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By Sheila Orysiek
 SAN DIEGO—William Bradford's journal "A History of Plimouth Plantation" is the only primary source we have of the momentous arrival of the Pilgrims upon the forested shore of North America. The Puritan component of that colony was convinced that they were the theocratic descendants of the Israelite search for the Promised Land. Jews had been expelled from England many years before and except for a small group living in near anonymity for commercial purposes – coming fairly recently from Spain and Holland – the Puritans had in all probability little or no experience with actually having any contact with a living Jew. Thus, they felt free to assume the history of the Israelites and the story of the Hebrew Bible as their own.
The historical connection the Puritans made between the ocean they crossed as they fled the Pharaoh of their time and the desert trek of the Israelites to the Promised Land has always intrigued me. This connection heavily influenced the Puritan view of the world and their place within it. The pattern persisted through the Revolutionary War in which Washington was viewed as the Moses of his time. And it persists still to this day with many considering Dr. Martin Luther King as a modern day Moses in the quest for freedom for an oppressed population.
Thus, a leader living thousands of years ago, who never actually lead his people into the fulfillment of the Promise, ended up influencing a huge and mighty country like the United States of America. And yet, Moses, the man through whom G-D worked His will – through whom the story is told - has indeed captivated the human imagination and influenced art, thought, and destiny.
The author, Bruce Feiler, begins by presenting this scenario with enough detail to convey the theme of the book without getting immersed in the minutia which often sinks a more prolix text. This is history written in a way to capture the interest of a careful reader but also to engage one more interested in the story rather than a recitation of dates. He also brings immediacy to the work by writing in the first person as he visits the various historical sites, talks to the curators/historians and gives it all life.
Particularly interesting was an interview with Robert Franklin, an African American preacher, with a list of impressive degrees and president of Morehouse College. He enlarged on the importance of the Exodus story and Moses to the Civil Rights movement – which is, of course, understandable. However, I was caught by his statement: "And we think of the
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figures in the biblical story as our ancestors. That is our story. The fact that it's a Jewish story is kind of irrelevant. It's our book. Our people. And they're echoing through the annals of time, trying to offer us lessons."
I found this statement both puzzling and troubling. While on the one hand it is gratifying that this timeless story reaches through the centuries to inspire others seeking freedom, it seems to me the fact that it is a Jewish story is not irrelevant. The descendants of this story are still crossing the sea bringing along others by linking arms in the front ranks of many a civil rights march. They also helped to found the NAACP and, as Feiler writes, fifty percent of the attorneys who brought civil rights cases to court were Jewish. The importance of the message does not decrease the relevancy of the messengers – especially when the messengers are still actively proclaiming the message.
In discussing with various historians the phenomenon of how pervasive and compelling the Moses story is, Feiler wonders why in so many instances it is Moses and Exodus which are cited rather than the New Testament and Jesus. This is especially intriguing since all of the historical figures such as America's Founding Fathers, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, etc., are Christians and in some cases ministers. The answer seems to be that while Jesus is considered divine – Moses is human and so we can much more easily relate to him and to his story.
I found myself newly caught up in the drama of both the timeless constancy of the clarion call of Exodus and the excitement of creating a country in which the rule of law is self-imposed by the people themselves. As Feiler delineates the multitude of connections between the historical Moses, the Israelite quest and the degree to which this history is assumed by the culture of the United States – the reader is indeed convinced.
That is the influence of the Moses/Exodus story writ large, but Feiler also brings it home on a personal level as he ends with his own participation in his family's Passover Seder and what message he would like to pass on to his children. Moses can call to a country, a people as well as in our daily lives.
Though I have previously read this history fairly extensively, still Feiler not only added detail to what I knew, but also new information I had not come across before. He is excited by what he learns and so he made this reader excited too. What more could one ask of an author?
I enjoyed every page of this book.
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