What if there was another Moses, very different from the one we know?

According to tradition, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Depicted there in suprising and contradicting ways, and both for and against his people, bringer of the tablets of law which he then breaks.

By way of a series of possible portraits-including one of a female Moses-Jean-Christophe Attias follows the metamorphoses of the Hebrew liberator through ages and cultures. Drawing on rabbinical sources as well as the Bible itself, he examines the words of the texts and especially their silences. He discovers here a fragile prophet, teacher of a Judaism of the spirit, of wandering, and of incompleteness. The Judaism of Moses speaks to believers and others-to Jews, of course, but also far beyond them, inviting its hearers to have done with tribal pride, the violence of weapons, and the tyranny of a special place.

"A sparkling essay." - L’Histoire

"A very sure erudition, an experienced exchange with the Scriptures, a joyous freedom of expression, reflection and analysis, moments of poetic grace alongside high-level linguistic analysis, a writing with wings." - La République des Livres

"A very personal Moses." - La Croix

"The reader is left free to draw political lessons. Moses left no lineage, and it is unreasonable to claim this in the name of an improbable genealogy. There can therefore be no "Judaism of blood" that crossed centuries and continents to establish a right of ownership over an idolatrous land. Contemporary relevance is not far away." - Politis

"We should immerse ourselves in this fragile Moses, rescued from the bland waters of the Sulpicians or the burning waters of "holy fools"." - Le Monde

"Jean-Christophe Attias, a specialist in medieval Jewish thought, has freed himself from the academic straitjacket and drawn in a beautiful and evocative style a portrait of Moses as an "uncertain prophet"." - Le Canard enchaîné

"Regenerated by reflection, revived by the power of the mind, Jean-Christophe Attias's Moses emerges from the pages as a young man, freed at last of Charlton Heston's granite features and relieved of the gigantic weight that the three monotheistic religions imposed on him." - L’Express

"A brilliant book, as decidedly original as it is disturbing." - Le Point

"Praise for The Jews and the Bible:
This beautifully written (and translated) monograph casts profound doubt on attempts to simplistically characterize the terms Jews and Bible or to view the relationship between them one dimensionally... Highly recommended." - Choice

"Praise for The Jews and the Bible:

A study of the Jews' peculiar relationships with the Bible, Jean-Christophe Attias's The Jews and the Bible is an excellent companion to the recent crop of books on the Bible's construction... [They] tell us how the Bible came to be, Attias focuses on how it came to be regarded." - Forward

"Praise for Israel, the Impossible Land:
Jean-Christophe Attias and Esther Benbassa have written an elegant and erudite book demonstrating the complex relationship to the land of Israel throughout Jewish history." - American Historical Review

"Attias's respect and attention to Moses's example and legacy shines through. ... Open-minded readers are in for a thought-provoking treat." - Publishers Weekly

"Thoughtful and thought-provoking, informative and iconoclastic, and an impressively detailed work of original scholarship, Woman Called Moses: Prophet for Our Time is extraordinary and inherently fascinating reading." - Midwest Book Review

"Anybody with an interest in theology, or indeed Jewish history should enjoy A Woman Called Moses and be stimulated by it. Work like this underlines once more the extent to which the Bible has formed western thought, for Christians worshipping the deity, and equally for atheists in their vehement rejection." - Shetland Times

"Attias's portrayal of Moses reveals the author's respect, tenderness, and even love for the figure. ... Ultimately, through his imaginative depiction of Moses, Attias discloses a poignant longing and hope." - Commonweal Magazine