Welcome to Exdous! Exdous is the book about the Israelite's liberation in the land of Egypt. In this portion, Joseph and his brothers have been long gone. The new Pharaoh had no idea who Joseph was, and the Israelites were no longer this tiny bunch of Israelites living in the land of Egypt. Pharaoh thought the Israelites would fight with the enemy of Egypt and take them down.
Pharaoh ordered each Israelite boy born be thrown in the Nile. A Levite baby,Moses, went down a basket and saved by Pharaoh's daughter. One day he was out watching the Israelites work and saw an Egyptian strikng a slave. He struck the Egyptian down. Scared of Pharaoh, he ran away. He lived in Midian with Jethro, his father-in-law and his wife, Zipporah. He thought Egypt was no longer part of him.
One day God contacted him through a burning bush, but the as it burned there was no damage. God told Moses that he was chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egypt to the land of milk and honey where Abraham, Isaac and Jacob dwelled. Then, Moses and God went back and forth, for Moses did not want to do this task. After some holy persuasion, Moses packed for Egypt. Reunited with his brother, Aaron, he confronted Pharaoh. When Pharaoh heard of this, he gave the slaves more work.
This portion is extraordinarily the responsibily for the Holocaust. Hitler was not all that creative when he formed his plot. This portion told him how to convince people to hate Jews. By making them look as the "more powerful other". To take them down, kill them or work them to death. Unfortunately, no Moses stopped the Holocaust in time.
People say that the most important things taught are math and english. Math teaches you how to think, and english teaches you how to put those thoughts into words. If anyone would include another subject, science teaches us about what is going on around us. History is just as important.
History repeats itself just as it did in the 1930's and '40's. Today it is taught, but being a student I find there are two types of history. There is history with the dates, people, places, and events. Then, there are the lessons of history. The
Israelites of Egypt were not doing anything wrong, but ignorance betrayed them. The
Jews of Europe were not doing anything wrong, but ignorance of history betrayed them.
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