Moses: A Human Life

by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg

Overview

From the prizewinning Jewish Lives series, an unprecedented portrait of Moses's inner world and perplexing character, by a distinguished biblical scholar

No figure looms larger in Jewish culture than Moses, and few have stories more enigmatic. Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, acclaimed for her many books on Jewish thought, turns her attention to Moses in this remarkably rich, evocative book.
 
Drawing on a broad range of sources—literary as well as psychoanalytic, a wealth of classical Jewish texts alongside George Eliot, W. G. Sebald, and Werner Herzog—Zornberg offers a vivid and original portrait of the biblical Moses. Moses's vexing personality, his uncertain origins, and his turbulent relations with his own people are acutely explored by Zornberg, who sees this story, told and retold, as crucial not only to the biblical past but also to the future of Jewish history.

About Jewish Lives: 

Jewish Lives is a prizewinning series of interpretative biography designed to explore the many facets of Jewish identity. Individual volumes illuminate the imprint of Jewish figures upon literature, religion, philosophy, politics, cultural and economic life, and the arts and sciences. Subjects are paired with authors to elicit lively, deeply informed books that explore the range and depth of the Jewish experience from antiquity to the present.

In 2014, the Jewish Book Council named Jewish Lives the winner of its Jewish Book of the Year Award, the first series ever to receive this award.

More praise for Jewish Lives:

"Excellent." –New York Times

"Exemplary." –Wall Street Journal

"Distinguished." –New Yorker

"Superb." –The Guardian

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300225129
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	11/22/2016
Series:	Jewish Lives
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	224
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg lectures on the Hebrew Bible and rabbinic thought at academic, psychoanalytic, and Jewish educational institutions around the world. In 1995 she received the National Jewish Book Award for Genesis: The Beginning of Desire.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Identities 9

2 The Murmuring Deep 48

3 Moses Veiled and Unveiled 73

4 Moses in the Family: Mirrors and Foils 106

5 "Moses wrote his own book," 147

Notes 195

General Index 211

Scriptural Index 221

Editorial Reviews

The subtitle of Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg's new biography of Moses…is a tribute to Kafka. By casting her psychological portrait of the prophet under the auspices of the Prague writer, Zornberg ushers the reader into the sinuous, metaphysical angst of a man facing the divine and the elusive meaning of life. A celebrated biblical scholar, keen on weaving together traditional Jewish exegesis, psychoanalysis and postmodern criticism, Zornberg always displays minute attention to the psychological subtext of the Scriptures. Her previous work, Bewilderments, had already captured Moses in the desert, ridden by skepticism. Expanding her inquiry to his whole existence in this current book, she shows how Moses' flaws and shortcomings function as a metaphor for humanity as he confronts God's will and struggles to convey his word…Bringing together copious, diverse and sometimes dissonant references (spanning Hasidic masters, George Eliot, Zizek and Beckett, among others), Zornberg gives a new tour of the life of Moses.

The New York Times Book Review - Clémence Boulouque

★ 10/10/2016
In this slim volume, acclaimed scholar and lecturer Zornberg (Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers) offers another richly textured and nuanced biblical study. Early on she sets an academic tone, writing of Moses that “he exists in a metonymic relation to the relation to the people who are, at first, both his and not his.” That kind of language will be a barrier to some, but those who persist will find Zornberg’s illuminating use of both midrash and literary sources, such as George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda and W.G. Sebald’s Austerlitz, worth the effort. She gives her commentary immediacy not usually found in similar titles by opening with an anecdote about her affecting experience during a rabbinical retreat, where she envisioned Moses pleading with God to allow him to enter the promised land. That blend of the personal and scholarly supports her ultimate argument about the biblical figure’s enduring significance: “Veiled and unveiled, he remains lodged in the Jewish imagination where in his uncompleted humanity he comes to represent the yet-unattained but attainable messianic future.” For those wishing to engage the legacy of Moses more deeply, this is a must-read. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"A celebrated biblical scholar, keen on weaving together traditional Jewish exegesis, psychoanalysis and postmodern criticism, Zornberg always displays minute attention to the psychological subtext of the Scriptures. . . . Bringing together copious, diverse and sometimes dissonant references (spanning Hasidic masters, George Eliot, Zizek and Beckett, among others), Zornberg gives a new tour of the life of Moses."—Clemence Boulouque, New York Times Book Review

"In this exceptionally well-written book, which has the elegance of literature, Zornberg sidesteps the historical question. She treats Moses as a fictional character, not because she rejects his possible historicity but rather because she focuses on him as a personality. . . . The result is a thoughtful and highly literate read."—Robert A. Segal, Times Higher Education Supplement

"For those wishing to engage the legacy of Moses more deeply, this is a must-read."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A rich, erudite study of Moses. . . . Readers are introduced to nuanced yet eye-opening new views and interpretations of otherwise familiar texts. . . . A meaty, worthwhile biography by a great interpreter of Jewish texts."—Kirkus Review (starred review)

"In Moses: A Human Life, Aviva Zornberg offers fresh insight into a familiar story, while reconciling us to our deepening awareness that so much remains unknown. . . . [Zornberg] is both reverential and iconoclastic in her approach to Moses’ inner life."—Susan Reimer-Torn, Jewish Week

"Moses: A Human Life challenges readers to see Moses in an original and thought-provoking way — not as a leader or a prophet, but as a man whose disabilities and conflicts make him uniquely qualified to speak for God and to achieve God’s purpose. . . . Zornberg illustrates a touching picture of a man whose speech is limited but reaches his people — God’s chosen people — and others as well."—Maron L. Waxman, Jewish Book Council

"What Zornberg’s method really does is meld an astute literary reading of the text with psychoanalytic insight. What results is immensely interesting and appealing, at times moving, even to a skeptic of the psychoanalytic worldview."—Lilith

"Zornberg has not only succeeded, but achieved the seemingly impossible: contributing a fresh and original interpretation to a figure pondered over for more than 2,500 years."—Zach Rabiroff, Open Letters Monthly

"Using various literary sources (such as Martin Buber, Sigmund Freud, George Elliot and Franz Kafka), biblical commentators (such as Rashi) and rabbinic and midrashic narratives, Zornberg shows us a multifaceted Moses: He is a man whose sense of identity is fraught with ambiguity and insecurity, and he is also a man worthy of leading a nation to greatness."—Linda Tucker, Moment

“[Moses] is a study that brings this great biblical figure to life in a way that promises to make him more deeply meaningful for readers today.”—John R. Barker, Bible Today

"Only Avivah Zornberg could tell the story of Moses in such a way as to situate him on the very cusp of the sacred and the human while showing how completely he participates in both. Only Zornberg has the prodigious scholarship to draw out from her sources the uniquely anguished and creative energy of Moses’ life. In doing so she makes a plea for a Jewish ethics grounded in the outsider, the one who stutters and falls, while at the same time returning Moses as a fully modern prophet to the modern world."—Jacqueline Rose, author of The Last Resistance and Women in Dark Times

"The author has perfected a distinctive approach to the biblical text that is both traditional and post-modern, playful and profound, imaginative but also truthful."—Steven Weitzman, author of Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom

From the Publisher

"Using various literary sources (such as Martin Buber, Sigmund Freud, George Elliot and Franz Kafka), biblical commentators (such as Rashi) and rabbinic and midrashic narratives, Zornberg shows us a multifaceted Moses: He is a man whose sense of identity is fraught with ambiguity and insecurity, and he is also a man worthy of leading a nation to greatness."—Linda Tucker, Moment

Moment - Linda Tucker

"Zornberg has not only succeeded, but achieved the seemingly impossible: contributing a fresh and original interpretation to a figure pondered over for more than 2,500 years."—Zach Rabiroff, Open Letters Monthly

Open Letters Monthly - Zach Rabiroff

"What Zornberg’s method really does is meld an astute literary reading of the text with psychoanalytic insight. What results is immensely interesting and appealing, at times moving, even to a skeptic of the psychoanalytic worldview."—Lilith

Lilith

“In this exceptionally well-written book, which has the elegance of literature, Zornberg sidesteps the historical question. She treats Moses as a fictional character, not because she rejects his possible historicity but rather because she focuses on him as a personality… The result is a thoughtful and highly literate read.”—Robert A. Segal, Times Higher Education Supplement, 11th March 2017.

Times Higher Education Supplement - Robert A. Segal

“Moses: A Human Life challenges readers to see Moses in an original and thought-provoking way — not as a leader or a prophet, but as a man whose disabilities and conflicts make him uniquely qualified to speak for God and to achieve God’s purpose. . . . Zornberg illustrates a touching picture of a man whose speech is limited but reaches his people — God’s chosen people — and others as well."—Maron L. Waxman, Jewish Book Council

Jewish Book Council - Maron L. Waxman

In Moses: A Human Life, Aviva Zornberg offers fresh insight into a familiar story, while reconciling us to our deepening awareness that so much remains unknown. . . . [Zornberg] is both reverential and iconoclastic in her approach to Moses’ inner life."—Susan Reimer-Torn, Jewish Week

Jewish Week - Susan Reimer-Torn

"A celebrated biblical scholar, keen on weaving together traditional Jewish exegesis, psychoanalysis and postmodern criticism, Zornberg always displays minute attention to the psychological subtext of the Scriptures. . . . Bringing together copious, diverse and sometimes dissonant references (spanning Hasidic masters, George Eliot, Zizek and Beckett, among others), Zornberg gives a new tour of the life of Moses."—Clemence Boulouque, New York Times Book Review

New York Times Book Review - Clemence Boulouque

“The author has perfected a distinctive approach to the biblical text that is both traditional and post-modern, playful and profound, imaginative but also truthful.”—Steven Weitzman, author of Solomon: The Lure of Wisdom

Steven Weitzman

“Only Avivah Zornberg could tell the story of Moses in such a way as to situate him on the very cusp of the sacred and the human while showing how completely he participates in both. Only Zornberg has the prodigious scholarship to draw out from her sources the uniquely anguished and creative energy of Moses’ life. In doing so she makes a plea for a Jewish ethics grounded in the outsider, the one who stutters and falls, while at the same time returning Moses as a fully modern prophet to the modern world.”—Jacqueline Rose, author of The Last Resistance and Women in Dark Times

Jacqueline Rose

02/01/2017
Widely published Torah scholar Zornberg (The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious) continues here her method of reading and interpreting biblical texts through an amalgam of literary theory, psychoanalysis, midrash, and the arts, with a perspective on biblical leader and lawgiver Moses. As with her previous works, this is not for the faint of heart. Zornberg does not so much tell a story as weave a complex web of signifiers that are intended to augment the brevity of biblical narrative with the nuance, spirituality, and psychological insight that she argues is missing from the text. For instance, speaking of Moses's prophetic voice, she writes, "The murmuring deep gives voice to those chinks in the carapace of meaning," a sentence that demands reflection as well as the energy to challenge all that is behind it. Ultimately, Zornberg concludes that Moses is for her "the quintessential voice of Israel," simultaneously personal and transcendent. VERDICT A thoughtful work that is worth the effort for spiritually erudite and patient readers.—SC

Library Journal

★ Sept. 7, 2016
A unique examination of Moses.In her latest book, National Jewish Book Award winner Zornberg (Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers, 2015, etc.) presents a rich, erudite study of Moses. This is a true readers’ biography, drawing on a full range of commentators and writers, including the great ancient rabbis, more modern scholars and philosophers, and secular writers ranging from George Eliot to W.G. Sebald. The author seeks to find the human Moses behind the great biblical legend; this is not the same as seeking a “historical Moses” but instead, a discovery of the humanity behind the great leader of Israel. To do so, Zornberg painstakingly excavates seemingly familiar passages for hidden nuances and signs of Moses’ own trials. She finds, among other things, a man of two cultures and two peoples yet comfortable in and accepted by neither. She finds a man lacking the confidence to address his people directly yet willing to make demands and complaints to God himself. She finds a man who encounters his people both veiled, and thus cryptic and unknowable, and also unveiled as a vulnerable leader. Finally, she finds in Moses a man who wrote his own story. What we know of Moses we know through the books of Moses. He is his own biographer. With the help of the many thinkers Zornberg cites, readers are introduced to nuanced yet eye-opening new views and interpretations of otherwise familiar texts. For instance, at the Burning Bush, God tells Moses, “they will listen to your voice,” but Moses eventually argues, “they will not listen to my voice.” God then delegates Aaron to do the speaking, but Zornberg asks if God’s plans might have been more readily fulfilled had Moses himself believed in the promise and spoken for God as originally planned. A meaty, worthwhile biography by a great interpreter of Jewish texts.

Kirkus Review