The Exodus Revisited: How Unity Defines the Jewish Experience

The Exodus Revisited: How Unity Defines the Jewish Experience

If we look into the texts of our sages throughout the ages, we will indeed find that the exodus from Egypt details a process that we, as Jews, went through and are going through again today. If we take time to understand this process better, we will find compelling answers to many of today’s most pressing questions for the Jews, such as why there is Jewish self-hatred and its repercussions.

The story of our exile in Egypt describes in detail how it all started with intense hatred between brothers, specifically with the hatred of Jacob’s sons toward their youngest brother, Joseph. Their spite was so intense that they wanted to kill him, and they would have, had it not been for the intervention of Reuben, Jacob’s eldest son. This is why instead of killing Joseph, the brothers decided to throw him in the dry pit and subsequently sold him as a slave to a caravan of Ishmaelites heading for Egypt (Genesis 37:18–28).

Although the brothers eventually decide to “mitigate” their crime and refrain from slaying Joseph, the Talmud (Shabbat 10b) explains that their hatred is the reason why the children of Israel went into exile in Egypt. It writes that the brothers envied Joseph for being Jacob’s favorite son.

The correction comes through Joseph’s forgiveness. Although he was now the viceroy in Egypt, and Pharaoh “took off his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand” (Genesis 41:42), Joseph was not at all vindictive toward his brothers. Instead, he showed them nothing but compassion, love, and generosity. When they came to Egypt looking for relief from the hunger they had suffered in Canaan, he cleverly made them bring Jacob, his father, down to Egypt.

Pharaoh supported the unity of the Hebrews. He gave the best land in Egypt exclusively to them, the land of Goshen (Genesis 45:9–11), where they lived in prosperity and were allowed to cultivate their unique way of life — continuously enhancing unity — not only uninterrupted but with his full support. Eventually, that unique unity became the essence of Judaism. As the book Yaarot Devash (Part 2, Drush no. 2) tells us, the word Yehudi (Jew) comes from the word Yihudi, meaning united.

They lived in prosperity for the rest of Joseph’s life. The problems began when he died. Pharaoh, says the book Noam Elimelech, is called the evil inclination. When he told Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, yet without your permission, no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt,” he meant that Joseph would rule over Egypt because he would do so in unity. Without it, he would have no reason to give any special favor to Joseph’s kin.[1]

Indeed, after Joseph’s death, the Hebrews did not stick together. They wanted to be like the Egyptians: egoists. Midrash Rabbah (Exodus, 1:8) writes, “When Joseph died, they said, ‘Let us be as the Egyptians.’” Because they did so, the text adds, Pharaoh looked at the children of Israel after Joseph and did not recognize Joseph in them, namely the tendency to unite. Therefore, Pharaoh declared new decrees upon them.

The Book of Consciousness (Chapter 22) explains even more explicitly that had the Hebrews not abandoned their way of unity, they would not have suffered.

Moses’ Leadership

The nation of Israel remained fragmented until one of the most pivotal figures in world history emerged, Moses. When he arrived, he began to reunite Israel under his leadership until they finally escaped the rule of Pharaoh, who turned against them after Israel disintegrated as a nation.

Moses knew that the only way to save the Hebrews was to get them out of Egypt, out of the egoism that had been destroying their relationships. The Hebrew name Moshe (Moses) is derived from the word Moshech (pulling) because he is the one who pulled Israel out of exile. That is, like Joseph before him, Moses gathered the people around him and thus liberated them from Egypt.

In the desert, at the foot of Mt. Sinai, whose name derives from the word Sinaa (hatred), the people of Israel consolidated their unity to the point where they became as one. This is why the great 11th-century commentator RASHI described them “as one man with one heart.”[2]

This degree of unity was the condition for the totality of the strangers who joined Abraham’s message to be declared a nation. There, at the foot of the mountain, was the official birth of the nation of Israel. From then on, our fate would depend on our unity. The link between disunity and adversity has not been broken since.

Moses restored the Hebrews’ commitment to unity as an antidote to egoism — self-interest at the expense of others — to overcome the countless trials and tribulations they faced. This has been the essence of Judaism ever since, or as Hillel the Elder put it in the Talmud: “That which you hate, do not do unto your neighbor; this is the whole of the Torah” (Shabbat, 31a).