The Fire in the Rock

Tzipporah, the widow of Moses, lives at the foot of Mount Nevo -- aged, blind and alone. The pilgrims no longer come to hear her stories of how she and her husband led the people out of Egypt; the wonder tales of the storytellers have grown more grand and glorious than the truth. She is tormented by her memories of the momentous things that she has seen and heard -- and of other, secret things that she has never told anyone, and now never will. Then a man comes, a stranger who does not believe the miracle stories. He convinces Tzipporah to tell her story at last, and reveal the strange truth of what really happened in Egypt, in the desert, and at the Mountain of God.She tells of her childhood in the land of Midyan, the eldest daughter of the renegade priest Yisro. She tells of his teachings, of the One God, Ael Shadu, at the foot of His mountain; and she tells of her husband Moses -- an ordinary man swept up in extraordinary events, who seizes the opportunity to free his people and finds himself compelled to become the Lawgiver. But she also reveals her own astonishing, and secret, role in this world-changing story. Were these momentous events truly miracles — or only astonishing coincidences? Did God Himself speak from the Mountain — or was it a human voice, embroidered with a bit of trickery? Who, or What, IS God? Is He there at all — or is He a creation of Man?