Why Did the Egyptian Exile Happen?
Is Jewish Suffering Necessary for Salvation?
Adapted from Rabbi Braun’s sermon in 5775
The winner of the chose a sermon contest is “Why did the Egyptian exile happen? Is Jewish suffering necessary for Salvation?”
The first question that one has to ask is – are those 2 questions necessarily connected? Is the fact that we suffered in Egypt a model or paradigm for future redemptions or can we separate the two? Can we explain the necessity of suffering in Egypt as a onetime phenomenon that does not necessarily indicate that future salvation will include suffering as well?
The two most well-known explanations for the exile/suffering allow for that very possibility.
We know that the Jews will be exiled, oppressed and redeemed because God tells Avraham explicitly that this will be the case in chapter 15 of Genesis during the covenant between the pieces. It is written as a certainty and you certainly have to wonder why!
The Ramban writes that the Egyptian exile was a punishment for a specific sin committed by Avraham Avinu.
Shortly after reaching Israel, Avraham experiences a famine and goes to Egypt for food. There he tells Pharaoh that Sarah his wife is his sister and she is taken to the palace where she spends the night.
Ramban there writes that Avraham committed a grave sin in leaving Israel and not having faith that God would save him should he tell the truth about his relationship with Sarah.
The punishment for that sin is the Jewish exile, also in Egypt with Pharaoh.
This would certainly not apply to future redemptions and allow for a painless messianic arrival but is an explanation that has always bothered me.
Firstly, is it really fair that the people decades alter be punished for Avraham’s sin? Is that something a just God does?
Secondly, even if you could get past the first issue, isn’t national slavery and persecution a little over the top? It seems that the punishment does not fit the crime!
The second answer attempts to explain why suffering was necessary before Sinai and nationhood.
The Torah described our stay in Egypt as
דברים פרק ד
כ) וְאֶתְכֶם֙ לָקַ֣ח יְקֹוָ֔ק וַיּוֹצִ֥א אֶתְכֶ֛ם מִכּ֥וּר הַבַּרְזֶ֖ל מִמִּצְרָ֑יִם לִהְי֥וֹת ל֛וֹ לְעַ֥ם נַחֲלָ֖ה כַּיּ֥וֹם הַזֶּֽה
20. But the Lord has taken you, and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be for him a people of inheritance, as you are this day.
Rashi writes that you place gold into the furnace to remove impurities and shape the object. Similarly I guess, the Jews required some spiritual purification, the removal of impurities, in the furnace of Egypt in order to become God’s people.
This might well serve as a paradigm for the future. That would depend upon whether we are redeemed because we deserve it or because we are so bad that we might become irredeemable.
This answer has always bothered me as well. Do we really want to believe that there is no chance at national purification without suffering and hardship? Was there no other way to become worthy of being God’s people? Couldn’t we come closer to God by learning, meditating praying etc.
I want to suggest an idea that I have been tossing around in my head for a while. It is somewhat hard to swallow because it is not how we generally conceive of things or how we approach a text but it might well be right.
To get there let me ask you one more question.
We know that the messiah is a descendant of both Yehuda and Tamar and Ruth and Boaz. Each met under less than optimal circumstances. Tamar dressed up as a prostitute and slept with her father in law. That union produced an ancestor of the messiah.
Ruth, although seemingly less egregious, sneaks into Boaz’s bed in the middle of the night.
One certainly has to wonder? Is that really the way the line that produces our messiah should begin or be conceived? Shouldn’t the Messiah come from an unbroken line, holy, untainted by anything unholy?
I have yet to see a good answer to that question but this year the following occurred to me.
There is an idea out there that the events that occurred to the patriarchs and matriarchs serves as models or indicators for future events. Masseh avot siman l’banim.
Applying this idea to the lineage of the messiah would work as follows: It is not that the messiah must come from unholy origins. The Torah simply wants to let us know that in the future it could and maybe will. Don’t think that if the messiah is not from an angelic line he is not the messiah. The world is complicated and the redemptive process will evolve in the real world. In that world not everything is pure and simple and holy. Don’t ignore a potential messianic process because it is not as pristine as you wish. (hint hint)
God orchestrates or allows the messianic line to begin with Yehuda and Tamar to teach future generations this lesson or to actually predict how it will unfold- not how it must but how it will!
You have to accept that something happens and is included in the Torah not for it import at that moment but for its message/implications for the future.
I have heard the same idea used to explain Akedat Yitzchak, the binding of Isaac. It is irrational and can’t be understood but will serve to comfort Jews in the future who face the same test of sacrificing or losing children at times of persecution.
Maybe we can use the same idea to explain why there was slavery/suffering before the exodus.
Maybe that is how it will play out in the future. And maybe the story of yetziat mitzrayim can serve as a source of comfort for Jews who are oppressed throughout Jewish history by providing them with hope for salvation that will follow the suffering.
I think that it is certainly an approach worth considering and maybe one that we are watching play out in the last number of decades!
