Moses. It denotes the freedom of choice given to the Israelites to believe or to disbelieve in God; it also reveals the free choice and practice given to them in terms of obeying or disobeying the divine message.
Historical Interpretation of the Choice of the Israelites
According to Judaic Tradition
Jewish history indicates the rupture of the Israelites with Moses and belief in God immediately after the Exodus from Egypt. The Israelites were condemned to wander about in the desert for forty years (presumably until the generation of sinners faded away) before they conquered the Promised Land.
They were organized first in a federation then in a kingdom under King David. The zenith of the Kingdom was attained under King Solomon, son of David (about 1000 B.C.) who built the first Temple of Jerusalem. After the death of Solomon, about 933 B.C. the Kingdom was split into two Kingdoms established on the ruins of the old Kingdom, one in the north (Israel) and the second in the south (Judah). They abandoned little by little the teachings of the Torah, practiced idolatry and plunged into corruption. They were delivered incessantly to wars until their final destruction (definitive for the Kingdom of Israel, and temporary for the Kingdom of Judah). The Assyrians destroyed the kingdom of Israel in 721 B.C., by dispersing the Ten Israelite Tribes and deporting the Israelites on exile. The Babylonians destroyed the Kingdom of Judah in 586 B.C. and exiled the Jews for seventy years in Babylon.
This period of the schism of the kingdom to the destruction and eventual restoration of the Kingdom of Judah witnessed, according to the Judaic tradition, the coming of the prophets announcing the