Moses and The Mount Sinai

In his essay “Space”, Thomas Tweed characterizes spaces for religious practices as “differentiated” locales that are sensually encountered and imaginatively figured. They are “more or less ‘special,’ ‘singular,’ or ‘set apart’” from “undifferentiated” or unnamed generic places (Tweed 2011: 119). He also states that spaces are “always interrelated with ‘nature’ and with ‘culture,’” and they are shaped by political processes, social relations and economic forces. Furthermore, defining religions as “confluence of organic-cultural flows” about “dwelling and crossing, about finding a place and moving across

Immediately after the Second World War, Robert Moses’ power increased exponentially. He then, got a control over city’s housing authority. Huge amount of money was spent by the federal government on the public housing and low income housing. This money was spent in New York at the command of Robert Moses. Up to that point Moses had been building mostly parks and bridges, now, he was going to build inside the city. No one could have predicted the magnitude of explosion that would overtake New York. Moses demanded to be the construction co-ordinater. The construction co-ordinater has to represent the city in all its dealing with federal government. And therefore, he got a control over public housing and federal money. In the end of the year 1948,

To quote Steve Branmn and Jim Rawls, “A pilgrimage is a journey inward as well as outward. Pilgrims seek to strengthen and renew their faith through travel."

While Moses and a few others with him were familiar with the sights and sounds at Mount Sinai/Horeb, most of the Israelites and those tagging along

Bruggemann contrasts the alternative consciousness of Moses with the royal consciousness of Solomon and discusses the religious, social and political traditions that were present during their individual regimes. He states that there are three essential components that the Solomonic tradition values as a part of the royal consciousness, which include affluent economics, oppressive politics and religion of immanence. The shifts in the foundation of Israel, contrasted the basic values of economical equality with an emphasis on self-serving affluence. Israel was prosperous but its fortune was hierarchical and only benefited the people on top. The second characteristic of the royal consciousness involves the political state of the society. Moses

Despite the contrasts between the two authors’ approaches on explaining the basic reasons and ways of each religion’s pilgrimage they both convey that the pilgrimage in either religion will eventually stabilize and strengthen one’s spiritual standing. The Christian pilgrimage lacks hard regulations and requirements on pilgrimage. One can take a pilgrimage to anywhere they wish to in any way and time as long as they are committed spiritually. This method of spiritual journeying, however, still significantly affects a christian’s life because the lack of hard regulations means they must be that much more focused and motivated by their own will. The concentration and motivation behind their journey is what will lead them to a better and tighter relationship with their god. The Muslim pilgrimage, on the other hand, has a much stricter regulation and requires far more abuse on one’s physical body and mind. The constant struggle, however, forces the pilgrims to build instant friendships with strangers from every corner of the world to depend their lives on at several points in their journey. The hajj works because of the good sense and mutual support of the pilgrims. It’s the pilgrims’ mutual dependence and self-control that ties their spirits closer to god. Christians benefit from their pilgrimage because of the freeness while the Muslims benefit exactly because of the extreme difficulty of their required journey. Both authors explain that God will reward everyone for their

The title Numbers no doubt arises from the “numbering” of people in the beginning of the book (Hamilton 303). The Hebrew title which means “in the wilderness” is more fitting as the book describes the journey from Sinai to the plains of Moab and as Hamilton describes that this is a time of trust or doubt in the power of God to supply for their needs (Hamilton 303). The first case to be made would be in regards to order. The first major section of Numbers stresses the right order to life as God’s people. The order is describe to us in very concrete terms showing how camp is to be laid out to maintain holiness (Hamilton 310). While these diagrams and numbers are God’s will and directions, to focus on them would be to miss the point. The

The Torah states that Israel was a large kingdom that ruled from Egypt to Mesopotamia and was ruled by the kings named Saul, David, and Solomon. In 1993, archaeologists discovered an inscription which dates about 840 B.C.E. that mentions a “House of David,” which supports the Torah’s claim. In addition, the Torah describes a construction project that Solomon undertook to erect gates in the Israelite towns. Archaeologists have found gates matching the description in three settlements and dated those gates in the 10th-century BCE. These two pieces of evidence suggest that the kingdom of Israel existed and that David and Solomon were rulers of it.

One of the differences in the ideas of ministry and mission between Paul and the Church of Jerusalem were based on the need for all new converts into the Jewish-Christian denomination to be circumcised to keep with the “Laws of Moses” (Harris, 2015, p. 297). Jewish Christians insisted on this procedure to be carried out before any foreign members could participate in their religious traditions and sacred events, such as Passover. Other requirements that adhered to the Torah for new converts included abstaining from sexual contact, prohibiting the consumption of blood, or of any animals that had not been drained of blood correctly, and to eat the flesh of any animals that were sacrificed to other unknown gods (Harris, 2015, p. 298). These laws

Moses was born in Egypt to Amram and Yochebed. He came about in this world in a period where the Israelites were a threat to the Egyptians. The Pharaoh of the Egyptians ordered that the first born sons of the Israelites were to be killed. One of these first born was Moses, and the parents put him in a basket to float him down a river. Moses drifted down to some noble women. The women did not know he was a firstborn of the Israelites, so they took him on as one of their own. Moses grew up part of the Pharaoh's family. As he was growing up, he knew the right from the wrong, he was taught to treat people with respect. Also when he grew up he saw the Israelites get abused. He tried to stop that but could not. Moses left because he did not want

On top of the mountain Matthew eloquently uses substantial comparison between Moses and Jesus. The first is that they are both on top of a “high mountain.” The significance of Matthews shrewd use of the term “high mountain” (Matthew 17:1) is a historical tradition of Jewish divine manifestations on top of high mountains. It occurred on one of the Hermon mountain range peaks near the city of Cesarea Philippi according to the agreement of biblical authors. (Broadus and Hovet 370). Exodus 24:13-16 states that Moses also had his religious occurrence on Mount Sinai, another very high mountain range. Another significant factor that Mathew used for comparison was that both Moses and Jesus needed the mountain for privacy to fulfil God’s purpose. Jesus needed the mountain for privacy, with only three of His disciples as witnesses, to avoid incorrect Messianic hopes Jesus needed to fulfill His mission, of glory through sorrow and if His transfiguration was witnessed by all then he would have immediately received glory without sorrow.

Space and religion share an intimate connection. Early Judaism focused on the temple as the site where contact with the divine could be made. However, following the Babylonian exile, the Israelites were forced to adapt and develop ways to worship away from the temple. They began performing daily rituals of worship such as the Sabbath and adhering to a special diet. They eventually came to believe that the presence of their God was not solely bound to the confines of the Temple in Jerusalem, but rather that his presence was mobile as it had originally been. Thus, over time the temple was less and less imperative to the religion. By the time Christianity was founded, the temple remained an important symbol and place of worship, as well as a symbol of the presence and strength of its religion in Jerusalem. In his essay “Space,” historian and scholar Thomas Tweed argues that religious space is kinetic and interrelated, and thus has relations to the political, social, and economic spheres and is also connected to both the past, the present, and the future. The ideological religious, topographical, and politico-economic transformations associated with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre embody the interrelated and kinetic nature of the space through their demonstration of the shift from Eastern Hill to Western Hill, the shift from spiritual faith to an earth-centered faith, and the change in Byzantine imperial policy from Hadrian’s Aelia Capitolina to Constantine’s Christian city.

The pilgrimage is indeed an amazing phenomenon, which brings people together at a common goal, which is believed to be the essence or starting point of life and the ‘door’ to the afterlife. As we will discover, pilgrimages require great sacrifice, both financially and physically. Pilgrimages may give the impression of an act that is traditional and not ‘fit’ for our modern world. However, one who has not walked the pilgrimage may never see the insight that the pilgrims themselves see. One fact is certain and striking. The numbers of pilgrims at the world’s major shrines are still increasing.

Moses was a leader of the Hebrews and probably the most important figure in Judaism. He led the Hebrew people out of Egypt and into the Promise Land. His story is told in the book of Exodus, and begins when he was first born during the time that the pharaoh of Egypt declared that all male Hebrew babies were to be drowned at birth. Moses’ mother Yocheved, hid Moses and placed him in a basket in the reeds of the Nile River, where he was then found by the pharaoh’s daughter, who kept Moses and raised him as her own. In the story of Moses, he grows up and stumbles upon an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave. Out of anger Moses murders the Egyptian, and flees to Midian to escape his crime (Hays, 2000). In Midian, Moses rests besides a well,

There is love in holding and there is love in letting go” I will be writing paper on “Exodus” on how the story unfolded. That took place 400 hundred years after the death of Joseph, his brothers, and Pharaoh and how I felt about the separation of a strong bond between brothers and how the Israelites were delivered from slavery.