Shemot
Exodus 1:1 - 6:1
Précis: With this parasha, we begin the second book of the Bible, Exodus. In Hebrew, the title for this book is “Shemot” (names) because the first verses begin with a listing of “names” of the Israelites who came down to Egypt with Jacob, to dwell in Goshen in response to Joseph’s and Pharaoh’s offer. A new Pharaoh has arisen who “does not remember Joseph.” He enslaves the Israelites and orders the killing of all male children. A Levite male child is born, is hidden by his parents, and is sent down the river in a reed basket where he is saved by Pharaoh’s daughter. He is subsequently identified as Moses.
Nothing appears in the text about Moses’ childhood, other than that he is raised in the house of Pharaoh. As an adult, Moses witnesses a taskmaster beating a Hebrew and slays the taskmaster and, fearing disclosure, flees to the desert. There, Moses becomes a shepherd in the camp of Jethro, and encounters the burning bush and is told to free the Israelites. Moses and Aaron go before Pharaoh and ask that the people be freed to worship God in the desert. They are refused, and the parasha ends with God telling Moses, “You now will see what I will do to Pharaoh.”
Ex. 1:8 “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who knew not Joseph.”
As we begin the book of Shemot, with the sudden enslavement of the Jewish People, one can reasonably ask the following question: what did the Israelites do to deserve generations of slavery? Another way to ask this question is why the enslavement was “necessary.” I am hardly the first to ponder the question of why a just God would punish generations of Israelites with slavery. Rabbi Ismar Schorsch, former Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, has reviewed some of the traditional commentary in an article [reprinted in MyJewishLearning.com (12/14/10)].
Before agreeing to go down to Egypt, Jacob is reassured by God that Canaan will indeed be the heritage of his descendants ["I Myself will go down with you to Egypt and I Myself will also bring you back" (Gen. 46:4)]. Jacob, on his deathbed, is assured that he will be buried with his ancestors at Machpela, and that promise is also fulfilled. Joseph adds that the Israelites are in Egypt at God’s command. Perhaps Joseph recalls God’s statement to Abraham (Gen. 15:13) that his descendants would be enslaved in a foreign land for 400 years before being restored to the Promised Land.
Schorsch notes that the first “answer” for why slavery was required is found in the text itself: Canaan is not empty and its inhabitants are not yet wholly unworthy of it ["For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete" (Gen. 15:16)]. This implies that there will be a “just war” to oust the inhabitants, but only once they have engaged in behaviors sufficiently “evil” to justify their eviction. In this light, the delay in taking the Land is to wait for the inhabitants to fully merit expulsion. But this doesn’t explain why slavery of the Israelites was required; they could have leaved peacefully in exile while the Cannaites did whatever was necessary to earn God's scorn.
A second explanation is found in midrash, suggesting that only through redemption from slavery could the Israelites be prepared to acknowledge God’s sovereignty (Mekhilta d'R. Yishmael, Howoritz/Rabin ed., p. 219). As Schorsch says, “the context for covenant is redemption... without the Exodus there would have been no Sinai.”
A third (although similar) justification for the slavery is that it was a necessary prerequisite for the Israelites to be named a “Chosen People.” In order to be a “light to the nations” and display the attributes to which all humanity was to strive, they first had to experience the depths of the helplessness of slavery. Only out of that experience could they develop a society which would treasure justice and compassion for others.
Given our history, one could ask, like Tevye might say, “why can’t you chose somebody else once in a while?"
