Charlton Heston, the actor who played Moses (as well as the voice of Hashem) in the epic movie classic The Ten Commandments died yesterday, he was 83 years old.

Although he was not Jewish, his bold and powerful portrayal of Moshe Rabbeinu in the Cecil B. De Mille classic, reshown every year before Pesach on most major networks, will unquestionably be the image we have of Moshe for the rest of our lives. 

Highly doubt any other actor could have brought Moses's strong leadership to the silver screen, in the same way Yul Brenner brought Pharoah's evil dictatorship. (although the whole Nefretiti thing got kinda weird)

It is certainly appropo that his death comes at the exact point in the year when every Jew remembers the exodus, the great salvation G-d brought to the Jewish people and unquestionably the leader who brought us out and gave us the Torah.

Although Moses is not mentioned once in the entire Hagadah, this year I have a feeling the loss of Heston will invoke a renewed sense of appreciation for the greatest leader in Jewish History. 

Boruch Dayan Emet