The Road to Redemption: Lessons from Exodus on Leadership and Community - Hardcover

Visotzky, Burton L.

 
9780609601457: The Road to Redemption: Lessons from Exodus on Leadership and Community
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0609601458 ISBN 13: 9780609601457
Verlag: Crown, 1998

Inhaltsangabe

The story of Moses and the Exodus from Egypt has been a central story of Western culture for three millennia. Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, one of America's premiere proponents of Bible narrative, tells these stories so that they are accessible and urgent to yet another generation. Just as he brought Genesis to millions of viewers through public television and his best-selling book The Genesis of Ethics, Visotzky now brings the Exodus narrative to life with humor and style, combining the ancient commentaries of the rabbis with his own unorthodox yet trenchant observations. As the Exodus story proceeds from slavery to freedom, from despair to hope, the reader is taken on a journey of moral development and modern community building--a powerful passage toward redemption.
        
The Road to Redemption shows how communities are formed, what constitutes leadership, how a leader faces the resistance of those he or she leads, and how a people can come to find covenant with God. This book will delight readers of all religions and walks of life. It can be read by individuals curled up in an easy chair, by families around the table, by reading groups, Bible classes, or in university settings. The Road to Redemption is a deeply enjoyable, educational journey and a spiritual guide for all who travel the road with its wise and gentle guidance.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky is the author of Reading the Book: Making the Bible a Timeless Text and The Genesis of Ethics. He developed and was a featured participant in Bill Moyers' "Genesis: A Living Conversion,"  a ten-hour series that aired on Public Television. Rabbi Visotzky served as consultant for the upcoming Dreamworks animated feature about Moses, The Prince of Egypt. Visotzky teaches at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York City, where he holds the Appleman Chair in Midrash and Interreligious Studies. His frequent radio, television, and lecture appearances have delighted and challenged audiences around the world. He lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Aus dem Klappentext

Moses and the Exodus from Egypt has been a central story of Western culture for three millennia. Rabbi Burton L. Visotzky, one of America's premiere proponents of Bible narrative, tells these stories so that they are accessible and urgent to yet another generation. Just as he brought Genesis to millions of viewers through public television and his best-selling book The Genesis of Ethics, Visotzky now brings the Exodus narrative to life with humor and style, combining the ancient commentaries of the rabbis with his own unorthodox yet trenchant observations. As the Exodus story proceeds from slavery to freedom, from despair to hope, the reader is taken on a journey of moral development and modern community building--a powerful passage toward redemption.

The Road to Redemption shows how communities are formed, what constitutes leadership, how a leader faces the resistance of those he or she leads, and how a people can

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Crossing the Jordan River proved to be rather disappointing. While it is true that we were crossing the wrong way--from west to east--it still could not escape us that the mighty River Jordan was a trickle, a sluggish, brackish stream overgrown by weeds on either side of its banks. But for the coils of barbed wire and the machine guns, we might have crossed over with a running jump. As it was, we waited hours while papers were checked and then rechecked. Did they worry a bomb would explode over the river and reduce it to the trickle it already was? I am naive about these things, but it struck me more than once during my first passage over the Jordan that things were being kept deliberately slow more from a sense of history than from a need for security. If they were really worried, they would have made us get off the bus and searched us.
        
Needless to say, the bus rumbling over the tiny bridge was anticlimactic after the long delay, especially with the foreknowledge that the so-called security check would be repeated once we got to the Jordanian side of the river. There we changed money and had our visas inspected. It was not clear whether we were supposed to offer bribes, though on our return trip our driver-guide assured us that it was de rigueur. Only now does it dawn on me that he pocketed the dirham. Most daunting in our crossing of the Jordan was the scrap of paper, torn off raggedly from a pad, that the immigration official stamped with a rubber stamp. The resultant four lines of Arabic were duly initialed, and the official repeated in English, French, German, Hebrew, and Arabic: "This paper is very important. You will need it to exit Jordan. Keep it carefully. It is very important." To this day I keep that torn scrap in my passport. No one has ever asked to look at it since the moment it was given to me. It is somewhat reassuring tha
t the Muslim and Christian Arabs of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan share the same sense of moment about Jordan River crossings as Israeli Jews.
        
Still, I was disappointed. We had left Jerusalem early in the morning after settling our hotel bill. When the tour bus picked us up for our requisite visit to Jordan, I had expectations of a journey into Jewish (and, therefore, also Christian and Muslim) history. I would be crossing over into the Land of Moab where Ruth and Naomi had roamed, where the Israelites massed before their famous entry into the Holy Land. I would see the ancient city of Petra, not as old as the Hebrew Bible, but Nabatean, and neat, having been featured in an Indiana Jones movie. I would visit Amman, ancient Rabbah Ammon, which was a biblical city and now a thriving metropolis, testimony to King Hussein's plans for the modernization of his country.
        
We had planned to visit Jerash, the archaeological site of ancient Gerasa, a city of the Decapolis, dating back to New Testament times. And, of course, we would visit Madeba, a Muslim village with a thriving church in the middle of town. In the middle of the church, a mosaic floor is roped off. The mosaic contains a map of the ancient world, the oldest map we have of the Holy Land. As it happened, the map proved the key to my understanding of yet another site, one that wasn't part of the package tour at all, but which we added on through a "private arrangement" with our driver.
        
The previous Saturday afternoon, lingering over Sabbath luncheon under the lemon tree in the courtyard of friends, we drank wine and spoke of our forthcoming trip to Jordan. My hosts were old Israel hands, inveterate travelers. They had been to Jordan already.
        
"Go to Mount Nebo," Yocheved instructed. I should point out that Yocheved is her Hebrew name; professionally she uses her English name. But her friends call her Yocheved--the same as Moses' mother.
        
"Nebo isn't on the tour," I truculently told her. "I'm a somewhat fussy traveler, I don't like changing hard-planned itineraries, especially in countries where I do not speak the language."
        
"Go," she insisted, "you won't regret it."
        
Now, I knew that there were ancient mosaics aplenty on the floors of the churches scattered across the mountain, but I also knew that I would have a surfeit of ancient mosaics in Jordan. So I ventured, still trying to protect my precious vacation plan, as though it were infallible, "I don't know. I think we'll have our fill of churches and mosaics by then."
        
Yocheved's frustration with me was evident, "Then go for the nostalgia, schmuck!"
        
Eventually, even I know when to listen to the voice of wisdom, so we made our pilgrimage to Mount Nebo. In our driver's boatlike sixties Chevy, we rattled up the road. The words of the Band's song were rumbling through my brain like a mantra, "I'd stand on the rock where Moses stood . . ." But I was entirely unprepared for what I saw atop Mount Nebo.
        
Facing west, with the morning sun at our back, standing on that mountain, we could see the River Jordan. From atop Nebo it looked lush, "chilly and wide," as in the song. To the left, south, the Dead Sea. Ahead to the right a bit, Jericho--the city of palms. And past that ancient city and those two famous bodies of water, onward to the very horizon, there lay Israel, Palestine, Canaan, call it what you may--the Promised Land. "Milk and honey on the other side. Hallelujah."
        
Standing atop Mount Nebo, the nostalgia was overwhelming. Looking out to the Promised Land I was able to imagine it through Moses' eyes. After a forty-year journey in the desert, after a previous forty years as a shepherd, after forty early years as a youth growing up in Pharaoh's court--now, at 120 years of age, the prize he sought was in sight, he could almost reach out and touch it. The breeze at my back buoyed me as I climbed to the highest point on the promontory, the vision before me as palpable as though I stood beside our teacher, Moses, at that stunning moment which marked the culmination of his life.
        
From Mount Nebo, Moses was able to see the land with the profound knowledge that he himself would never enter it. His eyes also filling with tears as he, too, succumbs to nostalgia, bereft of his lifelong goal--it is too easy to imagine Moses curling up and dying with the Promised Land in sight. Could there be a sadder place on earth than the top of Mount Nebo?
        
As the last of the Five Books of Moses, Deuteronomy, tells it:
God spoke to Moses on that very day saying, Ascend this Mountain of transition, Mount Nebo in the land of Moab, facing Jericho, and behold the land of Canaan that I give to the children of Israel to inhabit. And die upon that mountain which you will ascend, be gathered to your ancestors, just as your brother Aaron did on Mount Hor when he was gathered to his ancestors. For you broke faith with Me in the midst of the children of Israel, at the waters of Meribat-Kodesh in the Sinai wilderness. . . . You may view the land from afar, but you may not go there to the land which I give to the children of Israel.

What pathos is contained within these lines. Is it any wonder that Moses dies? After that long journey, to see the land but not get to...

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Verlag
Crown
Erscheinungsdatum
1998
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0609601458
ISBN 13 
9780609601457
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
224
Kontakt zum Hersteller
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Softcover