What We Do

Congregational Project
2008

From Slavery to Freedom:
Jewish and Christian Readings
of the Exodus

The second session of the Congregational Project began with a quick summary of the previous week's presenta-tion and a snapshot of coming attractions. The first session offered a framing of the basic structure of the exodus story and of some of the internal dynamics that define that story and create a pattern that plays itself out in both Jewish and Christian thought. The second session focused more narrowly on how the exodus narrative is embedded in Jewish liturgy and particularly in the Passover Haggadah. This discussion was led by ICJS Jewish Scholar Rabbi Joel H. Zaiman.

Rabbi Zaiman's Presentation

There is a commandment in Torah that states: "And you shall tell your child on that day, saying: ‘This is because of what the LORD did for me when I left Egypt’" (Exodus 13:8). So Torah commands that the story of the exodus be told, and told repeatedly. The command is laid on the head of household, who is to impart the story to his children.

The story of the exodus ends with the revelation at Sinai. Thus, God took the Israelites out of Egypt in order to give them Torah, that is, in order for God to reveal God's self to the Jewish people. The people who were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt were to become slaves to the LORD their God. One is truly free when he becomes a servant of the LORD and observes God's commandments. This is the most traditional framing of the exodus story in Jewish tradition.

The exodus story became the foundational story of the Jewish people because it spells out how and why the Jewish people came into being and how Jews understand themselves in relation to God, to one another, and to the world. This narrative is the lens through which the Jew sees the world, understands reality, and comes to understand who he or she is. The Jew must share this story with his children because it names his personal identity: He is part of the people whom God redeemed from Egypt, to whom God revealed God's self, and with whom God entered into covenant.

Jews do not "own" the story of the exodus. No one "owns" the story because anyone can claim it. Simply claiming a story, however, does not make it your story. You make a story your own by telling it and by living it. You live the story by naming its teachings and observing the commandments that derive from those teachings.

Rabbi Zaiman explained that, while he did not disagree with Dr. Catalano's presentation the week before, her reading was nevertheless that of a Christian biblical scholar. He then proceeded to look at some of the points made by Dr. Catalano and to interpret them from a Jewish perspective.

There is no indication in the Bible that the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt because they had sinned, but the sages were not satisfied with that omission. They looked for reasons in Torah, they found reasons, and they concluded that Israel did not go into Egyptian slav-ery for no reason. Israel's enslavement was the result of sin. In the prophets, and certainly in the rabbinic litera-ture, whatever evil befell the Jewish people happened because of their sins. The nations of the world who attacked and subjugated Israel -- including Egypt -- were acting as God's instruments. So God was in a serious way responsible for the Israelites' being slaves. And precisely because God was responsible for their be-ing slaves, God was capable of redeeming them.

In their enslavement the Israelites cried out to the LORD. Torah does not say that God looked at them and had compassion and redeemed them. The text says that God heard the Israelites cry out, and God remembered the covenant he had made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What the Israelites' outcry accomplished was to get God to remember the promises he had made. God re-deemed the children of Israel not because they were worthy, not because they were suffering, but because God had promised to redeem them.

The exodus story is a story of salvation. Told from a Jewish perspective, the story of salvation is communal: God saved the people Israel. Individual Israelites were of course saved, but only as part of the people. Moreover, the God of Israel did not, and does not, act on his own; God only acts in cooperation with the people Israel. In Judaism revelation, like salvation, is communal: At Sinai God revealed God's self to the entire Jewish people. (In Christianity and Islam, God revealed God's self to indi-viduals -- Jesus and Muhammad respectively.)

Text Study #1

The first text study concerned itself with the form of the exodus story. The text to be studied was taken from Pesahim 10:4 (Pesahim is one of the tractates of the Mishnah): "He begins (telling the story) with disgrace (degradation) and ends with the glory."

Participants were asked to discuss why the story of the exodus is to be told in this way -- beginning with degra-dation and ending with glory, but this question was never answered because people were upset by the no-tion that Israel was responsible for its own slavery, and they wanted to discuss that issue. One group pointed out that if this notion were taken a step further, it would imply that slaves in the United States were re-sponsible for their slavery. Rabbi Zaiman explained that the point of the idea as the rabbis expressed it is, that if you don't assume responsibility for your slavery, even as a false assumption, your freedom is diminished. Rabbi Zaiman added that he wasn't trying to sell the idea; he was merely pointing out that the notion is embedded in the rabbinic tradition and is part of the exodus story as it is interpreted.

Rabbi Zaiman then began to talk about the Haggadah, which is the "script" Jews use on Passover Eve to tell the story of the exodus. He explained that, although the Haggadah is primarily a product of the third century C.E., additions to it have been made over many cen-turies, so it is a work in constant progress. He was careful to note that additions may be made to the Hag-gadah because it is not a sacred text. The evening's second text study was taken from the Haggadah.

Text Study #2

The study involved two different views of how the cen-tral story of the exodus is to be told. There are other views, some of which are included in the Haggadah, but these two dominated the rabbinic conversation.

Shmuel said: Start with "we were slaves unto Pharaoh in Egypt …"
   We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt, and the LORD our God brought us forth from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. And if the Holy One, blessed be he, had not brought our fore-fathers forth from Egypt, then we, our children, and our children's children would still be Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt.
   So, even though all of us were wise, all of us full of under-standing, all of us elders, all of us knowing in the Torah, we should still be under the commandment to tell the story of the departure from Egypt. And the more one tells the story of the departure from Egypt, the more praiseworthy is he.

Rav said: Start with "In the beginning …"
   In the beginning our fathers were idolators but now the Omni-present has drawn us to his service, as it is said: "And Joshua said unto all the people: ‘Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Your fathers dwelt of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor; and they served other gods. And I took your father Abraham from beyond the River, and led him throughout all the land of Canaan, and multiplied his seed, and gave him Isaac. And I gave unto Isaac Jacob and Esau; and I gave unto Esau Mount Seir, to possess it; and Jacob and his children went down into Egypt’" (Joshua 24:2-4).

Participants were asked to discuss the following ques-tions: What is each sage saying, and how is what each is saying different from what the other is saying? What are the implications of that?

Summary Discussion

Both of these statements begin with degradation, but the source of the degradation is different: In Shmuel's case it is actual slavery in Egypt, a political issue; in Rav's case it is idolatry. Rav, then, is talking about spiritual slavery and asserting that what God did by re-deeming the people of Israel from Egypt was to save them from spiritual slavery and allow them to worship the one true God. One project participant mentioned that it says in Torah, "Let my people go that we may serve [God] in the wilderness." Shmuel and Rav, he said, are each looking at separate halves of that statement: "Let my people go" is political; "that we may serve God in the wilderness" is spiritual. He added that contempo-rary Jews also tend to look at only half of the story: They emphasize Pesach (Passover) and forget about Shavuot [the celebration of the giving of Torah at Sinai].

The rest of the discussion focused on the Jewish notion of how God saves. According to Torah and rabbinic lit-erature, God by God's self cannot bring about salvation. We need God's help, of course, but God also needs our help. If we do not do something about slavery or idolatry or any other serious problem, then we bear real respon-sibility for these conditions. From a Jewish perspective, nothing will change unless we participate in the change.

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