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Prepared by David Reed [email protected] or [email protected]

THE LEGENDS OF THE JEWS VOLUME III BIBLE TIMES AND CHARACTERS FROM THE EXODUS TO THE DEATH OF MOSES

BY LOUIS GINZBERG

TRANSLATED PROM THE GERMAN MANUSCRIPT BY PAUL RADIN

REVISER AND PROOF-READER OF VOLUME III, DOCTOR ISAAC HUSIK

To MY MOTHER
ON THE OCCASION OF HER SEVENTIETH BIRTHDAY

PREFACE

"When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a People of strange language, Jacob was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion. Jewish legend attempts to describe how God's sanctuary, the religion of Israel and His dominion, the beginnings of Israel as a nation, arose in the time between the Exodus from Egypt and the entrance into the Holy Land.

Moses is regarded not only as the greatest religious guide of Israel, but also as its first national leader; he is "the wisest (If the wise, the father of the prophets," as well as " king in Jeshiurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel gathered together." hence his unique position in Jewish legend, neither Abraham, the friend of God, nor Solomon, the wisest of all men, nor Elijah, the helper in time of need. can lay claim to such a position.

Great religious and