Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/152

 134 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

lieard it, he fell on his face. What did lie hear ? That he was blamed for being intimate with the wife of another j " and in another passage we read : * " Each man suspected his wife on account of Moses." Other commentators understand that the accusation was that Moses had killed Aaron, because the two were alone together when Aaron died on Mount Hor j but Moses was cleared from this by the angels, who produced Aaron's corpse. 2 This is also a Rabbinical idea, for we read in the Midrash Tanchuma : 3 " All the congregation saw that Aaron was dead. 4 When Moses and Bleazar came down from the mountain, the whole congregation came together against them asking them : ' Where is Aaron ?' They said : ' He is dead.' They re- plied : ' How can the death angel come to a man who has once resisted him and held him back ? for it is written : 5 He (Aaron) stood between the dead and the living and the plague was stayed. If you produce him, well ; if not, we will stone you.' Moses then prayed : ' Lord of the world, clear me from this suspicion.' Then God immediately opened

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in inlw ^na tay DM nsaan

'n 'a '^n n^Q TJQ.

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4 Numbers, xx, 29, 5 Numbers, xvi. 48. (Hebrew, xvii. 13.)