****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I was delighted that a book I learned about from Diane Rehm's interview December 22, 2009 with Bruce Feiler, is such an extraordinary read.Well organized, so that each chapter could stand on its, with a personal narrative woven throughout, Feiler draws the major American cultural and historical events connected to Moses -- in Egypt, at Pesach, around the Golden Calf, and at Mt. Nebo. Particularly challenging to some will be the reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr., perhaps because we are still so close to him so that living witnesses abound, and perhaps because, as Feiler notes, there is a considerable cultural mythologizing practice going on around the memory and meaning of MLK. For most of his other material, there is enough historical distance so that even those who disagree with his interpretations can, nonetheless, read, ponder, and go away being little disturbed.He draws the Puritans close and the Beecher family even closer. He reenacts the midnight winter passage across the Ohio River and tries to live into the contemporary meaning-making around the Underground Railroad. There are, of course, many other cultural connections and claims made upon Moses; but Feiler beautifully focuses his lens on a handful of significant periods and events in American history.I'll probably preach and teach from insights and facts crammed into this book for the next twenty years. I highly recommend this book for reflective reading, for group study, and for consideration in your family's or community's next iteration of the haggadah.
