Happy Passover?

Passover begins tonight, that joyous time of year when Jews the world over remind themselves of how great Yahweh is. At least that's what Yahweh wants them and the adherents of the offshoot religions, Christianity and Islam, to do. In the relevant text, Yahweh repeatedly reminds readers that he is the one who led them out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. The warning is clear: do not forget what Yahweh did for you -- not only your distant ancestors but you -- or you're a bad person and will suffer severe consequences.

But is that the whole story? In this post I am taking the book of Exodus, which is excerpted in the Haggadah, which Jews read at their two seders (I've been there), at face value. Needless to say (?), there is little or nothing of historical accuracy in that book. Archeologists have failed to find evidence of any kind to support the claim that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt or that a mass exodus from Egypt to Canaan ever occurred. But let's waive that objection here. We'll assume the biblical story is true.

According to the story, the Israelite leader, Moses, along with his brother, Aaron, under Yahweh's command, appealed to Pharaoh, Egypt's dictator, to "let my people go." Pharaoh hard-heartedly refused, so Yahweh inflicted on every Egyptian (in fact every non-Israelite resident of Egypt, including servants) a series of 10 plagues, ranging from blood in all the rivers to the death of every firstborn. (The festival [!] has its name because the Israelites were passed over by the Angel of Death if they had smeared lamb's blood on their front doors.)

After each devastating plague, Pharaoh relented and told Moses to get his people out of Dodge. But each time, on the next day, Pharaoh changed his mind and refused to let the Israelites go. (Why did Moses keep waiting until the next day? We know he was slow of speech and tongue, but slow of brain too?)

Pharaoh certainly comes off as the heavy in the story, not to mention a bit thick. But we must read a little closer to see what's going on. In fact, on at least eight occasions in the book of Exodus, Yahweh says he would "harden Pharaoh's heart" or something equivalent. Say what? That's right. Yahweh admits that Pharaoh, far from being a terrible person in respect to continued Israelite enslavement, is merely Yahweh's puppet. It is Yahweh who is responsible for the prolonged enslavement. Yet he demands that the Jews (and by implication the Christians and Muslims) bless him every day -- if not every moment -- for delivering them from slavery. They are obligated to lay on the gratitude very thick. At the seders the participants sing the obsequiously catchy song "Dayenu," the point of which is that had Yahweh performed only a small part of what is described in the story without doing all the rest, "it would have been enough!" (dayenu). For example, 

If He had destroyed their [the Egyptians'] idols, and had not smitten their first-born, it would have been enough! If He had smitten their first-born, and had not given us their wealth, it would have been enough! If He had given us their wealth, and not split the sea for us, it would have been enough! If he had split the sea for us and not taken us through it on dry land, it would have been enough! If He taken us through it on dry land, and not drowned our oppressors in it, it would have been enough!

Had enough? 

You might ask, "Why would Yahweh harden Pharaoh's heart?" It seems like a key point, after all. We need not subject the question to Talmudic analysis because Yahweh tells us. In Exodus he said he hardened Pharoah's heart so that Yahweh could demonstrate his awesome power. That's it! As Yogi Berra once said, "You could look it up." I'll save you the trouble. From Exodus 7:3-5, Yahweh told Moses:

And I will harden Pharaoh's heart, and multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt. But Pharaoh will not hearken unto you, and I will lay My hand upon Egypt, and bring forth My hosts, My people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt, by great judgments. And the Egyptians shall know that I am HaShem [The Name, i.e., Yahweh], when I stretch forth My hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.'

I don't remember hearing this in Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments.

At 7:13, we read, "And Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not until them [Moses and Aaron]: 'Pharoah's [sic] heart is stubborn, he refuseth to let the people go." 

Yeah, but who's fault is that?

The plagues then commence: blood, making all water unusable, frogs; gnats; flies; livestock pestilence; boils; hail; locusts; darkness for three days; and finally, death to all firstborns, human and livestock. Mind you, these were inflicted on everyone, innocent and guilty, infants included.

In case you didn't get the point about who was culpable for the Israelites' continued enslavement, see this from Exodus 10:1-2:

And HaShem said unto Moses: 'Go in unto Pharaoh; for I have hardened his heart, and the heart of his servants, that I might show these My signs in the midst of them; and that thou mayest tell in the ears of thy son, and of thy son's son, what I have wrought upon Egypt, and My signs which I have done among them; that ye may know that I am HaShem.' [Emphasis added.]

He says something similar at 9:15-16, where he had Moses tell Pharaoh:

Surely now I had put forth My hand, and smitten thee and thy people with pestilence, and thou hadst been cut off from the earth. But in very deed for this cause have I made thee to stand, to show thee My power, and that My name may be declared throughout all the earth. [Emphasis added.]

As you can see, the acts of manipulation recounted in this horrific tale of collective guilt,  collective punishment, and mass murder were committed just so Yahweh could impress everyone with his power -- not only the Egyptians but also the Israelites and their descendants for the rest of time. If Yahweh was willing to manipulate Pharaoh for this purpose, how do we know he didn't deliberately lead the Israelites into Egypt in the first place and then have them enslaved slavery for the same reason? By his own words, we know what sort of God Yahweh is. At the very least, we can say that an omniscient deity would have known all along that all this suffering would happen. Why? To teach later generations a lesson? What lesson? The same questions can be applied to most Bible stories. Even if they are only allegories, as some secularists maintain, what in the world is the value?

I ask: are these the actions of a just, loving, and benevolent God (as we're constantly told) or of a narcissistic, egotistic, and psychopathically jealous demon? I leave you to answer.