Meaning of the Exodus

What was the purpose of our sojourning in Egypt- what did it accomplish, and what changed when we left? These seem like simple questions, but it is important to realize that the Exodus is one of the biggest themes in the Bible. In fact, as we will see it is the first half of the defining aspect of Judaism- it is the difference between Judaism and other religions. (‘other’ used rather loosely)

The first of the Ten Commandments reads: ‘I am the L-rd your G-d who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of slavery.’ Nachmanidies asks the obvious question here: Why because of Egypt, and not because of G-d’s creation of the world? Surely the latter is the reason we listen to G-d?

Further compounding this question is the statement a few verses back:

3 And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying: 'Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: 4 Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto Myself. 5 Now therefore, if ye will hearken unto My voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be Mine own treasure from among all peoples; for all the earth is Mine; 6 and ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.'

It is practically explicit here that despite the entire earth belonging to G-d, G-d singles out one nation, because of what He did for them in Egypt, to keep his Torah. There is a midrash that is strangely explicit about this casual link. Pharaoh says to the Children of Israel upon freeing them ‘Behold you are free, behold you are the slaves of G-d.’ Whatever the specific meaning behind the children of Israel now being the slaves of G-d, the point is clears- because G-d freed us, therefore we are obliged in the commandments.

So what it seems to be is that G-d goes out of his way to take us out of Egypt and therefore we have to keep the Torah. But something seems funny here: Isn’t it the other way around? Didn’t we choose, via Abraham, G-d? Further, G-d promised to Abraham to take us out anyway, so why do we have to keep the Torah? He isn’t liberating us to give us the Torah, rather he is liberating us to keep his promise.

An earlier passage seems to bear this out further: (6:2-8)

2 And God spoke unto Moses, and said unto him: 'I am the LORD; 3 and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name YHWH I made Me not known to them. 4 And I have also established My covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their sojournings, wherein they sojourned. 5 And moreover I have heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered My covenant. 6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel: I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments; 7 and I will take you to Me for a people, and I will be to you a God; and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. 8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for a heritage: I am the LORD.'

So G-d is clearly aware that the reason he is doing this is because he made his promise to the forefathers to do so.

What is quite peculiar here is the end of verse 3 and the end of verse 7. What is this special name of YHWH? Implicit seems to be that this name is the name that relates to the deliverance from Egypt. This question is brought to the front by an interesting comment Rashi makes on the verse ‘Who is YHWH that I should listen to his voice?’- that Pharaoh had a big list of gods, and Elo-him was one of them, but YHWH was not. The implicit is, of course, that had Pharaoh recognized who YHWH was he would have obviously listen to Moses’ request for the Jews to leave. Why?

We can see the outline of the answer here: There is some casual relation to G-d delivering us from Egypt that has to do with the name YHWH, and that once rescued, because it was with YHWH, we establish a covenant with G-d. Let’s fill in the gaps.

The first time we see the name YHWH is in the second accounting of the creation story. The first story uses the name Elo-him and goes into much detail about the actual creation. G-d only relation to man (aside from creating him) is to give him free reign, but leaves him to his own devices. In the second creation narrative, everything is andocentric. Further, G-d places Adam in the garden to ‘work it and to guard it.’ In addition it is in this narrative that he gives the command to Adam not to eat the fruit.

What we see from here is that G-d merely as a creator has no relationship with man, and therefore is not worthy of being worshipped. He cannot command and he does not entrust. This is G-d as Elo-him. This is the G-d of the philosophers. Perhaps this is a nice idea of G-d to have- the ultimate power, the prime mover, the first cause, etc., but it is in no way relevant to our lives. Interestingly cognates of Elo-him are found throughout ancient literature. They seem to just mean god in a very vague and general sense.

However, G-d as YHWH is the G-d who interacts with the world and has an active relationship with man. He is the G-d who can create a world for man and He is the G-d who would rescue Israel from Egypt. Yes, He did rescue them because promised so to Abraham, but that wasn’t simply a promise: it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Torah is covenantal: it’s about our relationship with G-d, specifically a G-d worthy of having a relationship with.

Thus natural theology has NO place in Judaism. The mitzvos of the Torah are not about how the world is, but only about our relationship to ourselves, G-d, and fellow man. It is almost irrelevant whether the traditional narrative of creation is an accurate portrayal of history, for creation plays very little into the actual theology of Judaism. (except as a criticism of paganism and polytheism)