A-Z OF JEWISH VALUES -

H FOR HISTORICAL AWARENESS

WHAT IF THE EXODUS NEVER HAPPENED?

If I were to tell you the Exodus never happened, I wonder what would be your reaction?

Shock, horror. Is the rabbi out of his mind? Is he going to be out of a job!?

I don’t know if you watched a documentary on TV recently on this subject in which eminent Israeli archaeologists maintained precisely that the Torah’s account of the Exodus is not rooted in fact. This kind of thing doesn’t shock me. I am prepared to believe that the Exodus never happened.

What were the main facts leading to this conclusion?

1. That the whole of Sinai at the time the Exodus was supposed to have taken place in the 13^th century BCE was policed by Egyptian fortresses. It would have been impossible for 600,000 Israelite men plus women and children – that is 2 million altogether, to get through in one month let alone 40 years. Quite apart from whether the Sinai desert could not support so many nomads, the powerful Egyptian state kept tight security over the whole area. The Crossing of the Red Sea (or Reed Sea) story would simply be irrelevant.

2. Who ruled Canaan at the time? The Egyptians were in military control. So in effect, Moses would have been leading them from Egypt to Egypt!

3. What’s more, there’s long been evidence that Joshua’s conquest of Jericho never occurred. A few weeks ago I visited Jericho. That city, the oldest in the world, has been excavated in great detail to reveal that it was abandoned during the 13th and 14th centuries BCE. It wouldn’t have existed at the time of Joshua! –though it did later when the story was put into writing.

I’m only telling you what archaeology has been teaching since the 1990’s. It can’t be ignored; it’s got to be faced. Why? - because Reform Judaism has always valued historical awareness –critical historical awareness at that.

The prevailing theory in Israel today is that our people probably emerged out of Canaan. They took on a new identity as Israelites, and were perhaps joined or led by a small group of kinfolk from Egypt – so there might be a kernel of truth according to some scholars.

In a book published this year, called "The Bible Unearthed," the Israeli archaeologist Israel Finklestein of Tel Aviv University and the archaeological journalist Neil Asher Silberman (no relation) raised similar doubts and offered a new theory about the roots of the Exodus story. They argue that it was written during the time of King Josiah of Judah in the 7th century BCE, 600 years after the Exodus.

I don’t find any of this problematic. Much as I would like to believe the Exodus story as recorded in the Torah, it might sound surprising, but I don’t believe that Pesah depends on the factuality of it for its powerful message and influence on liberation movements worldwide and on individuals like you and I, many of us from families who experienced our own Egypts and escaped persecution – and we carry on their faith.

There are, it’s true, some scholars who still hold that the Exodus story has a basis in fact.

They say that the evidence falls into place if the story is dated much earlier to 1450 BCE, the time of Pharaoh Amenhotep, a great builder and slave driver, instead as is gene of as is generally believed Ramases II. This is not accepted among historians. Its puts all chronology out.

Some point to the existence of Egyptian Semitic looking slaves on Egyptian artefacts who could have been Israelites, and say that you would not expect evidence of their wanderings because they were nomads and would not have left records.

There is also evidence that, what we know from the Torah as slaves in Egypt, were in fact indentured workers.

Anyone who preaches on this theme is bound to come in for a barrage of criticism. Indeed the revisionist archaeologists have been the subject of a public outcry in Israel.

Since the excavations of Finklestein and others over the past 30 years have discredited the view that the Exodus generation established the first Israelite settlements in what are now the West Bank territories, they’ve come under vehement attack for their theories and been accused of having pro-Palestinian political agendas.

Among scholars who are Orthodox Jews, there’s at least one who accepts the main theses of the archaeologists. Dr Lawrence Schiffman, Prof. of Hebrew and Judaic studies at New York University who believes you have to be a “bit crazy" to accept the number of Israelites involved in the Exodus But he still maintains that a significant number of Israelite slaves fled Egypt for Canaan, And Schiffman says that the account in Joshua of a swift military campaign is less credible than the account in the Book of Judges of a gradual takeover of Canaan.

The scholarly consensus seems to be that the story is a glorious mixture of myth, memories and nuggets of historical truth. What may happened was that a small group of Semitic people who escaped from Egypt became the nucleus of a new nation with the name of Israel, perhaps joining others who had remained in the land.

Whenever you tell a good story to children they commonly ask: Is it true?

Is the Exodus story true? No – not in the sense of historical facts.

But then, our ancestors were not writing history. They wrote and rewrote, of their experience of the highest Power in the Universe, the Creator for whom they could not even find a name so they used several.

And with brilliant artistry they wove folk myths and poetry, songs, dreams, visions, and the ancient ritual of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (which may be even older than the Exodus) into a wonderful narrative – but not a fairy tale. Far from it. Rather a paradigm of freedom and social justice.

Whatever the facts of the story, those values have endured and inspired the world over the millennia--and that is the point.

There is no such thing as history which is just facts. History is the way we tell our story – it is a reflection of our values. The myths are also part of the history, and reflect our values.

What has always fascinated me about the Haggadah is this: Haggadah means narration, telling the story. Does it? Haggadah goes out of its way not to tell the story! At least not in a straightforward way, rather through midrashim bearing message of a historical and spiritual nature.

In the section called Maggid (meaning ‘narrating) we have an assortment of midrashim, believed to date from the Jewish Diaspora in Alexandria in the 1^st century CE. It focuses on the effect that Egypt had on the Jews. It’s purpose seems to be to teach lessons like– don’t stay in Exile in Egypt, make Aliyah! Another section says a Syrian oppressed my ancestor. This probably dates from the time of the Maccabees.

After the 10 plagues there are 3 extra: ‘dam vaesh vetimrot ashan’: blood fire and pillars of smoke. That’s a reference to the destruction of the Temple by the Romans.

Dayenu – expresses gratitude for all the good times despite the bad. We can all relate to this. Historically it is not limited to the Exodus it goes up to the Temple (bet habechirah) and modern versions have taken it up to the present day.

Haggadah isn’t a history lesson. It’s a sacred story, conveying spiritual experience and teachings from all the periods of exile and oppression we’ve endured.

Ha Lachma – we say in the Aramaic of the Persian Period, ‘this is the bread of affliction… let all who are hungry come in and eat with us’….

Bechol dor vador –in every generation men rise up against us to destroy us… but the Eternal one delivers us… - there have been not one but many many Exoduses, and we have been liberated so many times even within living memory.

Haggadah ritualizes family relationships from the eldest to the youngest, encourages questioning, even introduces the critical doubter – the ‘rasha’ the wicked son. He doesn’t say the Exodus never happened. He says ‘what does all this service mean to you?- in a cynical tone. The service has a significance which goes way beyond the story.

And what do you reply to the doubter -
It is because of what the Eternal did for me when I came forth from Egypt.

For me – ultimately it is the Egypt that you and I, your family and my family have to be liberated from – which makes Pesach the Festival of Freedom full of meaning in our lives.