One of my favorite Mark Twain quotes goes like this: “If Moses didn’t lead Israel out of Egypt, it was another guy with the same name.”
In the second book of Kings, there is a story about a young King Josiah who asks his courtiers to go and see how much gold and silver is in the reserves. What they find is a book of instruction. Upon reading it, Josiah realizes that this book is the Torah and he needed to grab it by the reins. So, he rent his clothes and got to work implementing this book of instruction, the Torah, throughout Judea.
Scholars have argued that Josiah’s cultural reforms, the way he consolidated worship in Jerusalem, systematized taxes and levies, and his overall demeanor in leadership likely serves as the inspiration for Moses himself. I know, I know… but doesn’t Josiah come much later than Moses?
As we begin to read the book of Deuteronomy, the final book in the Torah, I am reminded of Judaism’s emphasis on memory, not history. Rabbi Avraham Infeld poignantly remembered his atheist father saying, “I am not sure there is a God, I am not sure we were ever in Egypt, the one thing I remember clearly is God took us out of there.”
Judaism, thank goodness, does not depend on historical accuracy for its transcendent truths, rather it is memory—passed down from generation to generation—that provides the tributaries that feed this glorious river of Judaism.