Zipporah is my Hebrew name so it goes without saying that I think she is a strong, wonderful, female role model in the Torah. Though in the real Five Books of Moses, Zipporah has a very small part to play, author Marek Halter, does a nice job of creating a beautiful midrash around the relationship between Moses and Zipporah. Halter gives Zipporah an important role in helping to inspire Moses to step and return to Egypt. He has fled after killing an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating an Hebrew slave. She is the woman behind the man, pushing him forward to go back and save his people. Her father is a great inspiration to Moses but Zipporah is the one who really encourages him all along the way.
This book shows us the story from Zipporah's point of view. We learn about her upbringing and her family relationship. We also learn about the relationship between her and Miriam and Aaron, Moses' siblings. All of this is created from the imagination of the author, but it makes a wonderful story about a time gone by. It gives women a much more important role than the Torah describes.
Zipporah is a woman ahead of her time. With Zipporah standing behind him, Moses becomes a defender of the oppressed and and aa liberated of the enslaved.
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