Personal Qualities
Moses was also distinguished for his strength and beauty. He was, as stated above, ten ells tall and very powerful. In the battle against Og, Moses was the only one able to kill that king (Ber. 54b; see Og in Rabbinical Literature). His face was surrounded by a halo (compare Exodus 34:29-35); this was given to him in reward for having hidden his face on first meeting God in the burning bush (ib. iii. 2-6; Ber. 7a), or he derived it from the cave in the cleft of the rock (compare Exodus 33:22) or from the tablets, which he grasped while God was holding one side and the angels the other. Another legend says that a drop of the marvelous ink with which he wrote down the Torah remained on the pen; and when he touched his head with the pen he received his halo (Exodus Rabba 47:11).
Moses was called the "father of wisdom" on account of his great sagacity (Meg. 13a; Leviticus Rabba i. 15). He possessed forty-nine of the fifty divisions of wisdom (R. H. 21b; Nedarim 35a). The question why the pious sometimes have bad luck while the sinners are fortunate was solved for him (Ber. 7a). He wished to know also how good deeds are rewarded in the future world, but this was not revealed to him (Yalk., Ki Tissa, 395).
Piety was not burdensome to him (Ber. 33b). His prayers were immediately answered (Genesis Rabba 60.4). He was so prominent a figure that his authority was equal to that of an entire sanhedrin of seventy-one members (Sanhedrin 16b), or even of the whole of Israel (Mek., Beshalach, Shir, 1 ).
Read more about this topic: Moses In Rabbinic Literature
Famous quotes containing the words personal and/or qualities:
“A man’s personal defects will commonly have with the rest of the world precisely that importance which they have to himself. If he makes light of them, so will other men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Adolescents swing from euphoric self-confidence and a kind of narcissistic strength in which they feel invulnerable and even immortal, to despair, self-emptiness, self-deprecation. At the same time they seem to see an emerging self that is unique and wonderful, they suffer an intense envy which tears narcissism into shreds, and makes other people’s qualities hit them like an attack of lasers.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)