Happy Passover, 2024

In an earlier incarnation many, many years ago, I would be getting ready to celebrate Passover. This is the holiday that commemorates Yahweh's liberation of the children of Israel from enslavement in Egypt (long before the Arabs got there). Yahweh did this, according to the Good Book, by inflicting collective punishments on the Egyptian people -- ranging from turning the Nile River and other water sources into blood, to sending swarms of frogs, gnats, flies, and locusts throughout the land, to killing all first-born persons and cattle, even those of slaves (non-Israelites, presumably) -- 10 "plagues" in all. As unjust as that collective punishment seems, it was Yahweh's response to the recalcitrance of Egypt's absolute ruler, the Pharaoh. According to the story, he repeatedly changed his mind about "letting [the Israelite] people go" after promising Moses he would do so. That's why Egypt, that is, all Egyptians, kept getting hit with plagues. 

However, there's kind of a big problem with that story. It tells us that the Pharaoh was not a free agent; he had no free will. He did not choose to keep the Israelites in slavery. He presumably wanted to let them go when he saw that Moses had the backing of a powerful deity. Then why didn't he? Because, as the story says, Yahweh "hardened Pharaoh's heart." By my count, He hardened Pharaoh's heart at least eight times! Yahweh did this, he explained, because he wanted a reason to inflict the plagues: "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 [The Boss]." 

In other words, Yahweh wanted to show how awesome He was (is) not only to the eyewitnesses but also to future generations, especially of Israelites. So observant (and not-so-observant) people of the Jewish faith are reminded of this story every year and expected to think of themselves as having been slaves in Egypt and freed by their one and only Lord. Yahweh is saying, "And don't you forget it. You owe me." Owe what? Total obedience and love. He calls that righteousness.

Don't take my word for it. Look it up. 

There's one further problem: archeologists have yet to come up with artifactual or documentary evidence that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt or that about 2 million Israelites escaped across the Sinai peninsula over 40 years into what is now Jordan and then into Canaan, where the Joshua-led genocidal conquest occurred. Another problem is that since Canaan was part of the Egyptian empire, it would hardly hardly been a good place to seek refuge.

Myth dies hard. I'll find something else to celebrate.