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Passover-
THE
STORY OF THE EXODUS
Table
of Contents
PASSOVER
-THE STORY OF THE EXODUS
Going
Down to Egypt:
Passover
celebrates G-d's taking the Israelites out of slavery from Egypt
and bringing them to the Promised Land. But what were the Israelites
doing in Egypt in the first place, and how did they get there?
The children of Israel's trek down to Egypt actually begins with
their forefather, Abraham. Abraham was the first person to acknowledge
a purely monotheistic G-d. As a consequence, G-d promises to make
his descendants into a great nation. The making of a great nation,
like the making of anything great, is a complex process. So G-d
tells Abraham that in order to become one united nation, his children
must experience common suffering that is to include exile, enslavement
and persecution in a land that is not theirs. Only then will they
come into their inheritance--the land of Canaan (Genesis 15:13).
Three generations later, the descent to Egypt begins with Joseph.
Life is often an intricate weave of seemingly negative experiences
that in hindsight end up being the perfect solution. When Joseph's
brothers sold him to a band of Ishmaelites who took him to Egypt
as a slave, they certainly could not have foreseen that two decades
later he would be the Egyptian Viceroy who would save all of Egypt
and his own family from starvation. Once all the brothers were reunited,
with five more years of famine still ahead of them, Joseph brought
his father and the rest of the children of Israel to Egypt (a total
of 70 souls) and resettled them in Egypt in the land of Goshen.
Slavery:
In Egypt, Joseph was widely acknowledged as the people's savior.
After Joseph's death, however, the Bible reports that a new Pharaoh
came to power who "did not know Joseph." Now saying that
this new Pharaoh did not know who Joseph was, is like saying a person
born in the 1970's does not know who John F. Kennedy was. Rather
it implies that Pharaoh chose not to acknowledge Joseph's contributions
to Egypt's survival. He and his advisors set out to destroy the
Jews, who were flourishing in the land of Goshen. They protested
that the Jews were growing far too numerous and that, should there
be a war, the Jews would be a fifth column, fighting against them
from within.
How does one go about enslaving an entire nation with subtlety?
Pharaoh called for a "National Unity Program" in which
everyone was to volunteer to help build the new store cities of
Pithom and Ramses (something along the lines of a community barn
raising). At the beginning of the program, everyone came. Later
on,however, only the Israelites came, perhaps to demonstrate how
loyal they were to Pharoah. Over time, the one-time volunteers became
forced laborers, and Pharaoh demanded of them the same yield that
they had produced previously. Thus they were enslaved.
The Israelites lived in Egypt for 210 years, serving for many of
those years as slaves. The Egyptians were harsh taskmasters, who
relished in being cruel to the Israelites. Beyond the physical labor,
the Israelites suffered moral degradation...men were forced to do
the work usually done by women, and women were forced to do the
work of men. Pharaoh's astrologers predicted that the Israelites
would be saved by a Hebrew boy yet to be born. Pharaoh could not
allow this to occur. First he ordered the midwives that when an
Israelite woman gives birth, "if it is a boy, you shall kill
him, but if it is a girl, she may live" (Exodus 1:16). But
the midwives refused to kill the children and told Pharaoh that
the Jewish women gave birth without assistance. Pharaoh, however,
then took the matter into his own hands and declared to his people:
"Every boy that is born, you shall cast into the Nile, but
every girl you shall keep alive" (Exodus 1:22).
The Israelite slaves were often forced to stay in the fields, separated
from their families, but the women refused to allow their families
to be torn asunder. When the men were exhausted from the physical
labor and afraid to have children lest their children be killed,
the women went out to the fields and "seduced" their husbands
so that Israelite children would continue to be born, ensuring the
continuity of the people.
Despite the Egyptian efforts to destroy them, the Jewish people
continued to grow.
Into this desperate situation, Moses was born. Moses' parents, Amram
and Yocheved were both from the tribe of Levi. Before the decree
to murder the male children, they already had two children, Aaron
and Miriam. After the decree to drown every male child was issued,
a second son was born, Moses. To save the life of their son, Yocheved
put the babe Moses in a basket covered with pitch and set the basket
in the Nile. Miriam followed her baby brother as the current carried
him toward the bathing pool of Pharaoh's daughter.
When Pharaoh's daughter saw that the basket contained a baby boy,
she knew that it was a Jewish child, but nevertheless decided to
keep him and raise him as her own child. Miriam immediately hurried
forth to volunteer Yocheved as a nursemaid for the baby. Thus until
he was weened, Moses was raised by a Jewish nursemaid, who was really
his mother, before returning to Pharaoh's daughter.
Moses was a full member of the Egyptian court and was regarded by
Pharaoh as a grandson. But Moses was also sensitive to the injustices
that were being done to his brethren, the Jews. One day, Moses witnessed
an Egyptian taskmaster mercilessly beating a Jew. He saw that there
was no one about, and killed the taskmaster in order to save the
Israelite's life. Quickly, before there were any witnesses, he buried
the body in the sand. The very next day, however, when he came upon
two Jews arguing and tried to stop them, they threatened Moses by
saying: Do you wish to kill us as you killed the Egyptian? Realizing
that if even these two Israelite slaves knew of his actions, then
so did Pharaoh.
Moses fled Egypt to Midian where he met Tzippora, the daughter of
Jethro (a former high priest of Midian who had turned to monotheism).
After marrying Tzippora, Moses became one of Jethro's shepherds
and lived a pastoral and peaceful life...but not for long.
One day, while shepherding the flocks, Moses followed a stray lamb
and came upon a bush surrounded by flames, yet the bush was not
consumed by the fire. At the burning bush (which was located on
Mount Sinai), G-d first spoke to Moses and instructed him to return
to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of slavery. Moses, however,
did not believe that he was the right person for the task...after
all, he had a speech impediment, and he had an older brother who
was perhaps more appropriate for the job. But G-d had chosen Moses,
and so Moses went back to Egypt where his older brother Aaron served
as his spokesman.
Redemption
From Slavery:
Taking
the Jews out of Egypt was no easy task. G-d warned Moses that Pharaoh's
heart would be hardened. In fact, after Moses and Aaron's first
visit to Pharaoh's palace, Pharaoh ordered an increase in the workload
of his slaves. The slaves would now be responsible for supplying
their own straw for the manufacture of bricks. The Israelites groaned
under the weight of their oppression and accused Moses and Aaron
of making things worse.
But G-d strengthened Moses, and told him that now he would soon
see the strength of G-d, which would result in Pharaoh's freeing
the Hebrews.
Now that Pharaoh had hardened his heart and refused to let the Israelites
go, G-d could bring down his wrath upon Egypt. While it is true
that G-d had told Abraham that his descendants would serve another
people, and the Egyptians were therefore only fulfilling G-d's command,
they had gotten carried away with their divine role and were wicked
and vicious beyond the call of duty.
When Moses and Aharon next went to the palace to request freedom
for their brethren and were refused, G-d turned the Nile River into
blood. Each of the subsequent nine plagues followed the pattern:
Moses and Aharon requested permission to leave, Pharaoh refused,
Egypt and the Egyptians were smitten with a plague, while the Israelites
were spared. The Egyptians would then cry out, and Pharaoh would
beg for mercy and agree to let the Israelites go. Then Pharaoh would
change his mind, and the next cycle would begin.
What
exactly were the ten plagues?
BLOOD - The Nile River turned
to blood. But it wasn't just the river that turned to blood, it
was all the water in Egypt. People would go to get something to
drink from their barrels of stored water, but it had turned to blood.
People would take a drink from what they thought was a clean source,
and it would be blood. However, when an Israelite took water from
the same source, it would remain water. The plague of blood was
particularly distressing to the Egyptians because they worshiped
the Nile.
FROGS - The land of Egypt was overrun
by frogs. This may not seem like a big deal at first glance, after
all, some people think frogs are cute, but the frogs were truly
everywhere! There were frogs in the beds, frogs in the cupboards,
frogs in the pots, even frogs in the oven. And whenever the Egyptians
would hit a frog in order to kill it, the Midrash tells us, that
the frog would split into two, producing even more frogs.
LICE - To initiate the plague of lice,
G-d commanded Aharon via Moshe to hit the ground with his staff.
The dust on the ground turned to lice and spread throughout Egypt.
WILD BEASTS - "Lions and tigers
and bears, oh my!" Wild animals of all sorts crossed over the
borders of Egypt and ravaged the land. The Egyptians couldn't leave
their homes, for fear of being attacked, yet the wild animals would
walk right past the Israelites without harming them.
PESTILENCE - The Egyptian cattle that
had survived the ravaging of the wild beasts, were struck with pestilence
and died. No Jewish owned cattle died, even those in close proximity
to the Egyptian cattle. The first five plagues taught the Egyptians
that their possessions were lost and their wealth ephemeral.
BOILS - From head to toe, the Egyptians
were covered with painful boils
HAIL - The hail storm of the seventh
plague was a "fireworks" display of G-d's power. The hail
consisted of baseball-sized chunk of ice accompanied by fiery lightening.
The physical destruction was immense.
LOCUSTS
- Not much was left of Egypt by the time the plague of locust arrived.
The cattle were dead, the buildings destroyed, morale was low, and
then the locusts arrived. An enormous swarm darkened the sky and
devoured anything that remained of the crops.
DARKNESS - For three days, total darkness
descended on Egypt. The Sages taught that the darkness was so intense
that it served as a physical restriction as well, leaving the Egyptians
unable to move. The Jews, however, could see where they were going
and were unaffected by the darkness.
DEATH OF THE FIRST BORN - By the time
Pharaoh was threatened with the final plague--the death of all the
firstborn of Egypt, his nation was begging him to release the Israelites.
But Pharaoh was obstinate, and would not let them go. The night
that the first born Egyptians died is the first night of Passover.
Indeed, this was the only plague for which the Jews needed to prepare
themselves so that they would not be harmed. In order to be "passed-over,"
Moses instructed the Israelites to mark their doorposts with lamb's
blood. And in the darkness of the midnight hour, G-d smote all of
the first born in the land of Egypt.
Crossing
the Sea of Reeds:
Pharaoh
now demanded that Moses lead the Israelites out of his land immediately!
The people quickly gathered their belongings, including the bread
that had not had sufficient time to rise, the matzah, and hurried
forth into the wilderness.
Once the Israelites had left, however, Pharaoh, looking out over
his destroyed land, grew angry, and changed his mind. Calling forth
his army of chariots, he set out after the Israelites.
Three days later, the Israelites were stopped dead in their tracks.
Before them lay the waters of the Sea of Reeds (also called the
Red Sea). Mountains loomed on either side. And behind them was the
swiftly approaching army of the Egyptians. There was nowhere to
turn, there was simply nowhere to go, so the Israelites...screamed
at Moses.
"Aren't there enough graves in Egypt? We should have stayed
there," they shouted. Indeed some of the people even suggested
turning around and returning to Egypt. Moses pleaded with G-d for
assistance, and G-d instructed him to tell the people to travel
forth. When they arrived at the water, G-d told Moses to stretch
out his hand over the sea and it would split. Moses did so. He instructed
the people to go forward, but they hesitated. One man, Nachshon
ben Aminadav, from the tribe of Judah, stepped forward and waded
into the sea. The water came to his waist, to his shoulders, to
his chin, but he continued forward as Moses stretched out his arm
over the water. As the water reached Nachshon's lips, the sea burst
apart, providing a stretch of dry land on which the Israelites were
able to cross.
The Israelites hurried across the sea, but the Egyptians were close
behind. No sooner had the last Israelite stepped out of the sea,
when G-d instructed Moses to once again stretch out his hand over
the sea, and the water came crashing down.
The Egyptians, in their mighty chariots, were crushed in the swirling
waters. According to the Midrash only one Egyptian survived, Pharaoh.
The sea spit Pharaoh out on the far side of the water so that he
could witness both the destruction of his own people, and bear testimony
to the redemption of the Israelites.
Moving
Forward:
From
the crossing of the Sea of Reeds, the Israelites continued into
travel into the wilderness of Sinai. There, gathered at the base
of Mount Sinai, the same spot when G-d appeared to Moses in the
burning bush, the People of Israel received the Torah from G-d and
were forged into a great and a holy nation....
And
that is why we celebrate Passover.
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