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COURSE GUIDE PASSOVER: THE EXODUS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN. This guide corresponds to the video: The Exodus That Could Have Been

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© Aleph Beta Academy

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Sponsored by: The Areivim Philanthropic Group The Hoffberger Institute for Torah Study

This guide corresponds to the video:

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What’s This Course About? ... ii

Course Goals ... iii

Video Segments – At a Glance ... 1

Video Discussion Points, Activity Suggestions, and Sample Course Assessments ... 2

Segment 1: Jacob’s Burial and the Exodus ... 3

Segment 2: Joseph’s Two Dads ... 4

Segment 3: Honoring Jacob ... 5

Segment 4: God, the Father of the Exodus ... 6

Segment 5: Another Father (In Heaven) ... 7

Sample Course Assessments ... 8

Additional Activity Suggestions and Video Outlines ... 9

Additional Activity Suggestions ... 10

Segment 1: Jacob’s Burial and the Exodus – Video Outline ... 11

Segment 2: Joseph’s Two Dads – Video Outline ... 16

Segment 3: Honoring Jacob – Video Outline ... 20

Segment 4: God, the Father of the Exodus – Video Outline ... 24

Segment 5: Another Father (In Heaven) – Video Outline ... 28

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How are Jacob’s burial and the Exodus connected?

How were both Jacob and Pharaoh like fathers to Joseph?

How is God like a father?

In this course Rabbi Fohrman examines the Exodus through the lens of the narrative of Jacob’s burial, exploring the roles of the father figure and the different Pharaohs in each narrative, and

suggesting that perhaps there is an Exodus that might have been.

This teacher’s guide was written by Dr. Sarah Levy and accompanies Rabbi Fohrman’s teaching using the concepts of backwards design and focusing on the goals of the course. Included in this

guide are video discussion points, activities, and companion guides for each segment, which suggest points at which to pause the videos and engage with the students. The companion guides

contain relevant texts and graphic organizers designed to help enhance student learning. Additional activities and video outlines can also be found within this guide and include other ideas for reinforcing the main points of the videos. As an added resource, the guide also contains review

questions to check student understanding after each video, as well as a selection of sample assessments for the course that could either be used as a formal measure of student learning or an

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By the end of this course, focused upon exploring the Exodus through the lens of Jacob’s burial, students will…

Grasp the following enduring understandings:

 God is the ultimate Father.

 Biblical narratives can be read through different lenses.

Be able to address the following essential questions:

 In what way(s) is God a father?

 To whom is God a father?

 How can reading the text through a specific lens affect the meaning?

 How are Jacob’s burial and the Exodus connected?

Know:

 The basic narrative of the Exodus

 The basic narrative of Jacob’s death

 The connections between the two narratives

 How Jacob’s burial is the Exodus That Could Have Been

 The significance of Jacob and his death to Egypt

 The importance of Jacob’s burial for Joseph

Be able to:

 Compare the two narratives

 Explain the connections between the two narratives

 Describe the different

father/son relationships in the narratives

 Explain why Joseph needed 17 years to prove himself

 Show how Jacob’s burial served as a blueprint for the Exodus

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Segment

Summary

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How are Jacob’s burial and the Exodus connected?

Rabbi Fohrman introduces a question related to the Exodus and draws connections between Jacob’s burial and the Exodus itself in order to begin to explore the deeper meaning of these narratives.

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How were both Jacob and Pharaoh like fathers to Joseph?

Rabbi Fohrman looks closely at the death and burial of Jacob, showing how both Jacob and Pharaoh are father figures to Joseph, making Joseph’s commitment to burying Jacob in Canaan even more significant.

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What was the significance of Jacob’s death to Egypt?

Rabbi Fohrman examines the burial proceedings for Jacob, showing how Pharaoh and Egypt made special efforts to honor him one last time. Rabbi Fohrman suggests that there were two heroes in this story, Joseph and Pharaoh, and hints at a

connection to Exodus.

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How is God like a father?

Rabbi Fohrman delves deeper into the Exodus story, examining God’s role as Father and Creator before returning to the connections between this narrative and the burial of Jacob.

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How are Jacob’s burial and the Exodus connected?

Rabbi Fohrman continues to examine the Exodus, referencing the Burial of Jacob as the blueprint for the Exodus That Could Have Been, showing how the two narratives mirror each other and show the ideal role of God the Creator.

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VIDEO DISCUSSION POINTS

ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS

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Before the Video

What do you want to discuss at the Seder?

2:31

Why would you phrase this specific verse that

way if you were God?

4:25

How could the Sages ignore this verse??

7:12

Why does the Bible tell us these seemingly

trivial details?

After the video

How did we come into being through the Exodus?

Rabbi Fohrman discusses how the Burial of Jacob narrative can be seen as a lens through which to view the Exodus story.

Thinking about our own lives, when have you used a lens to understand a situation? What are some different lenses you use? How does looking at your life or a specific incident through a lens change your

view?

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What is the importance of the Exodus?

How are Jacob’s burial and the Exodus connected? Why are Jacob’s burial and the Exodus connected?

Material for students for Segment 1 can be found in the Student Workbook. Segment 1 Additional Activities can be found on page 10.

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Before the Video

Why is burial location important?

1:31

Why would Jacob ask Joseph to swear an oath to

bury him in Canaan?

3:52

Why 17 years? Why now?

6:07

Why does Jacob’s death matter so much?

10:32

What would happen if Jacob and Pharaoh’s interests did not align with one another?

After the Video

How does Joseph show allegiance to his father?

Rabbi Fohrman discusses how both Jacob and Pharaoh are father figures to Joseph, which puts Joseph in a difficult situation when their interests are not aligned.

Thinking about our own lives, when have you been in a situation where you have wanted to please multiple people with different interests? How do you balance the needs and interests of everyone?

What role does your relationship with each play?

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What does Jacob ask of Joseph?

How is Pharaoh like a father to Joseph?

Why did it take Jacob 17 years to see that Joseph was a righteous son?

Material for students for Segment 2 can be found in the Student Workbook. Segment 2 Additional Activities can be found on page 10.

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Before the Video

If Jacob were your father, how would you

approach Pharaoh about burying him?

1:20

Why would Joseph avoid directly approaching

Pharaoh?

1:38

What is the point of embalming?

5:15

How does Pharaoh response to Joseph’s request?

After the Video

How is Pharaoh a hero in this story?

Rabbi Fohrman discusses the lengths taken in order to honor Jacob after his death.

Thinking about your own life, when have you taken steps to honor the dead? Why is honoring someone who has passed so important? What is important to keep in mind while engaging in this process?

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What is the role of the oath?

How does Pharaoh honor Joseph’s request? What was the role of the archers?

Material for students for Segment 3 can be found in the Student Workbook. Segment 3 Additional Activities can be found on page 10.

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Before the Video

What are the connections between Jacob’s burial

and the Exodus?

0:52

What do we make of these connections between

the narratives?

1:51

What is the Exodus about?

2:30

Why bother with the Ten Plagues?

7:45

How could Pharaoh have been brought to see this truth about God?

After the Video

How does Jacob’s burial serve as a blueprint for the Exodus?

Rabbi Fohrman discusses why God chose the signs and methods He did in order to accomplish the goals of the Exodus.

Thinking about our own lives, what tactics do you use to accomplish your goals? How might an outsider misinterpret some of the things you do? How do you choose your methods when setting to accomplish a

goal?

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What are the connections between the two narratives? What do the Ten Plagues demonstrate?

What was the real sign?

Material for students for Segment 4 can be found in the Student Workbook. Segment 4 Additional Activities can be found on page 10.

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Before the Video

What do you do when a child you thought was yours expresses an allegiance to another, deeper, Father?

1:16

Why did Pharaoh want to be a part of Jacob’s

burial procession?

9:56

If the Exodus that might have been did not actually occur, why does it matter to us?

11:25

What is the significance of the multitudes who

were not part of the Exodus procession?

After the Video

How do the two narratives connect?

Rabbi Fohrman says that the Torah acts as a guidebook for our lives.

Thinking about our own lives, when has the Torah acted as a guidebook? In what way(s) can the ancient text still be relevant today? How does the Torah help us to answer our questions?

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How did Joseph and the Pharaoh’s father/son relationship change over time? How should the Pharaoh during Moses’ time have acted?

What is the tragedy of the Exodus?

Material for students for Segment 5 can be found in the Student Workbook. Segment 5 Additional Activities can be found on page 10.

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Below are three different summative assessment options for this unit. Students could be given a choice or all instructed towards one specific option. Each of the options addresses the goals of the unit, and it is suggested that the grading criteria be the same, regardless of the option selected. Suggested assessment criteria include:

Selected option is completed as assigned

Videos, texts, and sources are integrated into the assignment

Suggested questions and topics are addressed

Proper grammar and spelling are used and the assignment is presented neatly

Pharaoh to Pharaoh – A Dialogue

Getting into the minds of Joseph’s Pharaoh and Moses’ Pharaoh, write a dialogue between the two characters. Be sure to address the

following questions:

- What is the relationship like between the Pharaoh and Joseph/Moses?

- What were their reactions to Jacob’s death/the Exodus? - What are their feelings towards God?

Father/Son– A Guide

Based on the different father/son

relationships in the narratives, write a guide, making sure to address the following

questions:

- What is the ideal relationship? - What is the role of father/son

relationships?

- Who is the ultimate father?

The Exodus – A Blueprint

Using the idea that Jacob’s burial is like a blueprint for the Exodus, draw an actual blueprint of the Exodus, noting where straying occurred from the original. Make sure to address the following questions:

- In what way(s) was Jacob’s burial like a blueprint?

- Where did the changes occur and why?

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ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS

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Segment 1

Read the narratives surrounding Jacob’s burial and the Exodus and note the similarities. Discuss the connections and divergences.

Segment 2

Create a skit that looks at the relationship Joseph has with Jacob and Pharaoh, exploring how each could be seen as a father figure.

Segment 3

Using the text as a guide, draw a picture of the Burial of Jacob, noting the different elements described in the text.

Segment 4

Make a chart that considers each of the attributes of God (Creator, Father, etc.) and list examples of each.

Segment 5

Using the text as a guide, draw a picture of the Exodus, noting the different elements described in the text.

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Segment 1: Jacob’s Burial and the Exodus – Video Outline

In the first video of the series, Rabbi Fohrman introduces a question related to the Exodus and draws connections between Jacob’s burial and the Exodus itself in order to begin to explore the deeper meaning of these narratives.

I. Pesach is on its way. a. The Seder looms.

b. You want to say something at the Seder, but the temptation is to focus on a lot of the little stuff.

i. At the beginning of the Hagaddah, there is a lot of little stuff; there is a lot of what we might call prologue – stories about Rabbi Akiva in B’nei Brak, Ben Azai with the streaks in his beard, looking as if he is 70 years old

ii. It is easy to pick apart the minutia associated with those stories, but by the time you are done with that, it is 11 at night, everybody is hungry, and nobody at the table has really gotten a chance to talk about any of the big stuff – the story of the Exodus itself, or even the larger themes that emerge from that story. c. In this video series, I’m going to try to focus with you on some of that “big stuff.”

i. Want to help us develop a perspective on the Exodus saga as a whole, and try to glimpse some new meaning in it.

ii. Meaning that will enrich not only our understanding of the Exodus story, but also our understanding of our own destiny, because we are a nation that came into being through that story.

II. Begin by sharing something which has always gnawed at me whenever I found myself rereading the Biblical text that recounts the grand climax of the Exodus

a. The confrontation of Egypt and Israel at the Sea of Reeds

i. God tells Moses not to worry about it, He's got it all taken care of - I’m going to

split the sea, the Israelites are going to walk through onto dry land, the Egyptians are going to chase them.

ii. And then God tells Moses that when that happens, “I’m going to be honored through Pharaoh, through his army, through his chariots, through his

horsemen…”(Exodus 14:4)

iii. Doesn’t that kind of sound like, almost, a mean thing to say – that You, God, are going to take honor in all this death and destruction?

b. It feels almost unbecoming of the Almighty to speak that way.

i. Yeah, it is true, the enemies of the Israelites are the Egyptians, and yeah, it is better that they be destroyed than be allowed to recapture and re-enslave Israel, but look, it is one thing to reassure Israel that you will defend her by killing her enemies

ii. It is another thing to say that you are going to take glory and honor from all that killing.

iii. Why would you phrase it that way if you are God? c. The truth is, it is not just my own personal sensitivities.

i. Interestingly enough, the Sages of the Talmud actually suggested that the Almighty Himself shares those very same sensitivities. Here is actually what they

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12 say: “The Holy One, Blessed is He, does not rejoice in the downfall of

evil-doers...In the moment [when Egypt was destroyed at the Sea], the heavenly angels wished to sing in rapture before the Holy One Blessed Be He. But God said to them: My creatures, [the Egyptians], are drowning in the Sea, and you're going to pick this time to rejoice in front of Me?” (Megillah 10b)

1. Do not rejoice at the downfall of your enemies, particularly if you are God.

2. God is the creator, and even His enemies are creatures that He created. 3. There is something bitter in the taste of victory against them.

ii. And what is really weird is that the same story that we felt seemed to offend our sensitivities, the story of the splitting of the sea, is where the Sages get their proof-text from; that God would never rejoice in the downfall of the wicked. d. So what is going on here?

i. How could they have looked at that same story, which has this verse that talks about God taking glory and honor from the destruction of Egypt, and derived that no, God would never rejoice in the downfall of the wicked?

ii. They were surely aware of the verse! How could they ignore it? III. Want to suggest that we are actually misinterpreting the verse, not the Sages.

a. In other words, when the Almighty spoke of taking honor from all the King’s horses and all the King’s men, He wasn’t actually talking about taking glory from the deaths of the Egyptians whatsoever.

i. If you look carefully at the verse, it never says God is taking honor from their deaths; I’m taking honor from Pharaoh and from his horsemen and from his archers

ii. The verse doesn’t actually mean He is taking honor from their deaths iii. What the verse really means is something else entirely.

b. The glory that would come, as the text phrases it, “from the chariots and archers of Egypt,” is actually the tip of a very large iceberg – an iceberg that shows us a whole new face of the entire Exodus story.

i. As it turns out, this is not the first time in the Torah that we encounter these chariots and archers of Egypt that supposedly are going to honor God.

ii. They show up one other time in the Five Books of Moses, earlier, at the very end of the Book of Genesis, in a story that involves, of all things, a funeral procession for the patriarch Jacob.

iii. But the really remarkable thing is that it is not just this particular element of the Exodus – the chariots and archers – that happens to appear earlier in the Genesis burial story.

iv. It is actually a whole bunch of elements from the Exodus story that seem to get “borrowed” by that very same burial story of Jacob.

v. Want to go through these similarities between the stories and then see what it is that we make of them.

IV. Give you an example: Here is a verse from the story of the burial of Jacob.

a. It is an ordinary verse that would not really cause even a raised eyebrow.

b. As a matter of fact, it appears to tell us something so trivial that one wonders why it even needed to be said at all.

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13 c. The verse says that everyone went on this procession for Jacob: “...but they left behind

their children, their sheep ,and their cattle, that they all left in the Land of Goshen” (Genesis 50:8)

i. Why did the Torah tell me that?

ii. Imagine that the Torah had not gone out of its way to tell you whether or not the people joining Jacob’s funeral procession had brought their little kids along with them.

iii. Let’s say we had not been told whether the sheep and cattle had come along. 1. Would you have read the story of Jacob’s burial and then wondered

what happened with all those little kids?

2. You probably wouldn’t have said that, right? Why does the Bible bother to tell us about these things? Of what significance is this completely trivial information? 7:12

d. Consider this: In that phrase about the little children and the cattle, we actually hear a premonition of things to come.

i. Because when else in the Bible are the Israelites getting ready to leave Egypt, and then, suddenly, the issue of whether they bring along their little children, sheep, and cattle, starts to take center stage?

ii. That happens during the story of the Exodus.

iii. As you might recall from your previous knowledge of the Exodus, child-care and animal-care logistics actually were part of the negotiations between Moses and Pharaoh.

1. Moses had originally asked Pharaoh not for a blanket release of all the Israelites to leave for good and make a new home for themselves in the Promised Land.

2. On the contrary, Moses’ original request of Pharaoh was much more limited: Could you let your slaves go for just three days into the desert to worship their God, the Creator that they worship?

3. Pharaoh denied that request but later on gives into it partially, asking for the children and perhaps the cattle to be left behind.

4. Look at that; interestingly, the children and animals become an issue. V. It could be a coincidence, but let’s keep on going and see.

a. Are there other parallels between the Exodus story and the Burial of Jacob? b. Turns out there are.

i. Consider the location at which the burial procession stopped for a while to eulogize Jacob before they got to their ultimate destination in the caves of Machpelah.

ii. The place they stopped for eulogies was called Goren Ha’atad.

iii. The Torah actually makes a point of telling us exactly where Goren Ha’atad was located: “They came to Goren Ha’atad, which is on the other side of the Jordan River” (Genesis 50:10)

iv. But let’s do just a little reality check of the geography: What, exactly, was the burial procession doing on the east bank of the Jordan?

1. The shortest route from Egypt to Hebron is actually to basically head northwest in a straight line.

2. If the burial party traveled to Canaan via Goren Ha’atad, it means they went seriously out of their way.

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14 3. Leaving Egypt, they would have had to swoop down to the south of

Canaan, traverse the Sinai desert, swing up and around the Dead Sea, travel due north for the entire length of the sea, then hook left to cross the Jordan River, probably somewhere near Jericho.

4. And that would really be taking the long way.

v. The truth is, I can’t explain to you why they chose such a roundabout route for the burial procession.

1. But the fact that they did is quite intriguing, because that particular route reminds the reader of another great journey.

2. That was the route the Children of Israel took, centuries later, in the event that we know as the Exodus from Egypt.

c. So the route of the burial party anticipates the route of the Exodus. i. Very intriguing!

ii. That is another connection between the burial story and the Exodus. iii. But there is still one more connection that I want to share with you. d. Let’s talk about ‘Canaanite onlookers.’

i. The Torah makes a point of telling us that the Canaanites gazed out at the burial procession, which of course included lots of Egyptians along with the family of Jacob, and they exclaimed in wonder: ‘What heavy mourning this is for Egypt!’ ii. In the Exodus story, the Canaanite onlookers are back again.

1. This time, they appear in the ecstatic song of thanksgiving that the Israelites sang after the victory at the Sea of Reeds.

2. If you look at that song, there is a role that the Canaanites onlookers have, and it is actually the same role that these onlookers had in the burial story: “The nations heard [what happened to Egypt]; the inhabitants of Canaan shrank away in fear” (Exodus 15:14-15) VI. One by one, each of these elements from the burial story seem to get repeated in the Exodus

story.

a. The chariots and the archers

b. The babysitting and the animal care arrangements c. The route taken from Egypt to Israel

d. Even the Canaanite onlookers

e. It seems as if these connections between the Burial of Jacob and the Exodus stories are more than the product of mere coincidence; the Torah seems to be asking the reader to line up these two journeys away from Egypt and to actually see them in relationship to one another.

VII. Here is a theory I would like to suggest

a. Want to suggest that the Burial of Jacob story is a precursor of the Exodus, and that the Torah actually sets up this burial story as a kind of lens through which you and I can view the Exodus.

b. If we look through that lens, we will actually find ourselves looking at something remarkable: A whole new way of seeing the Exodus.

i. That new perspective on the Exodus will help us answer the question we raised above about “taking honor” from killing people; not only what exactly that meant, but also helping us see the whole story of the Exodus differently.

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15 ii. It will help us see our destiny differently, because we are the nation that came

into being through this story of the Exodus.

iii. But in order to see how that is so, we need to go back and examine the Burial of Jacob story, that lens, just a little more carefully.

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In this video, Rabbi Fohrman looks closely at the death and burial of Jacob, showing how both Jacob and Pharaoh are father figures to Joseph, making Joseph’s commitment to burying Jacob in Canaan even more significant.

I. As we said, the patriarch Jacob was eventually buried in the land of Canaan, but that did not just happen out of the blue.

a. It was a delicately negotiated matter between Jacob and his son, Joseph.

i. Here is the scene: Jacob, who is approaching death, calls for his beloved son, Joseph, and tells him that he wishes to be buried where his fathers were buried – a place known to us as the Cave of Machpelah, located in Hebron.

ii. The Torah then gives us Joseph’s response to his father’s request. Joseph says, “I‘ll do as you’ve asked” (Genesis 47:30).

b. Now, if the Book of Genesis had ended right here, and you had to guess what the very next thing to happen was, what would you imagine taking place right now?

i. If you were Jacob, lying there on your bed, and you had expressed this request to your loyal son, and he had answered, “Yes, Father, you can totally count on me to bury you in the family tomb,” what would you do next?

ii. I don't know about you, but if I had been in Jacob’s shoes at that moment, I might have said something like, “Thank you very much, Son. I knew I could count on you.” I mean, something in that general ballpark, at least.

iii. But that is not at all what Jacob says. Instead, he tells his son this: “Swear to me [that you'll do it]” (Genesis 47:31).

c. Is this for real? Here is your loyal son, assuring you that he will do exactly what you asked of him. And you ask him to swear that he will really do it?

i. What a terribly awkward thing to ask of him! Is Jacob intimating that he does not trust him?

ii. Whatever Joseph might think of his father’s demand, Joseph takes the oath. And then Jacob does another strange thing: “And Jacob then bowed towards the head of the bed” (Genesis 47:31)

iii. Why would he do that? The ancient sages of the Midrash wondered about that, and here was their interpretation: “[He prostrated himself to God] because his legacy was whole, insofar as not one of [his children] was wicked – for Joseph was [Egyptian] royalty, and furthermore, he had been captured [and lived] among heathens, and yet he remained steadfast in his righteousness (Rashi from Sifrei Va’etchanan 31, Sifrei Ha’azinu 334)

1. According to the Sages, when Joseph agreed with Jacob’s request, Jacob saw how righteous his son was.

2. Despite Joseph's many years in Egypt, he had not assimilated into the heathen culture.

3. Jacob now felt his legacy was ‘complete,’ and he bowed in gratitude. iv. But let’s take a moment to ponder what the Sages are actually telling us here.

1. They suggest that Jacob had what amounts to a revelatory moment at the end of this discussion with him about burial arrangements.

2. Seventeen years into his life in Egypt, he finally realized that his son had not assimilated into heathen culture.

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17 v. Put yourself in Jacob’s shoes.

1. Looking back over the course of your life, if you could identify any one moment – and only one moment – at which you came to realize that yes, your beloved son, Joseph, was still a loyal, God-fearing member of this budding family of Israel, when would that moment have been? 2. It would have been seventeen years before this, right, when you first set

eyes on your long-lost son Joseph after two decades of being apart. 3. Joseph had run to greet him, had embraced him, had cried, had set the

family up in Goshen, taken care of their every need. Look at him, Joseph is a God-fearing man, he is devoted to his family.

4. Power has not made him forget his roots.

5. That seems like the moment Jacob should have realized what a good son Joseph is.

6. Why, then, do the Sages say that it is only now, seventeen years later, on his deathbed, that Jacob understands this?

vi. The Sages of the Midrash seem to be telling us that despite all of this, Jacob was uncertain whether Joseph would really fulfill his request, and that this was really the moment of truth that would decide whether he was a righteous son; he needed Joseph to swear to him that he would bury him. Why?

II. If you keep on reading the story, if you fast forward to the moment that Jacob actually dies, and you watch what happens, you see that Jacob was on to something.

a. It seems he had reason to fear, maybe, that his wishes to be buried in Canaan wouldn’t be so easy to fulfill.

b. Look what happens when he dies. The text tells us that Joseph weeps over the body of his father, and then he gets up.

i. One would assume that if Joseph had not yet spoken to Pharaoh about his father’s peculiar burial request, right about now would be the time to do that.

ii. But he does not do it. Instead: “Joseph commanded his servants, the doctors, to embalm his father’s body. And they do so” (Genesis 50:2).

iii. Instead of speaking to Pharaoh about his father’s request, Joseph proceeds with what was apparently standard operating procedure for the death of a member of the royal family: He directs that Jacob’s body be embalmed.

iv. The strange thing is: The embalming process takes weeks – and still, Joseph remains silent. Why isn’t he saying anything?

1. Maybe he is afraid to. 2. Maybe he is procrastinating.

3. Maybe he is worried about how Pharaoh will respond to a request for burial in Canaan.

v. Consider this: Egypt seems to see itself as very emotionally invested in the death of Jacob.

1. The text tells us that Egypt cried over the death of Jacob for seventy days.

2. Compare those to the future deaths of Aaron and Moses; the Children of Israel, will only mourn each of those great leaders for 30 days when they die.

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18 4. And it was not even Jacob’s own nation that did that for him; it was a

foreign nation! His death mattered deeply to them. Why? vi. Who was Jacob, in Egypt’s eyes?

1. Jacob was the father of Egypt’s savior, Joseph.

2. Joseph saved the people from starvation, and he is second in command to their king!

3. And if Joseph is Egyptian royalty, then Jacob, his father, was treated by the nation, and by Pharaoh, as royalty, too. Which means that, when he dies, his funeral will be a state funeral. Pharaoh is going to see to that. vii. But how do you think Pharaoh will feel about Egyptian royalty being buried in a

little backwater of the Middle East called Canaan?

1. Imagine Queen Elizabeth dies, and she gets buried in Madagascar. 2. Things like that don’t happen.

3. To even make such a request of Egypt’s King would seem to be outrageous!

c. Jacob did have reason to make Joseph swear he would bury him in Canaan.

i. Jacob knew how hard it would be for Joseph to make the request to Pharaoh to be buried there.

ii. And he knew, once Joseph swore he would do it, that his son was righteous. iii. Because in the ultimate test of loyalty, his son had just chosen his interests over

those of the most powerful man in the world. iv. He had just chosen Jacob over Pharaoh.

III. This choice that faced Joseph, in truth, was not just a choice between loyalty to father and loyalty to a generic, powerful benefactor.

a. It was, in fact, a much more emotionally wrenching choice for Joseph. b. It was really a choice between two fathers.

i. For who, really, was Pharaoh to Joseph?

ii. Joseph, remember, had been kidnapped and sold off as a slave to Egypt when he was a mere 17 years old.

iii. There, in that foreign land, he had languished in prison for many long years until, suddenly, a surprise benefactor pulled him out of the dungeon, asking if he perhaps knew how to interpret some dreams.

iv. That man was Pharaoh.

c. After Joseph successfully interpreted those dreams, not only did Pharaoh make Joseph’s life dramatically better than it had been before, but he made it better in certain, crucial ways.

i. He gave him a wife. ii. He gave him a new name. iii. He gave him a job.

iv. What kind of person helps you find a wife, gives you a name, and can give you a job in the family business? A father does those things for you.

d. And speaking of father, let’s talk about how Pharaoh first gets to know Joseph.

i. What was their topic of conversation? Could you interpret my dreams please? ii. What was the last topic of conversation Joseph discussed with his own father? It

was his own dreams and their meaning.

iii. Jacob had angrily denounced the implication of Joseph’s dreams about the sun and moon and stars bowing to him.

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19 iv. It seemed as if Joseph was thinking he would have a kind of ultimate power.

v. But now, a new kind of father would come on the scene and, in another

conversation about dreams, that new father would be so enthralled with Joseph that he would in fact gift him the very power that Joseph had once dreamed about. He would make Joseph second in charge to the most powerful person in the world.

e. Second in charge; we have heard that before, haven’t we?

i. Yes, Joseph occupied the same position in Pharaoh’s household that he had occupied at home.

ii. He was second in charge to the ultimate power. iii. At home, that man on top had been his father. iv. Now, in Egypt, that man was Pharaoh.

IV. It seems like Joseph really did have a father-son relationship going with Pharaoh. a. Which is all fine and well, except that Joseph, of course, has a real father, too. b. And eventually, that real father, Jacob, shows up in Egypt and re-enters Joseph’s life. c. So, for Joseph, everything is fine as long as the interests of those two men – those two

fathers, Jacob and Pharaoh – aligned with one another. d. But what would happen if they ever didn’t?

i. Now is that time.

ii. That discussion that Jacob had with Joseph is the moment when Pharaoh’s interests and Jacob’s interests diverge.

iii. There is just no way to make both men happy anymore.

1. When Joseph is with Pharaoh he can treat him like a father. 2. When he is with Jacob, he can treat him like a father.

3. But now both these men want different things, and to honor one may seem disloyal to the other. What now?

e. Now, we understand why it took Jacob seventeen years of living in Egypt to realize that Joseph was ‘righteous’ – to realize that Joseph was a completely loyal son.

i. Because Jacob knew the risks Joseph would take by even bringing up the idea of burial in Canaan with Pharaoh.

ii. Trying to honor that request could come at a real price for Joseph; his loyalty to Pharaoh, and to Egypt, could be questioned.

iii. When Joseph swore that he would bury Jacob in Canaan, Jacob understood what that meant.

iv. Joseph accepted the risk. In a contest of loyalty between Jacob and Pharaoh, Joseph had just chosen Jacob.

f. Still, it is one thing to make a promise and another thing to carry it out.

i. How, in practice, did Joseph manage to actually approach Pharaoh with news of the state funeral that would have to be held in Canaan?

ii. And how, in the end, did Pharaoh respond to that outrageous request? iii. The answer to these questions reveals that it wasn’t just Joseph who acted

honorably and heroically in the affair of Jacob’s funeral. Heroism came from other unexpected quarters, as well.

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In this video, Rabbi Fohrman examines the burial proceedings for Jacob, showing how Pharaoh and Egypt made special efforts to honor him one last time. Rabbi Fohrman suggests that there were two heroes in this story, Joseph and Pharaoh, and hints at a connection to Exodus.

I. Jacob dies.

a. His body is embalmed, and the people mourn him.

b. Finally, the time comes when Joseph can delay no more; how exactly does he approach Pharaoh to talk about his father’s burial request?

i. “The days of mourning were over. And Joseph spoke to [those in] the house of Pharaoh, saying: ‘If I have found favor in your eyes – please speak [on my behalf] in Pharaoh’s ears, and say [the following]” (Genesis 50:4)

ii. Notice that Joseph seems to be avoiding a direct discussion with Pharaoh. 1. He talks to “people in the court of Pharaoh,” and wants them to carry a

message to the King for him.

2. Also, look at the language Joseph uses to address these lower-level courtiers: “If I have found favor in your eyes, please…”

3. He’s beseeching them to go to Pharaoh on his behalf. To whom is he so plaintively?

iii. Joseph outranks every last member of Pharaoh’s court.

1. It is as if the Vice President were beseeching the Deputy Housing Secretary to deliver a personal message on his behalf to the President. 2. The whole spectacle must have seemed just absolutely absurd.

iv. Seemingly, Joseph is avoiding a one-on-one audience with Pharaoh, and we can certainly understand why:

1. Think about what Egypt had done for Jacob.

2. They had not only mourned him, they had embalmed his body for thirty days.

3. Why? Well, what is the whole point of embalming?

c. In the religion of Ancient Egypt, one enters the afterlife with his physical body.

i. You would embalm a body to preserve it from decaying, eventually, into dust, so that it will be available as a vehicle to take you to some other world beyond our own.

ii. Now, consider what it was that Jacob wanted done to his body. 1. He wanted it buried in the earth.

2. Think about it: Burial and embalming are not just two different ways of relating to a corpse; they are exact opposite ways of relating to a corpse.

iii. Burial, the Israelite custom, facilitates the body’s return to dust.

1. As the Torah states: “You are dust, and to dust you shall return!” (Genesis 3:19).

2. Egyptians, then, would be horrified at the notion of burying one of their royalty. Why would you do such a thing? You are destroying his vehicle to the afterlife!

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21 i. If, after forty days of embalming and seventy days of mourning, Joseph finally

gets around to asking permission to bury Jacob in the ground, well, at the very least, he could expect Pharaoh to ask rather acidly why Joseph did not bring up this fine idea seventy days ago.

ii. What are we supposed to do now? Pretend that all the embalming and mourning did not happen?

iii. The honor and fanfare that we gave to your father means nothing to you? iv. At best, Pharaoh might be incredulous; at worst, full of rage.

v. Perhaps Joseph does not want to be there, in person, to see Pharaoh’s response. Perhaps this is an idea better brokered to him by somebody else. e. Here is the message Joseph asks those courtiers to deliver: “My father made me swear,

saying: ‘Here, I am going to die. In my grave that I’ve carved out for myself in the Land of Canaan, that’s where you must bury me.’ And so now, let me go up, please, and bury my father – and I will return” (Genesis 50:5).

i. The very first thing Joseph mentions to Pharaoh, through these courtiers, is Jacob’s oath – and his meaning is clear: If it were not for this oath, we would not be talking about this.

ii. I just can’t break a solemn oath to my father, I’m sure you can understand that. iii. The oath, Joseph hopes, will take some of the sting out of it for Pharaoh. iv. It is ironic, perhaps – and one wonders whether Joseph anticipated this at the

time – but the oath Jacob made Joseph take, in the end, was not just something that bound Joseph to his promise, but it became a tool Joseph could actually use to make good on the promise.

v. The oath does not help the fact that Jacob’s body has already been embalmed, but the oath does give Joseph just a little bit of distance from a request that, were it to have originated simply in Joseph’s heart, could have been explosive. f. Finally, Joseph says one last thing to Pharaoh: ‘And I shall return.’

i. It seems strange that he would even need to say it, as if he needs to assure the King that his loyal servant will faithfully return.

ii. But Joseph is doing what he can to reassure Pharaoh.

iii. It is like he is saying, “I don’t intend to be disloyal. I will come back to you. Please just let me do this.”

g. And so, with those final words, Joseph has finally said to the King what he has to say. The die is cast. It is now up to Pharaoh how to respond.

II. And how does Pharaoh respond?

a. Pharaoh actually says yes. Now, at first, it seems like a very reluctant ‘yes,’ uttered through gritted teeth: “Pharaoh said: ‘Go and bury your father, as he made you swear’” (Genesis 50:6).

b. Those last words, “as he made you swear,” really color the tone of the statement. i. As Rashi puts it, Pharaoh appears to be saying, “I’m not going to make you violate an oath you made to your father. Were it not for that oath, though, never would I allow such an outrage.”

ii. But if you were Joseph, in that situation, you would take what you can get. 1. A halfhearted ‘yes’ is better than no ‘yes’ at all, you would probably tell

yourself.

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22 3. As for Pharaoh, with his cold ‘yes,’ he can just wash his hands of this

whole awkward affair, and move on to other pressing affairs of state. 4. The drama seems to be over.

c. But then, in the very next verse, something remarkable happens.

i. Joseph goes up to bury his father, “and with him, go all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his court, and all the elders of Egypt” (Genesis 50:7).

ii. When the time comes for Jacob’s burial procession to actually get under way, it turns out that it is not just the family of Jacob who goes, quietly and

unobtrusively, to do what they have to do in the Land of Canaan.

iii. An entourage from Egypt accompanies them; a delegation of such stature that it could only have been sent by the King himself.

iv. All of Pharaoh’s servants set out with the family, along with the elders of the King’s court.

v. And it is not just they who go; the palace officials are joined by ‘elders of Egypt’ – leaders of the general Egyptian populace.

vi. All of these people are going to accompany Joseph’s father on his final journey. d. And one last very special group will be coming along, too: “And along with [the family

and the entourage], chariots and archers went up, as well; the camp was very great” (Genesis, 50:9).

i. Chariots and archers: What would chariots and archers be doing here? ii. This was a funeral, after all, not a campaign of war

iii. But a moment’s reflection is enough to settle that question.

iv. They were an honor guard. Pharaoh had sent them, too, to escort Joseph’s father on his final journey.

e. All in all, when the time actually came for Jacob’s burial procession to depart, Pharaoh did not adopt the stance of a cold ‘yes’ at all.

i. He sent the finest of Egypt to accompany these Hebrews on their mission to Canaan.

ii. All the pageantry of Egypt accompanied a procession of Jacob’s family on their way to a little Mesopotamian backwater called Canaan.

iii. What a peculiar sight that procession must have been

1. The text tells the reader as much when it says that when the procession stopped to eulogize Jacob, the local Canaanites looked on in disbelieving wonder: “And the Canaanites of the land saw the mourning, in Goren Ha’atad, and they said: ‘What a heavy show of mourning this is for Egypt!’” (Genesis 50:11).

2. Note that the Canaanites viewed this as mourning for Egypt, even though it was really mourning for Jacob.

3. On one hand, Pharaoh and Egypt had “adopted” Jacob as a kind of national father for Egypt itself; that is why they mourned him so deeply. 4. It really was a mourning for Egypt, like the Canaanites said.

5. And yet, Pharaoh also recognized that Jacob could not be entirely recast in Egypt’s image.

6. Jacob’s true wishes needed to be honored, even if they conflicted with the greater glory of Egypt.

III. A state funeral beyond Egypt’s borders.

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23 b. What will all the other nations say?

i. For Pharaoh, it did not matter.

ii. Public relations concerns, what the Canaanites would say, was not going to be a factor.

iii. The loyalty of Egypt to its adopted father is not going to stop at Egypt’s door. c. Will there be some cultural awkwardness in all this for the royal courtiers and the

captains of the King’s Guard? i. There probably will be.

ii. And burial after embalming? Look, it certainly was not the easiest thing to get used to, but the Hebrews will lead and the Egyptians will follow.

iii. This is, after all, how Father said he wants to be honored. It is not about us, it is about him.

IV. The story of Jacob’s burial, in the end, is the story of two heroes. a. The first is Joseph.

i. Joseph risked everything to bury his father according to his wishes.

ii. He risked the loss of power, prestige, and, perhaps most of all, his good standing in the eyes of his adopted father, Pharaoh.

b. But the second hero, unlikely as it may seem, is Pharaoh himself.

i. He resisted the urge to impose upon the venerated Jacob an exclusively Egyptian identity.

ii. He allowed Jacob to be who he was – Israelite, not Egyptian – and still, he and the populace would cherish him; still, he and Egypt would regard Jacob as royalty.

iii. They would accord him all the honor of a king, a national father,

notwithstanding Jacob’s rather public decision that Canaan was his true home. iv. The humility evinced by Pharaoh’s stance is nothing short of remarkable. V. Having looked carefully at the story of Jacob’s Burial, we are now in a position to come back to

the questions we asked earlier about the way in which the Exodus seems to parallel that story. a. As we saw before, the text includes many connections between these two events. b. What are we to make of those?

c. What would a burial story for a patriarch have to do with an Exodus of hundreds of thousands of people from a land that oppressed them?

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24

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In this next video, Rabbi Fohrman delves deeper into the Exodus story, examining God’s role as Father and Creator before returning to the connections between this narrative and the Burial of Jacob.

I. Now it is time for us to return to the questions we raised earlier about the apparent links between the story of the Burial of Jacob and the Exodus.

a. We saw that, in one detail after another, these events seem to echo each other. b. In both cases, it is not just the Israelites who go on a journey away from Egypt; Pharaoh

sends his chariots and archers as well.

c. The babysitting arrangements and the animal care logistics show up in Jacob’s funeral, and they again become an issue in the Exodus.

d. The circuitous route taken by the burial party ends up being the same route taken by the Israelites in the Exodus.

e. And, in both stories, the Canaanites observe what is happening with Egypt and are astonished.

f. These connections, as we saw before, don’t seem to be coincidental; but what are we to make of them all?

i. Seemingly, they only make sense if, in some essential way, the burial story and the Exodus stories are about the same thing.

ii. But how would that be the case? iii. How do these stories converge?

II. How about this: The burial story was about a procession setting out from Egypt that was designed to honor a father.

a. What if we started thinking about the Exodus story in precisely that same way?

i. It, too, was a procession setting out from Egypt; a procession designed to honor a father.

ii. It is just that the identity of the father changes.

iii. It is no longer an earthly father that is being honored, but a heavenly one. b. In other words, maybe we need to make a slight adjustment in how you and I view the

Exodus process as a whole.

i. If someone stopped you in the street and asked you, “So, what was the Exodus about, in a sentence or less?”

ii. How did the Exodus change the status quo?

iii. The most obvious answer that would come to mind is that the Exodus freed the Israelites from slavery and set them on a path of becoming a new nation. iv. And that is true. It is just not the whole truth.

c. There was another agenda in the Exodus as well.

i. We talk about this at length in another Aleph Beta course.

ii. But that agenda jumps out at you from a number of different elements in the story.

1. Take, for example, the Ten Plagues.

2. If you think about it, that was really the long way of doing things, wasn’t it?

3. God could have avoided all the plagues and simply whisked the Israelites out of Egypt on magic carpets.

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25 5. Or maybe, if you are going to use harsh measures like plagues, just use a

single overwhelming one – like the Smiting of the Firstborn – and do that at the very beginning and get things over with.

iii. Why did God choose to do it the long way with ten plagues?

1. Clearly, there was another agenda, besides just freeing the nation. 2. God was interested in showing something through those plagues. 3. As God Himself tells Moses more than once, the plagues are there so,

“And Egypt will know that I am God” (Exodus 14:4). 4. The Egyptians were not atheists.

a. They believed in gods. b. They believed in lots of them.

c. One of the goals of the Exodus, seemingly, was to demonstrate that polytheistic faith was mistaken.

d. There is a single God in control of all of nature.

e. That God is the Creator, the author of every aspect of nature, humans included.

f. The basic idea of monotheism is that human beings do not just have earthly parents, but a Heavenly Parent, too.

5. Ten Plagues would demonstrate that.

a. It would demonstrate control over every single aspect of nature.

b. Only the Author of nature could marshal that total control. c. If Egypt looked at what was happening in the Exodus

objectively, they could have come to understand who this God of the Hebrews was.

d. They could have understood that this Being is the Parent of all. d. That realization, had Egypt made it, would have had repercussions.

i. In the long term, it would have stood the test of time as a historic testament to the truth of monotheism.

ii. Egypt was the ancient world’s greatest power.

1. If the king of that nation, who regarded himself as a god, would come to profess belief in a God to whom he was subject, a Creator of All, that would be impressive indeed.

2. Any future people could look upon those events of the Exodus, and if they ever doubted there was a Creator, they could see in those events evidence of this.

e. But it was not just in the long term that there would be repercussions to Egypt’s recognition of a creator.

i. There would be repercussions in the short term also.

ii. If Egypt understood that there was a Creator of All, and that this Creator viewed the subjugation of one of his children to be a moral travesty, then Pharaoh would be bound, morally, to realize that he really has to let the Israelites go. iii. If God, the Creator, condemned the brutal enslavement of the Israelites,

Pharaoh, a subject of the Creator, could not really ignore that.

1. As a matter of fact, this would be the fastest and quickest way to engineer the Exodus.

2. If Egypt could only be brought to this recognition, it could all be over very quickly.

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26 III. If you look at the Exodus carefully, you will find that, very early on, there was hope of bringing

Pharaoh to the brink of this recognition.

a. Before all the plagues, in the very first audience that Moses ever has with Pharaoh, Moses tells him, very straightforwardly, who this God of the Hebrews really is.

b. He tells him that He’s not just a god among gods, but that He is the Creator – the Father of All – and then Moses tells him what this God wants Pharaoh to do: 'Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Let My people go, that they may hold a feast unto Me in the wilderness' (Exodus 5:1).

c. The request was just to celebrate in the desert. And Moses, in conversation with

Pharaoh just a verse or two later, clarifies that he is really only asking for the Hebrews to leave for three days: “Let us go, we pray thee, three days' journey into the wilderness” (Exodus 5:3).

i. Why did God ask only for this?

ii. God would have had the power to compel Pharaoh to agree to the real plan, the freeing of the slaves.

iii. Why bother lying and saying you plan on coming back, when really you plan on leaving forever?

d. Maybe it was not a lie.

i. Maybe, had Pharaoh agreed to the three day work holiday request, the Hebrews really would have come back.

ii. It would have been a first step.

1. You, Pharaoh, have just agreed to allow some religious freedom for your slaves. Excellent!

2. And slowly, Pharaoh could be brought around to a key realization that it wasn’t just a local, provincial God that these Hebrews were celebrating with; it was the Creator Himself.

3. And if the God of the Hebrews was really the Creator of All, then Pharaoh and Egypt would be obliged to serve Him as well.

IV. But how, you might ask, could Pharaoh have possibly been brought around to recognize the existence of a Creator in the absence of plagues that would demonstrate that manifestly?

a. How could he have been brought to see this truth in a peaceful kind of way?

b. I’m speculating here, but I think it is interesting that in the text of the Torah, we do find that God, way back at the beginning of the Exodus, gave Moses a single sign by which he could prove his authenticity to Pharaoh.

c. And the strange thing is, the sign does not even really seem all that impressive: “And God spoke to Moses and Aaron saying, 'When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying: Show a wonder for you; then thou shalt say unto Aaron: Take thy rod, and cast it down before Pharaoh, that it become a serpent’” (Exodus 7:9).

i. What is so incredibly special about that sign?

ii. I mean, especially in light of the fact that when the sign actually gets performed, in the real Exodus story, it is easily replicated; when Moses and Aaron actually do it, all of Pharaoh’s sorcerers go and cast down their own staffs and those become serpents as well.

iii. That really takes the wind out of the sails of this sign, wouldn’t you say?

iv. Except maybe we have not actually seen the sign yet. You have to keep looking, because look what happens next in the verse: “For they cast down every man

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27 his rod, and they became serpents; but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods” (Exodus 7:10).

d. Maybe that was the sign.

i. Aaron’s staff goes and swallows all the other serpents in the room! ii. That was it, right there!

iii. Maybe God was saying to Moses: Cast down your staff, it is going to turn into a serpent, and then watch what happens next. Aaron’s staff is going to swallow all the others.

iv. And think of the message to Pharaoh here: Yes, there are many powers out there, but there is one power to rule them all.

e. Imagine that Pharaoh had fearlessly drawn the evident, logical conclusion from that sign, the only sign that God had ever given Moses to establish His veracity in Pharaoh’s presence: One serpent swallows all the other serpents.

i. One power rules all the other powers!

ii. Had Pharaoh come to understand that, it would have all been over before it even began!

iii. He would have seen that the world contains a God who was the Creator of All, and he would have understood that he, no less than Moses and Aaron and the Hebrews, was a subject of that God and must obey His Will.

f. In the Exodus that actually transpired, of course, Pharaoh rejected Moses’ words out of hand and did not pay any heed to this sign.

i. The process of education would need to continue, but now it would continue the hard way.

ii. The plagues would come.

V. Now, let’s return to the connection between the Burial of Jacob story and the Exodus story. a. As we said before, the burial procession was about a son making a journey to honor his

father.

b. And the Exodus story is really about the same thing.

i. The Exodus had started with one request: A request for a journey, a procession, in which a son would honor a father – the way that Father said He wanted to be honored.

ii. The son, this time, was Israel, and the Father was God, the Creator.

iii. Remember how God instructed Moses to tell Pharaoh to let his firstborn child go, so that his child can serve Him? This was a Father coming for His child. c. The theory I’m suggesting to you is that the Burial of Jacob story really serves as a kind

of blueprint for the way the Exodus was supposed to turn out. By comparing the

blueprint version of the story, back in the Book of Genesis, with the actual realization of the Passover story in Exodus, we can learn something about what, in the largest of pictures, the Exodus story had been designed to achieve, and what the nation birthed through that story, Israel, is meant to achieve, even today.

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In this final video, Rabbi Fohrman continues to examine the Exodus, referencing the Burial of Jacob as the blueprint for the Exodus That Could Have Been, showing how the two narratives mirror each other and show the ideal role of God the Creator.

I. In a very real way, the reaction of Joseph’s Pharaoh created an opportunity, a precedent of sorts, for how an Egyptian king might wrestle with a very particular challenge: What do you do when a child you thought was yours expresses an allegiance to another, deeper, Father? And let me explain to you what I mean by putting things this way.

a. As we saw, the Pharaoh in Joseph’s day thought that he had a right to Joseph’s loyalty; after all, Joseph had been like a son to him.

i. When Joseph asked permission to leave Egypt because of something he needed to do for his father, Jacob, Joseph’s Pharaoh had acted heroically in a way. ii. Pharaoh recognized that Joseph’s primary allegiance rightfully belonged to Jacob over him; that, when all is said and done, Jacob was the deeper father here, with a more primary claim on Joseph’s service.

b. But Pharaoh actually did something even more heroic than that. i. He did not just allow Joseph to leave quietly and unobtrusively. ii. He sent an honor guard of chariots and horsemen to accompany him. iii. He wanted to be part of the procession.

iv. Why? Because he recognized that Jacob was not just the father of Joseph, but a kind of national father for Egypt as well; and Jacob’s wish to be buried in Canaan could not be allowed to diminish his status in Egypt’s eyes.

v. If Father wants to be buried in Canaan, we will not take that as a snub and turn our backs on him. We will honor those wishes. We will be part of the parade, too.

II. Now, in a deep way, the Pharaoh in the days of Moses was confronted with an almost precisely analogous series of choices.

a. As we have seen, the original, benevolent Pharaoh in the times of Joseph had treated Joseph like an adoptive son.

b. Ever since then, the vestiges of that relationship had lingered.

i. To some extent, the Egyptian throne continued to look upon the Israelites as its child, but that relationship had decayed.

ii. It was as if the loving surrogate father had become an evil and abusive caricature of his former self.

iii. He demanded the loyalty of his child, but extended none of the love a father would give to one of his own.

iv. The Egyptian throne abused its child and enslaved it, and brutally inured itself to the child’s cries for mercy.

c. Then, one day, Moses came to Pharaoh with news for him. i. The child Pharaoh thinks is his has another father as well. ii. A deeper father than Pharaoh. A Heavenly Father.

iii. This Father in Heaven wants His child to go into the desert for a few days to serve Him. It is the first step in redeeming that child.

(33)

29 d. When Moses came with this request, Moses’ Pharaoh should have rightfully looked to

Joseph’s Pharaoh for a lesson as to how to deal with that situation. i. With precedent in hand, he ought to have acted heroically.

ii. He ought to have recognized that Israel’s primary allegiance rightfully belonged to a deeper father, to the Heavenly Father.

e. As a matter of fact, the Pharaoh of Moses’ day should have gone even further. i. He, like Joseph’s Pharaoh, should have recognized that the Father in Heaven

wasn’t just a Father of Israel, He was a universal Father, a Father even of Egypt. ii. Thus, Pharaoh should not have just allowed the Israelites to go into the desert

for a few days to honor their Heavenly Father quietly and unobtrusively. iii. He should have sent an honor guard of chariots and horsemen to accompany

the departing Israelites.

iv. After all, it was Egypt’s Father, too! At the end of the day, Moses’ Pharaoh should have made the same calculation Joseph’s Pharaoh did: Father’s wish is to take the Israelites to Canaan, they can’t be allowed to diminish the reverence we Egyptians give to Father in Heaven.

v. If Father wants to do this, we are not going to take that as a snub and turn our backs on Him. We will honor His wishes. We will be part of the parade.

III. Moses’ Pharaoh could have done that, but he did not.

a. In the end, the Pharaoh of Moses’ day was not able to muster the honesty, the humility, and the courage necessary to recognize that there was a deeper Master than he, with all the implications that would flow from that.

b. So, when Israel finally did leave Egypt, they would leave all alone.

i. There would be no Egyptian multitudes escorting them out joyously, with pomp and circumstance.

ii. There would be no Egyptian horsemen and chariots, gloriously accompanying Israel all the way to the water’s edge.

iii. There would be no Canaanite throngs exclaiming about the wonder of it all. c. Except that there would be.

i. The Master of the Universe would see to it that there would be.

ii. In his blindness, Pharaoh thought the chariots and archers were there to pursue his escaping slaves.

iii. But that was not really their purpose; God would appropriate those chariots and archers for His own purposes.

iv. One way or the other, Egypt’s finest would escort Israel, like before, to the water’s edge.

1. One way or the other, as it was in days of old, Father shall once again ‘be honored through Pharaoh and all his army.’

2. If Pharaoh would not be forthcoming in providing that honor, it would be taken from him.

d. So, centuries after they first made their appearance, the chariots and horsemen of Egypt would indeed show up again.

i. They would come to provide honor for God.

ii. But now we understand; it is not their deaths that would provide honor, as we had assumed before, but their accompaniment of Israel that would do this. iii. It was as if God looked out at the scene, at Israel departing Egypt, all alone, and

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