Zipporah, Wife of Moses
Page 24
The next day, the breath of Yahweh descended on the camp. Showing his wrath, he punished Miriam with seven days of leprosy for her harsh treatment of Zipporah, Moses’ black wife.
But, as time has shown, men are fools, and slow to learn. Aaron’s son came to see Moses. “We must march on Midian,” he declared, waving his arms. “We must avenge the murder of your wife.”
“I want no part of your vengeance,” Moses replied. “Nor was vengeance ever in Zipporah’s heart. My wife wouldn’t have wanted her memory tarnished with the blood of Midian. She wouldn’t have wanted any blood, any wars. She loved only trust, respect, and peace. She said that all men were equal before the Everlasting, and that no man should lift his hand against another.
“Zipporah,” he went on, “wanted caresses from me to honor the lovely blackness of her skin. But how long was it since I’d last given them to her? If you want vengeance, kill me, for I too killed her.”
Men are fools, and slow to learn. Aaron’s son did not heed Moses’ words. He persuaded those who would listen to him, and they set off to wage war on Midian.
Moses had more deaths to mourn. Deaths that Zipporah had wanted to avoid.
“We are not milk and honey,” he said to the people. “I freed you from slavery thanks to the strong hand of the Everlasting, but in your hearts you are still slaves. In your hearts, you are in the desert. And in the desert you will die.”
“What do you mean?” the people answered, in surprise. “What have we done wrong?”
“The word of the Almighty is addressed to free men,” he explained. “Freedom is like water at the bottom of a well. We must learn to bring it out into the light of day, and then we must learn to drink it. You are not capable of that. Your children and your grandchildren, who have never known slavery—they and not you will enter Canaan and discover the Promised Land!”
And so it came to pass that the people whom Moses had led out of Egypt wandered in the desert for forty years, until all Pharaoh’s former slaves had died and their bodies had become dust in the dust of the desert.
It was a new people that reached the banks of the Jordan. Old and worn by now, Moses still mourned his wife, Zipporah, the black woman. He missed her voice, he missed her eyes, he missed her wise counsels. Not a day went by that he did not miss everything about Zipporah!
When he reached the borders of Canaan, he climbed Mount Nebo to gaze upon the land of which the Everlasting had spoken.
At the sight of this land of milk and honey, his heart was filled with doubt. Was he not like all the others, unworthy of setting foot in the promised land? Hadn’t he hesitated to accept the will of the Almighty? Without Zipporah, would he have had the courage to confront Pharaoh or even to listen to Yahweh? Without Zipporah, would he have known the beauty of a black woman, a stranger? Would he have known the breath that unites all hearts?
But Zipporah was no longer there to teach him what he still did not know.
So Moses gave the stones of the Law to Joshua. “It is you and not I who will enter Canaan,” he said. “It is you who will lead the people. I shall stay here. Mount Nebo will be my tomb.”
And he died, it is said, with a kiss from the Everlasting.
In accordance with his wishes, there was no stone monument, no sacred cave for his bones. Yahweh did not want any idolatry. Moses was not a god, merely a man of flesh and blood who had died with his dream before his eyes. A man who will remain forever in the vast mausoleum of words and memories.
Who, though, will remember Zipporah the black woman, the Cushite? Who will remember what she accomplished? Who will still speak her name?
MAY this book serve as her humble tomb.
ZIPPORAH
Wife of Moses
MAREK HALTER
A Reader’s Guide
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
ZIPPORAH, Wife of Moses, is bestselling novelist Marek Halter’s latest portrait of a noteworthy woman of the Bible. In a spectacular feat of imagination, Halter has breathed new life into this little-known, though influential, Old Testament figure. Orphaned as an infant, Zipporah is adopted by Jethro, high priest and sage of the Hebrew Midianites, who raises her as his own, despite her black skin. Although she is accepted and adored by his family, as a woman her color keeps the Midianite men at bay. She feels forever an outsider—until one day she meets Moses, himself a fugitive from Pharaoh’s Egypt. Their connection is immediate, and before long, Moses asks Zipporah to be his wife. But her innate wisdom, and the sense of justice instilled by Jethro, are stronger even than her passion for the love of her life: Zipporah refuses to marry Moses until he fulfills his destiny and frees his people from Pharaoh’s brutal slavery.
Bold, independent, and a true survivor, Zipporah is a fascinating heroine, and her world of desert oases, temples, and ancient wonders is a fitting backdrop to an epic tale.
“Marek Halter has not only written a passionate epic, but also revealed the fundamental role that a black woman played in the destiny of the Jewish people . . . Truly captivating.”
—PARIS MATCH
This guide is designed to help direct your reading group’s discussion of Marek Halter’s powerful novel.
FOR DISCUSSION
1.Before reading this novel, how much—or how little—did you know of Zipporah’s story? Read the portions of Exodus pertaining to Zipporah’s story. How has the novel changed your understanding of her importance? Of Moses’ actions?
2.If you haven’t already, read the beautiful excerpt from Song of Solomon on page v. What did this make you expect from the book? What about the other biblical quotations on page v?
3.Discuss how the novel changes your perspective on race relations: How have they changed since biblical times, if at all? Would Zipporah’s experience be any different today?
4.On page 1, Zipporah says, “I have had a dream.” Considering that this is the story of Moses and the Jews’ exodus from slavery, does this strike you as an intentional reference to the famous speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Do you see any other King allusions in the novel, for example to the Promised Land?
5.What is the significance of Zipporah’s dream? In what ways did it come true, and in what ways did its accuracy fail? On page 73, Jethro says to Zipporah, “Live your dream in sleep, but do not let your life become a sleep.” Lacking Zipporah’s influence, do you believe Moses might have done just that?
6.On page 36, Zipporah watches Moses catching fish and sees “a vast shimmer on the sea, much more intense than any of the others, like a wind spreading light as far as the shore.” Several pages later we read, “In the days, weeks, and years that followed, Zipporah was often to remember that moment, a moment she was sure was neither as brief nor as supernatural as it had seemed to her at the time.” In the end, what did this moment mean?
7.When Moses confesses that he has killed a man on page 64, instead of turning him away or being afraid, Jethro invites Moses to tell his story. At this point, Jethro knows virtually nothing about him. What makes Jethro react this way? Is it Zipporah’s influence?
8.Both Moses and Zipporah are adopted by powerful families. Do you believe this shaped their destinies, or were the adoptions themselves preordained?
9.Throughout the novel, various characters are portrayed as storytellers. Do you believe this is how the stories of the Bible were shared initially? Was this how Moses’ story was passed down? If so, how might that explain Zipporah’s minor role in the recorded bible?
10.It seems on pages 120–121 that Moses would be quite content to be a shepherd in Midian with Zipporah as his wife, but Zipporah sees something more in his destiny. She says, “I know you must put on your gold bracelets and go among those who are your people. You must hold back the whip that strikes them.” How does she know this? What gives her the strength to refuse him, even after bearing his children?
11.Why did Jethro allow both Zipporah and Orma to refuse to marry suitable men? If he weren’t a powerful man, would he have been so willing
? Discuss the role of women in Midian society and contrast it to Hebrew and Egyptian life.
12.How did Marek Halter’s depiction of the burning bush deepen your understanding of the story?
13.When Moses and Zipporah meet Moses’ family, Miriam’s response to Zipporah is immediately negative, while Yokeved’s is the exact opposite. Why do you think there is such a difference between the sister and the mother?
14.On page 229, Zipporah says, “The Moses they [the Hebrews] need must belong to them more than he belongs to his wife.” Why does she feel this way? Does the same hold true for the wives of today’s leaders?
15.When Miriam shows her scarred body to Zipporah, it changes radically the way Zipporah feels about her own place in the world. Was she right?
16.In his efforts to strengthen Zipporah’s resolve, Jethro says, “The only reason some of [the Hebrews] are still standing, still holding their heads high as men and women should, is because they cling to their own wounds, like a climber clinging to the rocks on Horeb’s mountain.” Are there any groups that you believe are behaving this way today?
17.In Halter’s depiction, Aaron and Miriam turn out to be somewhat treacherous. Is it purely jealousy, or something deeper? How does this jibe with your knowledge of the biblical characters?
18.After Zipporah’s murder, Moses refuses the suggestion of retribution against the Midianites. “What good would that do? What she wanted was trust, respect, and love. Not war. She wanted caresses to beautify the blackness of her skin. How long is it since I last gave them to her? I, too, killed her.” What does Moses mean by this? What has he learned?
19.Reread the last lines of the novel: “Who, though, will remember Zipporah the black woman, the Cushite? Who will remember what she accomplished? Who will still speak her name?” How would you answer those questions? Discuss Zipporah’s legacy.
About the Author
MAREK HALTER was born in Poland in 1936. During World War II, he and his parents narrowly escaped the Warsaw Ghetto. After a time in Russia and Uzbekistan, they emigrated to France in 1950. There Halter studied pantomime with Marcel Marceau and embarked on a career as a painter that led to several international exhibitions. In 1967, he founded the International Committee for a Negotiated Peace Agreement in the Near East, and played a crucial role in the organization of the first official meetings between Palestinians and Israelis.
In the 1970s, Marek Halter turned to writing. He first published The Madman and the Kings, which was awarded the Prix Aujourd’hui in 1976. He is also the author of several internationally acclaimed, bestselling historical novels, including The Messiah, The Mysteries of Jerusalem, and The Book of Abraham, which won the Prix du Livre Inter. The third volume of the Canaan Trilogy, Lilah, will be published in 2006. Marek Halter lives in Paris.
ALSO BY MAREK HALTER
Sarah
(Book One of the Canaan Trilogy)
The Book of Abraham
The Wind of the Khazars
Translation copyright © 2005 by Howard Curtis
Reader’s Guide copyright © 2005 by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the
Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the
Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN is a trademark and the Crown colophon is a registered trademark of
Random House, Inc.
Originally published in France as Tsippora: La Bible Au Féminin, by Robert Laffont, Paris, in 2003. Copyright © 2003 by Éditions Robert Laffont, S.A., Paris.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Halter, Marek.
[Tsippora. English]
Zipporah, wife of Moses : a novel / Marek Halter.
p. cm. — (The Canaan trilogy ; bk. 2)
Translation of: Tsippora.
I. Title.
PQ2668.A434T7513 2005
843′.914—dc22 2004023889
eISBN: 978-0-307-23847-4
v3.0