The figure of Moses towers over the cast of saints and sinners who fill the story of God's salvation in the Jewish Scriptures. He is the primary leader of the Israelites in their Exodus from Egypt and during their wanderings in the wilderness from the Sinai to the Promised Land. He is their great prophet and lawgiver. From his beginnings in a basket amid the reeds of the Nile to the revelation at the Burning Bush, from the parting of the Red Sea to the receipt of the Tablets of the Law and the destruction of the Golden Calf, Moses plays the most central role in the biblical narrative. But while the biblical testimonies and legends attempt to explain Moses, he never explains himself. What was Moses thinking? How did Moses perceive the events that surrounded and influenced him? Did he reflexively follow God's orders, or did he have second thoughts? Who really was this mysterious and complex man, this great biblical figure? Providing a delightfully human touch to the sacred account of unprecedented divine action in history, Moses: A Memoir lets us rediscover the power of the drama as it moves from Exodus to Deuteronomy, and appreciate anew the Bible's view of Moses and his soaring accomplishment. Book jacket.