Moses and Aaron

Safurija went before the couch of her children, and cried, "Rise, ye poor orphans; rise, and take leave of your father, for this day is his last in this world and his first in the next." The children started from their sleep in affright, and cried, "Woe unto us! who will have compassion upon us when we shall be fatherless? Who will with solicitude and affection step over our threshold?" Moses was so moved that he wept bitterly. Then said Allah to him, "Moses, what signify these tears? Art thou afraid of death, or departest thou reluctantly from this world?" "I fear not death, and leave this world with gladness; but I have compassion on these children, from whom their father is about to be torn." "In whom trusted thy mother when she confided thy life to the waters?" "In Thee, O Lord." "Who protected thee against Pharaoh, and gave thee a staff with which thou dividedst the sea?" "Thou, O Lord." "Go, then, once more to the sea-shore, lift up p. 168 thy staff over the waters, and thou shalt see another sign of my omnipotence." Moses followed this command, and instantly the sea was divided, and he beheld in the midst thereof a huge black rock. When he came near it, Allah cried to him, "Smite it with thy staff." He smote it; the rock was cleft in twain, and he saw beneath it, in a sort of cave, a worm with a green leaf in his mouth, which cried three times, "Praised be Allah, who doth not forget me in my solitude! Praised be Allah, who hath nourished and raised me up!" The worm was silent; and Allah said to Moses, "Thou seest that I do not forsake the worm under the hidden rock in the sea, and how should I forsake thy children, who do even now confess that God is one, and that Moses is his prophet?"

Moses then returned, reproved, to his house, comforted his wife and children, and went alone to the mountain. There he found four men, who were digging a grave, and he inquired of them, "For whom is this grave?" They replied, "For a man whom Allah desires to have with him in heaven." Moses begged permission to assist at the grave of so pious a man. When the work was done, he inquired, "Have you taken the measure of the dead?" "No," they said, "we have forgotten it; but he was precisely of thy form and stature: lay thyself in it, that we may p. 169 see whether it will fit thee: Allah will reward thy kindness." But when Moses had laid himself down within it, the Angel of Death stepped before him, and said, "Peace be upon thee, Moses!" "Allah bless thee, and have pity upon thee! Who art thou?" "I am the Angel of Death! Prophet of Allah, and come to receive thy soul." "How wilt thou take it?" "Out of thy mouth." "Thou canst not, for my mouth hath spoken with God." "I will draw it out of thine eyes." "Thou mayest not do so, for they have seen the light of the Lord." "Well, then, I will take it out of thine ears." "This also thou mayest not do, for they have heard the word of Allah." "I will take it from thy hands." "How darest thou? Have they not borne the diamond tablets on which the Law was engraved?" Allah then commanded the Angel of Death to ask of Ridwhan, the guardian of Paradise, an apple of Eden, and to present it to Moses.

Allah then commanded the Angel of Death to ask of Ridwhan, the guardian of Paradise, an apple of Eden, and to present it to Moses. Moses took the apple from the hand of the Angel of Death to inhale its fragrance, and at that instant his noble soul rose thrdugh his nostrils p. 170 to heaven. But his body remained in this grave, which no one knew save Gabriel, Michael, Israfil, and Azrail, who had dug it, and whom Moses had taken for men. p. 116 * "Here the Mussulman legend differs from the Talmud, according to which Bileam gave this counsel. Job was silent; and Jethro, the king's third counselor, endeavored to dissuade the king from violence. Bileam was therefore destroyed by the Israelites. Job was led into temptation, and suffered greatly for his silence; but Jethro, who, on account of his clemency, was forced to flee into Midian, was rewarded by becoming the father-in-law of Moses."—Midrash, p. 52. † "In the year 130 after the settlement of the Israelites in Egypt, Pharaoh dreamed of an aged man who was holding a balance in his right hand. In one of its scales he placed all the sages and nobles of Egypt, and a little lamb in the other; and it outweighed them all. "Pharaoh was amazed at the weight of the lamb, and told his dream on the following morning to his attendants. They were terrified; and one of them said, 'This dream forepodes a great affliction which one of the children of Israel will bring upon Egypt. If it please the king, let us issue a royal edict, commanding every male child of Hebrew parents to be slain at its birth.' The king did as he was advised."—Miarash, p. 51.

p. 119 * On these words, "And she saw that the child was fair," the Midrash offers the following reflection: "The learned maintain that at the birth of Moses there appeared a light which shone over the whole world, for in the account of the creation we have the same phrase: 'The Lord saw the light that it was good.'" It is somewhat difiicult to apprehend the precise point of the Rabbis. At the creation of the light it is said GOD saw the light that it was good. The subject of which it was predicated that it was good, then shone over the whole world. Hence it is argued, that, as the same predicate is applied to Moses's face, it must follow that it shone with similar brightness. This is no bad specimen of Rabbinical logic.—E. T. p. 122 * The daughter of Pharaoh went to the river for she was a leper, p. 123 and not permitted to use warm baths; but she was healed as soon as she stretched out her hand to the crying infant, whose life she preserved. She said within herself, "He will live to be a man; and whoever preserves a life is like the savior of a world." For this cause also she obtained the blessings of the life to come.—Midrash, p. 51. p. 125 * From these words, his sister said to the daughters of Pharaoh, "Shall I call a Hebrew nurse?" We may conclude that they had taken him (Moses) to all the Egyptian women, but that he refused to receive food from them, for he thought, "Shall the lips which are destined to speak with the Shekinah touch that which is unclean?"—Midrash, p. 51.

* From these words, his sister said to the daughters of Pharaoh, "Shall I call a Hebrew nurse?" We may conclude that they had taken him (Moses) to all the Egyptian women, but that he refused to receive food from them, for he thought, "Shall the lips which are destined to speak with the Shekinah touch that which is unclean?"—Midrash, p. 51. p. 126 * In the third year after the birth of Moses, Pharaoh was sitting on his throne, the queen was at his right hand, his daughter holding Moses at his left, and the princes of Egypt were round a table before him. Moses stretched out his hand, took the king's crown, and placed it on his own head. The courtiers were terrified; and Bileam the magician said, "Remember, O king! thy dreams, and their interpretations: this child is doubtless of the Hebrews, who worship GOD in their hearts; and he has, by a movement of his precocious wisdom, laid hold on the government of Egypt. (Here follow examples from Abraham to Joseph, showing the ambition of the Hebrews to usurp the Egyptian throne.) If it please the king, let us shed this child's blood before he be strong enough to destroy thy kingdom." But the Lord sent an angel in the form of an Egyptian prince, who said, "If it please the king, let two bowls, the one filled with Shoham stones the other with burning coals, be presented to the child," &c.—Midrash, p. 52. p. 127 * The Jewish legend accounts from this occurrence for the words of Moses in Exodus, chap. iv., ver. 10: "O my Lord! I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue."—E. T.

* The Jewish legend accounts from this occurrence for the words of Moses in Exodus, chap. iv., ver. 10: "O my Lord! I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken to thy servant; but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue."—E. T. p. 131 * According to the Jewish legend, there intervened many years between the flight of Moses from Egypt and his arrival in Midian: these years, they say, he spent in Ethiopia, where Bilaam had gone before him; and while the king of that country made war against Syria and other nations, he (Bilaam) treacherously seized on the capital, fortifying it with ditches and walls on three sides, and guarding the fourth by venomous serpents. The king returned, and had laid siege to this city during nine years without succeeding in capturing it, when Moses arrived in his camp. He advised him to take all the storks' eggs from the neighboring forests, to rear the young, and having withheld their food from them for some days, to send them against the serpents. The king did so; the storks destroyed the serpents, and the city was taken; but Bilaam escaped through an opposite gate, and again excited Pharaoh against the people of Israel. The Ethiopians made Moses their first vizier, and afterward their king, giving to him the deceased king's widow in marriage. But as she was an idolater, he refused to treat her as his wife, nor did he participate in the religious observances of the people: the queen therefore accused him publicly, and proposed her own son to reign in his stead; but Moses fled to Midian; and Jethro, fearing the Ethiopians, imprisoned him during ten years without giving him any food; but Zipora secretly supplied him with bread and water, &c.

p. 133 * The rod of Moses was created on the sixth day, and given to Adam while yet in Paradise: he left it to Enoch, and he gave it to Shem; from him it descended to Isaac and Jacob. The latter took it with him into Egypt, and before his death presented it to Joseph. When he died it was taken, with the rest of his goods, to Pharaoh's house, where Jethro, being one of the king's magicians, saw it; and taking it with him to Midian, he planted it in his garden, where no one was able to approach it until the arrival of Moses. He read the mysterious words written upon the staff, and took it without difficulty from the ground. Jethro, who saw this, exclaimed, "This is the man who shall deliver Israel!" and gave him his daughter Zipora. With this staff Moses kept Jethro's flock during forty years, without being attacked by wild beasts and without losing any from his fold.—Midrash, p. 53. p. 137 * Rabbi Meier gays, "Pharaoh's palace had 400 gates, 100 on each side; and before each gate stood 60,000 tried warriors." It was therefore necessary for Gabriel to introduce Moses and Aaron by another way. On seeing them, Pharaoh said, "Who has admitted them?" He summoned the guards, and commanded some of them to be beaten, and others to be slain. But as Moses and Aaron returned the next day again, the guards, when called in, said, "These men are sorcerers, for they certainly have not come in through the gates." On the same page it is said, "Before the gate of the royal palace were two lionesses, which did not suffer any one to pass through without the express command of Pharaoh, and they would have rushed upon Moses; but he raised his staff,

p. 138 their chains fell off, and they followed him joyfully into the palace, as a dog follows his master after a long separation," &c. And again, "The 400 gates of the palace were guarded by bears, lions, and other ferocious beasts, who suffered no one to pass unless they fed them with flesh. But when Moses and Aaron came, they gathered about them, and licked the feet of the prophets, accompanying them to Pharaoh."—Midrash, p. 44, 45. p. 146 * "All the water kept in vessels was changed into blood; even the spittle in the mouth of the Egyptians; for it is written, 'there was blood, throughout the land of Egypt.' Rabbi Levi informs us that this plague enriched the Jews; for if a Jew and an Egyptian lived together in the same house, and the Egyptian went to draw water, it was changed into blood; but if the Jew went it remained pure. Drinking out of the same vessel, the Jew obtained water, and the other blood; but if the latter bought it of a Jew, it remained pure."—Midrash, p. 66. † This Omar was the eighth caliph of the house of Omarides. p. 147 He ascended the throne in the 99th year of the Hegira, and was previously governor of Egypt. p. 150 * According to the Rabbinical legends, Samael (Satan) rushed into the calf, and groaned so loudly that the Israelites believed it living. The Rabbis also maintained that it was not Aaron, but some other person (some say Micah), who made the calf.—Vide Seiger, p. 167.

* According to the Rabbinical legends, Samael (Satan) rushed into the calf, and groaned so loudly that the Israelites believed it living. The Rabbis also maintained that it was not Aaron, but some other person (some say Micah), who made the calf.—Vide Seiger, p. 167. p. 152 * It is well known that the Mussulmans keep a yearly fast, which lasts from sunrise to sunset for a whole month. And they even exceed the Jews in strictness, for they not only take neither meat nor drink, but also abstain from smoking during the fast. As their year is lunar, the month of Ramadhan falls at every season of the year. p. 160 * This legend is evidently of Jewish origin. It is related respecting Moses, that while on Mount Sinai, the Lord instructed him in the mysteries of his providence. Moses having complained of the impunity of vice and its success in this world, and the frequent sufferings of the innocent, the Lord took him to a rock which projected from the mountain, and where he could overlook the vast plain of the desert stretching at his feet. On one of its oases he beheld a young Arab asleep. He awoke, and, leaving behind him a bag of pearls, he sprung into his saddle, and rapidly disappeared from the horizon. Another Arab came to the oasis: he discovered the pearls, took them, and vanished in the opposite direction. Now an aged wanderer, leaning on his staff, bent his weary steps toward the shady spot: he laid himself down, and fell asleep. But scarcely had he closed his eyes, when he was rudely roused from his slumber; the young Arab had returned, and demanded his pearls. The hoary man replied, he had not taken them. The other grew enraged, and accused him of theft. He swore that he had not seen his treasure; but the other seized him; a scuffle ensued; the young Arab drew his sword, and plunged it into the breast of the aged man, who fell lifeless on the earth.

"O Lord, is this justice?" exclaimed Moses, with terror. "Be silent! Behold, this man, whose blood is now mingling with the waters of the desert, many years ago, secretly, on the same spot, murdered the father of the youth who has now slain him. His crime remained concealed from men, but vengeance is mine: I will repay!" The reader must be struck with the similarity of these fictions and the beautiful poem on the same subject by Barnell, who, if unacquainted with the Arabic legend, may have read the one have related in Schiller's "Sendung Moses."—E. T. p. 162 * The Midrash says, "Korah had 300 white mules, which carried the keys of his treasuries. His wealth was his ruin!" p. 165 * In perfect accordance with the Midrash. p. 255.