"I like to see that the quarterback can hit a receiver in stride so he doesn't have to slow for the ball," Shonka began. He had a stack of evaluation forms next to him, and as he watched the game, he was charting and grading every throw . . . " Then judgment. Hey, if it's not there, throw it away and play another day. Will he stand in there and take a hit, with a guy breathing down his face? Will he be able to step right in there, throw, and still take that hit?" (315)

But with all his charting, observing, intelligence tracking, and countless hours of experience, when it comes down to it, Shonka admits that you just don't know how a quarterback will perform in the National Football League. Gladwell writes, "This is the quarterback problem. There are certain jobs where almost nothing you can learn about candidates before they start predicts how they'll do once they're hired" (316).

The Children of Israel have a quarterback problem.

Having concluded the saga of the matriarchs and patriarchs, we encounter a pharaoh who does not know Joseph-or chooses not to remember the good things he did for Egypt. The tide quickly turns, and the Children of Israel face a harsh new reality. As if enslavement were not enough to break the spirits of the descendants of Jacob, the pharaoh codifies cruelty into law and seeks to exterminate the Israelite population. The harsh decrees of the pharaoh actually end up setting the scene for the birth of Moses.

As the narrative unfolds, a picture is painted of Moses, who casts aside royal privilege in an act of empathy and anger and flees the palace to live a life of anonymity. God sees something in the character of Moses-so we are led to believe-that singles him out and makes him the obvious choice for redeemer of Israel. Surely his name is an indication, as the Bible itself hints, and scholars have written on the prophetic nature of the name. My rabbi and teacher Professor Stephen Garfinkel, in his exegesis "Moses: Man of Israel, Man of God" in the Etz Hayim Humash, writes:

Exodus interprets the name "Moses" to mean that he is "drawn out" of the water (2:10); but a more precise grammatical analysis of the Hebrew termmosheh confers a richer, predictive message. Moses is destined to be the one who draws out the people of Israel.

It is not only his prophetic naming and early life experience that identify Moses as the redeemer; his entire personal narrative defines his unique role. Professor Garfinkel sees the greater parallel and writes, "The life of the Israelite people from national birth to possession of a permanent territory is coterminous with the life of Moses. He is in effect the national alter ego."