Between Person and Metaphor: Moses in the Hasidic Homily-Literature

In surveying references to Moses in the classical Hasidic homily-texts, it becomes clear that while many such references relate to Moses as a person with a particular biography and life-span reflecting the biblical account, other references to Moses are given a very different character, much more abstract in nature. Some of them, echoing earlier sources, speak of Moses, in his very person, as embodying the Torah as well as the entire people of Israel, while still other references build upon an identification of Moses with the s'firah (literally, "knowledge") suggesting spiritual understanding and sensitivity. As a supreme manifestation of Moses' soul and consciousness are thought to transcend his own life-span and actually to recur in the Righteous of every generation. That implication is, in turn, further broadened. Ze'ev Wolf of Zhitomir identified the essence of Moses within any person at any time who bears that quality of. In this way, Moses serves as the prime example of the principle of , (from the word, 'always') reading everything in the Torah not as a past one-time happening but rather as occurring constantly in the life of every person of any time. As the Hasidic preachers read the Torah-narrative in a way impacted by an emphasis upon innerness, they tended at times to present Moses in a more and more abstract sense, relating to him more as a metaphor than as a biblical figure with a one-time existence.