments simply could not have been understood and communicated, much less obeyed.

  An unforgettable story captures the essence of Humanity and distills, communicates, and clarifies it, bringing what we are and what we should be into focus. It Speaks to Us, motivating the attention that inspires us to imitate. We learn to see and act in the manner of the heroes of the stories that captivate us. 

These stories call to capacities that lie deep within our nature but might still never develop without that call. 

We are dormant adventurers, lovers, leaders, artists, and rebels, but need to discover that we are all those things by seeing the reflection of such patterns in dramatic and literary form. That is part of being a creature that is part nature and part culture. 

An unforgettable story advances our capacity to understand our behavior, beyond habit and expectation, toward an imaginative and then verbalized understanding. Such a story presents us in the most compelling manner with The Ultimate Adventure, the divine romance, and the eternal battle between good and evil. 

All this helps us clarify our understanding of moral and immoral attitude and action, personal and social. This can be seen everywhere, and always.

  Question: Who are you — or, at least, who could you be?

Answer: Part of the eternal force that constantly confronts the terrible unknown, voluntarily; part of the eternal force that transcends naivete and becomes dangerous enough, in a controlled manner, to understand evil and beard it in its lair; and part of the eternal force that faces chaos and turns it into productive order, or that takes order that has become too restrictive, reduces it to chaos, and renders it productive once again.

  And all of this, being very difficult to understand consciously but vital to our survival, is transmitted in the form of the stories that we cannot help but attend to. And it is in this manner that we come to apprehend what is of value, what we should aim at, and what we could be."