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Exodus


The death of the firstborn finally breaks Pharaoh's resistance and he literally begs the Children of Israel to leave his land. Following G-d's command, they hastily depart; so hastily that there is no time for their dough to rise, and the only provisions they take along are unleavened. Before they go, they ask their Egyptian neighbors for gold, silver and garments, emerging from Egypt a wealthy nation.

The Children of Israel are commanded to observe the anniversary of the Exodus each year by removing all leaven from their possession for seven days, eating matzah, and telling the story of their redemption to their children.

Soon after allowing the Children of Israel to depart from Egypt, Pharaoh chases after them to force their return, and the Israelites find themselves trapped between Pharaoh's armies and the sea. G-d tells Moses to raise his staff over the water; the sea splits to allow the Israelites to pass through, and then closes over the pursuing Egyptians. Moses and the Children of Israel sing a song of praise and gratitude to G-d.


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Painting by Chassidic artist Zalman Kleinman.

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Reader Comments
Latest Comments:
Posted: Apr 23, 2011
EXODUS
This will make a great addition to our Seder Haggadah I have already added probable reasons for what the plaques were to represent to the Egyptians. I thought though that Moses speech problem was from the hot coal. Anyone?
Posted By Richard Singer, Livingston, NJ
via jnet.org

Posted: Apr 1, 2010
Re: No Time?
Nowhere does it say that they only took their coat and unleavened bread. They had to bake enough bread for a long journey very fast, so there was no time to let it rise--especially when they had these orders from Moses to go to the Egyptians and ask for their stuff. The reason they had to do this was in order to fulfill the promise to Abraham, that his children would leave Egypt with great wealth. It was also fair pay for their hard labor while there.
Posted By Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

Posted: Mar 31, 2010
Re: Reply
I thought of a couple of answers, and threw them all out. This article, however, may help us somewhat: Does G-d Really Need to Punish the Wicked?
Posted By Tzvi Freeman

Posted: Mar 31, 2010
No Time?
I'm confused. They have no time to grab more than their coat and the un-risen bread, but they have time to get gold from their neighbors? That makes NO sense... Plus it says they took their critters. So time for critters and plunder, yes. Time for personal goods, no?
Posted By Anonymous, mytown, USA

Posted: Mar 29, 2010
Reply
I understand that there may have been complicity by some - but probably not all. I am more concerned about the concept that if G-d bekieves that terrorism is a good strategy to accomplish a political goal, why not us?
Posted By Jeffrey Brown, White Plains, NY

Posted: Mar 29, 2010
Re: Terrorism and the Ten Plaques
Interesting point. I suppose the question is concerning G-d's justice. It seems, however, that others have beaten us to the issue. Rashi quotes the Pesikhta Rabba: "Why were the sons of the slave women smitten? Because they too were enslaving them [the Jews] and were happy about their misfortune."
Posted By Rabbi Tzvi Freeman

Posted: Mar 28, 2010
Terrorism and the Ten Plaques
At first glance,it appears as if G-d is using a manual of terrorism to accomlish His goal of freeing the Irsraelites. Instead of attacking the Pharo and his armies directly, he tries destabalize the Egyptian government by terrorizing the civilian population by attacking the food and water supply, the power source (darkness), using biological warfare (boils), psychological warfare (lightening with hail, insect swarms), and finally kills first born civilians regardless of complicity. The strategy works. Am I missing something?
Posted By Jeffrey Brown, White Plains, NY



 


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