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Moses
Moses was God's messenger. He brought a testament of faith, a love of justice and a hatred of tyranny to the world. His story has provided inspiration for countless movements of national liberation. Sholem Asch portrays him with vigor, insight and sympathy as a leader who struggled with implacable enemies, rebellious followers and his own personal failings to bring his people to the Promised Land. Asch weaves a great tapestry of superbly realized oriental color and movement. Ancient Egypt comes alive under his pen. The opulence and intrigue of Pharoah's court is contrasted with the brutal poverty and oppression of the slaves who worked to build and maintain this great empire. Every compelling episode provides and an exciting and instructive example. We meet Moses as a young prince of Pharaoh’s court, rebelling under the palace discipline, aware of the rumors concerning his birth, drawn to the Hebrews, but afraid to reach out to them . We see him struggling with halting speech and a violent temper. Finally, he finds his true family and makes the fateful decision to cast his lot with Israel. One day in the desert, God speaks to him out of a bush that burns but is not consumed and commands him to deliver Israel to freedom. And Moses's great journey begins.In this work of historical exactitude and sustained inspiration Mr. Asch has met the challenge of Moses with a scope and author worthy of that sublime figure."In 1936, the novelist and critic Ludwig Lewisohn was asked to name the world’s ten greatest living Jews. The resulting list, which ran in The New York Times, included Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Martin Buber, and Louis Brandeis. Lewisohn deemed only one writer great enough to be included in this illustrious Sholem Asch." —Ellen Umansky, Tablet Magazine
- GenresFictionChristian Fiction
505 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 1, 1951
About the author
Sholem Asch
256 books39 followersPolish-American writer Sholem Asch (also written Shalom Ash, Yiddish: שלום אַש, Polish: Szalom Asz) sought to reconcile Judaism and Christianity in his controversial novels, such as
The Nazarene
(1939). Sholem Asch composed dramas and essays in the Yiddish language.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
Frajda Malka bore Asch and nine other children to Moszek Asz, a cattle-dealer and innkeeper. Asch received a traditional Hasidic eduction and later obtained a more liberal education at Włocławek, where he supported himself by writing letters for the illiterate townspeople. He moved to Warsaw and met and married Mathilde Shapiro, the daughter of Menahem Mendel Shapiro.
The Haskalah or Hebrew enlightenment initially influenced Asch. His earliest writing was in Hebrew, but Isaac Leib Peretz convinced him to switch to Yiddish. The plot of God of Vengeance , his drama of 1907. features a lesbian relationship in a brothel. He traveled to Palestine in 1908 and to the United States in 1910, finally emigrating to the latter in 1914. He sat out World War I in the United States and was naturalized as a citizen in 1920.
His Kiddush ha-Shem (1919), one of the earliest historical novels in modern Yiddish literature, concerns the anti-Semitic uprising of Khmelnytsky in mid-17th century Ukraine. In 1920, in honor of his 40th birthday, a committee of his fans published a 12-volume set of his collected works (up to that time).
When his play God of Vengeance was performed on Broadway in 1923, authorities arrested and successfully prosecuted the entire cast on obscenity charges. (However, the convictions were overturned on appeal.) But in Europe, the play was popular was popular enough to be translated into German, Polish, Russian, Hebrew, Italian, Czech, Romanian, and Norwegian.
His trilogy Farn Mabul or Before the Flood , translated into English as Three Cities 1929-31), describes early 20th century Jewish life in Saint Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow. In 1932, the republic of Poland awarded him the decoration of Polonia Restituta, and in the same year he was elected honorary president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
He later moved to France and visited Palestine again in 1936. His Dos Gezang fun Tol ( The Song of the Valley ), about the halutzim or Zionist pioneers in Palestine, reflects that visit. His next work, Bayrn Opgrunt (1937), translated into English as The Precipice , is set in Germany during the hyperinflation of the 1920s. In 1939, he returned to the United States.
His trilogy The Apostle (1939), The Nazarene (1943) and Mary (1949), which dealt with figures from the New Testament, offended many Jews. The Forward , the leading Yiddish language newspaper of New York, dropped him as a writer and openly attacked him for supposedly promoting Christianity.
Asch spent most his last two years in Bat Yam near Tel Aviv, Israel but died in London. His house in Bat Yam now houses his namesake museum. Yale University holds the bulk of his library, which contains rare books and manuscripts, including some of his own works.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 8, 2019
In this narrative Sholem Asch documents the Biblical epic of Moses, at no time departing from the Biblical truths but also seeking to amplify these truths in order to take the reader into the narrative making it come alive as a portrait of human nobility against a backdrop of oriental colour.
The book takes us from Moses' upbringing in the royal palace where he slowly unfolds the mystery of his birth, and identifies with the suffering of his own people- Israel.
His exile in Midian, the ten plagues and the exodus are all put into an engaging and highly exciting narrative.
The insidious work of Korach, the rebellions of the Israelites in the desert, and the receiving of the Law are all put together in a magnificent masterstore. The dialogue is both poetic and powerful, note the colloquy of Balaam with his long suffering ass.
What really stands out is the description of the evil sorcerer Balaam, where we conjure up a picture of the villain in the likeness of liquidated Arab Nazi mass murderer Ahmed Yassin.
when can just picture Balaam as Yassin.
And the description of how the Midinianite women enticed the men of Israel to sin is vivid and powerful.
Altogether this bring s the story to life and makes for a compelling classic masterpiece.
The book takes us from Moses' upbringing in the royal palace where he slowly unfolds the mystery of his birth, and identifies with the suffering of his own people- Israel.
His exile in Midian, the ten plagues and the exodus are all put into an engaging and highly exciting narrative.
The insidious work of Korach, the rebellions of the Israelites in the desert, and the receiving of the Law are all put together in a magnificent masterstore. The dialogue is both poetic and powerful, note the colloquy of Balaam with his long suffering ass.
What really stands out is the description of the evil sorcerer Balaam, where we conjure up a picture of the villain in the likeness of liquidated Arab Nazi mass murderer Ahmed Yassin.
when can just picture Balaam as Yassin.
And the description of how the Midinianite women enticed the men of Israel to sin is vivid and powerful.
Altogether this bring s the story to life and makes for a compelling classic masterpiece.
March 11, 2014
Starting in college, around the time of switching from a history to a religious studies major, I began to pick up and read fictions dealing with religious themes. By the time I moved to Manhattan I was getting into the works of Sholem Asch, a Jewish writer who dealt with figures going back to Moses and Isaiah and forward to Yeshua, Mary and Saul of Tarsus--all Jews, but the later ones more associated with the early Christian movement. All of the books were, in my opinion, masterful--and respectful--representations.
May 12, 2021
This is a story about Moses and the exodus. It is filled with the narrative and the people and conflict. It also contains much explanation of the ideas and meaning behind the events, that the law is what was important and especially the mandate to love each other and love the stranger as we were all once strangers. There is much imagination here and it's quite beautiful in places. The repetitiveness of the story is still there, the list of plagues and every time the "Why did we leave?" complaint comes up, though I suppose there is no licence to omit parts when you're writing a full novel on the story. Asch is a brilliant writer I think. He fills this and the prior book I read of his with intimate details of his biblical characters. I've no idea how accurate any of it is and I assume he's studied many sources, he was a very learned man. He shows Moses as humble, flawed, unsure, though very moved by injustice. When reading any dialogue of Moses talking to the Israelites I couldn't help hearing it in the voice of Charleton Heston in The Ten Commandments ... but that was ok.
September 1, 2018
It was befitting to finish reading this book a week before we read in the torah of Moshes' dying and the holiday of Rosh Hashanah, which marks the begining of life renewed.
Ashes book is monumental! A firm tribute to his literary flow of words that keep the reader feeling as (s)he, too, is standing right next to Moshe.
I highly recommend reading this book like I did. Give yourself time to sit and dwell amongst Moshe, ones ancestary and ones relationshio to G-d.
Ashes book is monumental! A firm tribute to his literary flow of words that keep the reader feeling as (s)he, too, is standing right next to Moshe.
I highly recommend reading this book like I did. Give yourself time to sit and dwell amongst Moshe, ones ancestary and ones relationshio to G-d.
October 29, 2018
This was a very tough read. Moses was very dedicated,but in the end, subject to human emotions. A lot of the time in the wilderness, according to this book, was spent camped at one place for 19 years.
January 21, 2018
Reverently fictionalized and biblically based account of life of Moses from birth to death after leading Israelites to edge of promised land. Written in 1951 with much detail. I bogged down on occasion but generally was enthralled with this presentation of trials and tribulations which Moses faced but consistently overcame through unwavering faith in one God, Jehovah.
September 24, 2020
Creative presentation indeed...feels real!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews