Exodus: Bo: Do You Believe the Exodus Happened?

Rabbi H. Rafael Goldstein, Vice President/Jewish Affairs of Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Phoenix, AZ, and the rabbi of Congregation Kolot in Irvine, CA, wrote this for the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center about Parashat Bo (Exodus 10:1-13:16).

A few months ago, we looked at the three distinct Creation stories in the Bible – the story of the seven days of creation, Adam and Eve, and Noah. These stories are allegories: stories that teach important lessons and values and are the basis for our religious beliefs and traditions, but they are not science or history. Jewish tradition has always looked at these stories with the understanding that they are theology, attempts to understand our relationship with G!d and the universe.

This week, we continue reading about the Exodus from Egypt – the Ten Plagues which G!d used to attain the liberation of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt. But many people have asked whether we believe the story of the Ten Plagues or the Crossing of the Red Sea are historically accurate; can they be scientifically proven? Is the Exodus from Egypt an allegory, just like the creation stories? Since there is a lack of archeological evidence proving the Exodus, did it happen?

The problem for me is one of belief. Do I really need to have proof to believe in something? Quite the contrary: it seems to me that if I have proof, I don’t need to believe. Does belief imply a foolish lack of care with regard to veracity of the belief; is belief blind? Is it naïve to believe in the miraculous experience of the Ten Plagues, and the parting of the Red Sea, and to think that miracles could happen in other ways at other times? Does it make a difference if I believe in G!d, but not that G!d could do, or did, the miracles associated with the Exodus from Egypt?

The Exodus is the # 1 most important event in Jewish history. Just about everything is related to it. We were slaves in Egypt; we were strangers in a strange land; we know what oppression is; we know what miraculous liberation is. As a result of the Exodus from Egypt, we are unified as a people, and become the people who struggle with G!d and Torah, which we could only receive as a result of leaving Egypt. We are reminded that G!d brought us out of the land of Egypt to be our G!d, to give us the mitzvot, (acts of commandment which are to our spiritual benefit to do), to make us people who connect with G!d through our tradition. Because G!d brought us out of Egypt, we are supposed to honor our parents, not murder or kidnap, and recognize the validity of all of the other rules by which we are supposed to live. Everything we do as Jews is based on this unique experience of G!d being involved in this one-time event.

What was the purpose of the Ten Plagues? To convince Pharaoh to let our people go? But that doesn’t make sense. If G!d wanted to get Pharaoh to do something, anything, all G!d had to do was zap him. Pharaoh couldn’t be the goal. Was it the Egyptians, then? Once again, that’s not likely. The purpose of the plagues was to enable the entire people of Israel to understand and see a connection to a powerful, caring and involved G!d. The plagues were not about Pharaoh or the Egyptians; they are about us and G!d. Our ancestors, living in Goshen had not had any contact with G!d for nearly 400 years, since the time of Joseph - no phone calls, emails, letters, nothing. They didn’t know from G!d. The Ten Plagues were a crash course introducing G!d, our G!d, not the Egyptian Pharaoh, who thought he was G!d, to our people and to us.

We are supposed to see ourselves as if we personally left Egypt, as if we personally experienced these miracles, so that we can and will see G!d involved in our lives, and caring and about us. That’s really hard to do at the same time as we deny that it happened!

So, did it happen? Or did something happen, but not what is described in the Bible? Or, if something did happen, why is there no proof? I believe the proof is in the question – in the fact that 4,000 or so years later we’re still arguing about it. No matter how we answer this question, there will be other people with lots of other approaches to understanding what it means to consider this unique example of G!d’s intervention in the world. I believe it happened not because there is archeological or historical or scientific evidence of it, but because there is religious evidence: we are here and Judaism is derived from this experience of leaving Egypt. This experience is how we know G!d, how G!d was revealed to each of us, when we left Egyptian bondage.

There is a connection between the allegories of creation and the Ten Plagues. All are stories of miraculous involvement of G!d in the world. But the Exodus from Egypt goes beyond story, beyond allegory, right to the heart of what we believe we are and what we are supposed to do being who we are.

May it be Your will, Holy One of Blessing, to enable us to see Your involvement in our own lives and the lives of all humanity. May we see ourselves as if we personally struggled with slavery in Egypt, and learn from that experience to trust in Your compassion to lead us from our own personal darkness into the light. As You were there for us in our worst of times as a people, so may You also be there for each of us in our darkest hours, and in our most joyous moments.

Rabbi H. Rafael Goldstein, BCC, wrote this Torah Reflection. He is the Vice President/Jewish Affairs of Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Phoenix, AZ, and the rabbi of Congregation Kolot in Irvine, CA. It is brought to you by the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center (a beneficiary of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, the Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties), an affiliate of the Institute on Aging, in collaboration with the Center for Life Enrichment of Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Phoenix, AZ and the Deutsch Family Shalom Center, Temple Chai of Phoenix, AZ.