abstract:According to the Bible, Gershom (; ) was the firstborn son of Moses and Zipporah. The name appears to mean a sojourner there (גר שם ger sham), which the text argues was a reference to Moses' flight from Egypt; biblical scholars regard the name as being essentially the same as Gershon,Cheyne and Black, Encyclopedia Biblica and it is Gershom rather than Gershon who is sometimes listed by the Book of Chronicles, as a founder of one of the principal Levite factions.
And it is true, as Gershom Gorenberg argues in his racy discussion of the various weird cults with designs on Temple Mount, that Jerusalem does not want for religious crackpots of every persuasion who would resort to violence in pursuit of some millenarian dream.