Shalom and thank you for your question! Besides Abraham and Moses there are many Biblical heroes and heroines, as well as Jewish leaders in the generations after Biblical times. Abraham was the first of the three Patriarchs, (or forefathers,) and his wife Sarah the first of four Matriarchs, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah. Moses was the leader who brought Torah to the world, succeeded by Joshua who led the Jewish people into the Promised Land and helped them conquer it according to G-d’s plan. Later heroes were prophets and prophetesses, judges and kings. Some of the judges and kings were indeed righteous ‘heroes’, some unfortunately not.
The first human being was Adam, quickly followed by his wife Eve. They are the prototypes of all humanity. Their spiritual potential shone not only brightly, but like a blazing fire in the garden of Eden. They were as yet untainted by sin. When they did sin by disobeying G-d’s instruction, that light became slightly shadowed so to speak. Learning their story reminds us that every human being is created by G-d for a purpose- to make the world a G-dly place by choosing good rather than evil.
Their children Cain and Abel teach us that some are inherently more prone to spirituality, while others are more prone to negative behavior. There is reward and ‘punishment ‘, which is not really punishment so much as a rectification process. As humanity began to make unwise choices and deteriorate in their spirituality, the situation became so bad that G-d decided to wipe out most of humanity- except for Noah and his family, from whom civilization would start again. 40 days of rains caused the flood that purified the world from the degraded state that it had been in, and G-d gave Noah the Seven Noahide Laws for all of humanity. These laws form the basis of morality and include the prohibitions against murder, blasphemy, idolatry, and adultery and incest, as well as the obligation to set up courts of justice.
The generations after Noah fell into a pattern of idol worship (which was to haunt future generations in different periods, even in our times,) and while Noah was still alive, a child was born who sought G-d at an early age, because he realized that there must be a Creator. He was the father of motheism – Abraham. He and his wife Sarah taught the people around them to acknowledge G-d and serve Him, and he excelled in loving kindness.
Abraham’s son Isaac was married to the righteous matriarch Rebecca, and they continued in the path of Abraham and Sarah, as did their son Jacob, who married the righteous Rachel and Leah. Jacob’s son Joseph was destined to be rejected by his brothers (who afterwards fully repented from their negative actions towards him,) and end up as the viceroy in Egypt, because the Jewish people had to undergo a period of exile there before being redeemed and receiving the Torah in the Sinai desert. Moses was born in that period of Egyptian exile and his purpose was to lead the Jews out of Egypt and out of the slave mentality they had acquired there, and to receive the Torah and Jewish law from G-d and reach it to the Jewish people.
Joshua was Moses’ disciple and as I mentioned above his purpose was to lead the Jewish people into the Promised Land. After Joshua there were various judges who led the Jewish people, one of whom was the famous Deborah. There was then a period of prophets who led the people and had to reproach them time and again for falling into the pattern of idol worship under the influence of the surrounding nations.
At a certain point in time the nation begged the prophet Samuel to annoint a king over them, they wanted to be like other nations, which wasn’t a good idea since the Jewish people have the privileged role of being a light to the nations by practicing Torah and its commandments, but unfortunately do not always realize it. Following Torah under the guidance of a spiritual leader like the prophet would have been ideal, but G-d allowed Samuel to annoint a king since the people were not in a spiritual enough mode to appreciate the leadership of the Prophets alone. The first king was Saul, followed temporarily by his son Ishboshet, and then succeeded by the well known King King David. The Messiah is a descendant of King David.
In the book of the Zohar, lll 225:b, it explains that there is an extension of the soul of Moses in every generation. (The book of Zohar is an ancient basic text of Jewish mysticism – more accurately described as the inner dimension of Torah.) This means that just as Moses led the Jewish people out of the Egyptian exile where they were enslaved under horrific conditions, so there are spiritual leaders in EVERY generation who can guide us in navigating the challenges we have and serving G-d. We need to be aware enough to choose to seek these ‘elders’ and accept their guidance and leadership.
In our community there lives a person whose family once lived in Tasmania, far from any established Jewish community with a Jewish educational system. At a certain point the family wished to know more about their heritage and how to practice it. The mother prayed to G-d. She felt in her heart that there must indeed be a ‘Moses’ of the generation and she prayed that this ‘Moses’ would send them a Rabbi to teach them. No one else knew of this at that time. Meanwhile, the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York sent a disciple of his who was living in Australia, Rabbi Chaim Gutnick, to Tasmania, without further instructions. Rabbi Gutnick found the family and gladly taught them as much as he could, till they moved to a more established Jewish community…
