SALVATION HISTORY

KEY CONCEPT
Read me! ISRAEL IN EGYPT

Joseph the Dreamer

Joseph was born in the Mesopotamian town of Haran, to his parents Jacob and Rachel.
At the age of six, he left Haran along with his family and journeyed to the land of Canaan,
eventually settling in Hebron.

Jacob displayed extra affection to Joseph, who was born to his father’s old age,
presenting him with a specially-crafted garment. This prompted feelings of jealousy within
his brothers, especially the sons of Jacob’s other wife, Leah. These ill feelings
exacerbated when Joseph repeated two of his dreams to them, in which he was portrayed
as ruling over his brethren. In the first, the brothers were gathering wheat in the field, and
the brothers’ bundles bowed to Joseph’s bundle. In the second, Joseph envisioned the
sun, the moon, and eleven stars (symbolizing his parents and brothers) bowing to him.

One day, Jacob instructed Joseph to visit his brothers in Shechem, where they were
tending their sheep. Little did he know that this would be the last time he would see his
dear son, until their reunion a long twenty-two years later.

Seizing their chance, the brothers threw the unsuspecting Joseph into a pit. A short while
later they spotted an Arab caravan passing the scene, and the brothers sold Joseph to
the traders. He was eventually brought to Egypt, where he was sold to Potiphar, one of
King Pharaoh’s ministers.

For a while, things started to look up for young Joseph. Divine success enabled him to
find favor in his master’s eyes, and he was appointed head of Potiphar’s estate. However,
this would not last for long.

Attracted by his handsome looks, Potiphar’s wife desired to be intimate with him. To her
consternation, Joseph continuously refused. One day, when no one was home other than
the two of them, the mistress grasped Joseph’s garment, demanding that he consent.
Thinking quickly, Joseph slid out of his cloak and ran outside. This self-control earned
him the appellation, “Joseph the righteous.”

But Potiphar’s wife turned the tables on Joseph, telling her husband that it was Joseph
who had tried to entice her. The angry master reacted by placing his trustworthy assistant
in prison.

Joseph—Interpreter and Viceroy

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Joseph’s charisma followed him to prison as well, and the warden soon appointed him as
his right-hand man. In time, his unique qualities expressed themselves in an additional
area: when the king’s royal cupbearer and baker were imprisoned, Joseph successfully
interpreted their dreams, correctly predicting that the cupbearer would be released and
the baker, hanged.

Two years later, King Pharaoh himself envisioned two dreams, which none of his advisors
were able to explain. Remembering the Hebrew youth from his prison days, the cupbearer
suggested that Joseph be summoned. Joseph, then thirty, interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams
as being a Divine prediction for seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine,
and advised Pharaoh to prepare by storing grain during the first seven years. Impressed
by Joseph’s wisdom, Pharaoh appointed him as his viceroy, second only to the king
himself, and tasked him with readying the nation for the years of famine.

Meanwhile, the effects of the famine were felt in nearby Canaan. Hearing that there was
grain in Egypt, Joseph’s brothers journeyed there to buy precious food from the viceroy,
not realizing that he was their very own brother.

Joseph decided to utilize this opportunity to observe whether his brothers truly regretted
having sold him. Using a succession of dramatic maneuvers, Joseph tested his brothers’
determination to save their youngest brother Benjamin—Joseph’s only maternal
brother—from the plot he set up for him. Once he saw their devotion toward Benjamin,
Joseph finally revealed his identity to his astonished siblings.

Following this heartfelt reunion, Jacob and his family settled in the Goshen section of
Egypt. This series of events served as the backdrop for Israel’s ultimate enslavement in
Egypt and the subsequent Exodus.

Joseph’s Family

After appointing Joseph as viceroy, Pharaoh gave him as a wife Asenath, daughter of
Potiphera, priest of On.

Joseph and Asenath had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, both born during the seven
years of plenty. Before Jacob’s death, he gave Joseph a gift: his children would be the
only ones from among Jacob’s grandsons to be treated as independent tribes. Indeed,
throughout the Jews’ journey in the desert, the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim received
equal status to the other tribes, and they inherited individual portions of the Land of Israel.

Joseph ruled Egypt for a total of eighty years, until his death at the age of 110. Before his
passing, he made his brothers promise to take his coffin along with them when they would
eventually leave Egypt for the Promised Land. After his death, he was embalmed and laid
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to rest in Egypt. Indeed, when the Jews left Egypt many years later, Moses made sure to
locate Joseph’s tomb and carry his remains to the Land of Israel.

Beginning of Oppression

Joseph and his brothers died, and the children of Israel multiplied in the land of Egypt.
They held important positions and played an important role in the political, cultural, and
economic life of the country. It is not surprising that they stirred the jealousy of the native
Egyptians who felt outshone by the "foreigners."

Old King Pharaoh died, too, and a new king ascended the throne. He had no sympathy
or love for the children of Israel, and chose to forget all that Joseph had done for Egypt.
He decided to take action against the growing influence and numbers of the children of
Israel. He called his council together, and they advised him to enslave these people and
oppress them before they grew too powerful. Pharaoh limited the personal freedom of the
Hebrews, put heavy taxes on them, and recruited their men into forced labor battalions
under the supervision of harsh taskmasters. Thus the children of Israel had to build cities,
erect monuments, construct roads, work in the quarries, and hew stones or make bricks
and tiles. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, and the harder the restrictions
imposed upon them became, the more the children of Israel increased and multiplied.
Finally, when King Pharaoh saw that forcing the Hebrews to do hard work did not succeed
in suppressing their rapidly growing numbers, he decreed that all newly born male
children of the Hebrews be thrown into the Nile River. Only daughters should be permitted
to live.

Thus Pharaoh hoped to end the numerical increase of the Jewish population, and at the
same time to eliminate a danger which, according to the predictions of his astrologers,
threatened his own life in the person of a leader to be born to the children of Israel.

The Levites

The only group of Jews that escaped enslavement was the tribe of Levi. Levi was the last
of Jacob's sons to die, and his influence over his tribe was great and lasting. They had
taken over the Torah academy Jacob had established in Goshen, and they instructed the
children of Israel in the knowledge of God and His holy teachings. Thus they were
occupied with spiritual matters and did not mix with the Egyptians, while many of their
brethren had given up their old customs and way of life. Except for their language,
clothing, and names, many of the children of Israel had become assimilated into the social
and cultural environment of their Egyptian neighbors, and they were the ones to arouse
the wrath of the Egyptians. Only the children of Levi were, therefore, spared the slavery
and oppression which the Egyptians imposed upon the rest of Israel.

The Birth of Moses

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The day approached when, according to the Egyptian astrologers, the liberator of the
children of Israel was to be born. Since they did not know whether he would be of Jewish
or Egyptian descent, all male children born that day, were to be thrown into the water by
order of King Pharaoh. This same day, the seventh of Adar, Jochebed, Amram's wife,
gave birth to her third child, a boy. Right from the first moment of his birth, it became
apparent that he was an extraordinary child, for the house was filled with a radiant light.
His parents tried everything possible to prevent his falling into the hands of Pharaoh's
men, who were continuously searching for newborn Jewish children. After three months,
Jochebed saw that she would not be able to conceal her child any longer. She therefore
made a small, water-proof basket in which she put the child and set. him down among
the papyrus reeds growing on the brink of the Nile. While Jochebed tearfully returned
home, her daughter Miriam remained nearby to watch the baby.

Moses Saved

The day was hot, and King Pharaoh's daughter, Bithya, came out to the river,
accompanied by her maids, to take a bath in the cool waters of the Nile. Suddenly, she
heard the wailing of a small child. Presently she found the basket, and in it an infant boy.
Intrigued by the child's beauty, Bithya tried to figure out a way to enable her to keep him
for herself and save him from death, for she understood that this boy was one of the
children born to a Jewish family, and therefore condemned to death.

The child refused to be nursed by any of the Egyptian maids-in-waiting, and continued to
weep. At this moment, Miriam came over to the princess and offered to procure for the
child a Jewish nurse, who would keep it as long as the princess thought necessary. Bithya
was glad of this solution. Miriam rushed home and brought her mother, whom she
introduced as an experienced nurse.

For two years the baby was left in his mother's care. Meanwhile Bithya told Pharaoh about
the boy she had found and adopted. Her father did not object, although the foundling was
of Jewish descent; for his astrologers had told him that the one who, according to the
constellation of the stars, had been predestined to become the liberator of the Jews and
to threaten the life of King Pharaoh, had already been placed at the mercy of the water.
Moreover, they further said, it was the fate of this boy to die because of water. Thus, they
felt sure that the danger had already been averted. Moses was taken to the royal court,
where he grew up as the princely adopted son of King Pharaoh's daughter.

Moses Becomes Tongue-Tied

Once it happened that Moses was playing on King Pharaoh's lap. He saw the shining
crown, studded with jewels, and reached for it and took it off. Pharaoh, who was
superstitious like all his fellow-Egyptians, and who in addition was always afraid of losing
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his throne, asked his astrologers and counselors for the meaning of this action of the
infant. Most of them interpreted it to mean that Moses was a threat to Pharaoh's crown
and suggested that the child be put to death before it could do any harm. One of the king's
counselors, however, suggested that they should first test the boy and see whether his
action was prompted by intelligence, or he was merely grasping for sparkling things as
any other child would.

Pharaoh agreed to this, and two bowls were set down before young Moses. One
contained gold and jewels, and the other held glowing fire-coals. Moses reached out for
the gold, but an angel directed his hand to the coals. Moses snatched a glowing coal and
put it to his lips. He burned his hand and tongue, but his life was saved. After that fateful
test, Moses suffered from a slight speech defect. He could not become an orator, but his
words were nevertheless to carry weight, for it was God's words that were spoken through
his lips.