Legends of the Jews, Volume 2 — Chap. 4-13 – Moses in Egypt

THE FIRST PASSOVER

When the time approached in which, according to the promise made to Abraham, his children would be redeemed, it was seen that they had no pious deeds to their credit for the sake of which they deserved release from bondage.

God therefore gave them two commandments, one bidding them to sacrifice the paschal lamb and one to circumcise their sons.

[201] Along with the first they received the calendar in use among the Jews, for the Passover feast is to be celebrated on the fifteenth day of the month of Nisan, and with this month the year is to begin.

But the computations for the calendar are so involved that Moses could not understand them until God showed him the movements of the moon plainly.

There were three other things equally difficult, which Moses could comprehend only after God made him to see them plainly.

They were the compounding of the holy anointing oil, the construction of the candlestick in the Tabernacle, and the animals the flesh of which is permitted or prohibited.

[202] Also the determination of the new moon was the subject of special Divine teaching.

That Moses might know the exact procedure, God appeared to him in a garment with fringes upon its corners, bade Moses stand at His right hand and Aaron at His left, and then, citing Michael and Gabriel as witnesses, He addressed searching questions to the angels as to how the new moon had seemed to them.

Then the Lord addressed Moses and Aaron, saying, "Thus shall My children proclaim the new moon, on the testimony of two witnesses and through the president of the court.

[203] When Moses appeared before the children of Israel and delivered the Divine message to them, telling them that their redemption would come about in this month of Nisan, they said: "How is it possible that we should be redeemed?

Is not the whole of Egypt full of our idols?

And we have no pious deeds to show making us worthy of redemption."

Moses made reply, and said: "As God desires your redemption, He pays no heed to your idols; He passes them by.

Nor does He look upon your evil deeds, but only upon the good deeds of the pious among you."

[204] God would not, indeed, have delivered Israel if they had not abandoned their idol worship.

Unto this purpose He commanded them to sacrifice the paschal lamb.

Thus they were to show that they had given up the idolatry of the Egyptians, consisting in the worship of the ram.

[205] The early law was different from the practice of later times, for they were bidden to select their sacrificial animal four days before the day appointed for the offering, and to designate it publicly as such, to show that they did not stand in awe of the Egyptians.

With a heavy heart the Egyptians watched the preparations of the Israelites for sacrificing the animals they worshipped.

Yet they did not dare interpose an objection, and when the time came for the offering to be made, the children of Israel could perform the ceremonies without a tremor, seeing that they knew, through many days' experience, that the Egyptians feared to approach them with hostile intent.

There was another practice connected with the slaughter of the paschal lamb that was to show the Egyptians how little the Israelites feared them.

They took of the blood of the animal, and openly put it on the two side posts and on the lintel of the doors of their houses.

[206] Moses communicated the laws regulating the Passover sacrifice to the elders, and they in turn made them known to the people at large.

The elders were commended for having supported the leader at his first appearance, for their faith in Moses caused the whole people to adhere to him at once.

Therefore God spake, saying: "I will reward the elders for inspiring the people with confidence in Moses.

They shall have the honor of delivering Israel.

They shall lead the people to the Passover sacrifice, and through this the redemption will be brought about."

[207] The ceremonies connected with the Passover sacrifice had the purpose of conveying instruction to Israel about the past and the future alike.

The blood put on the two side posts and on the lintel of their doors was to remind them of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and the bunch of hyssop for sprinkling the blood on the doors was to imply that, although Israel's position among the peoples of the earth is as lowly as that of the hyssop among the plants, yet this little nation is bound together like the bunch of hyssop, for it is God's peculiar treasure.

[208] The paschal sacrifice afforded Moses the opportunity for inducing the children of Israel to submit themselves to circumcision, which many had refused to do until then in spite of his urgent appeals.

But God has means of persuasion.

He caused a wind to blow that wafted the sweet scents of Paradise toward Moses' paschal lamb, and the fragrance penetrated to all parts of Egypt, to the distance of a forty days' journey.

The people were attracted in crowds to Moses' lamb, and desired to partake of it.

But he said, "This is the command of God, 'No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof,' " and they all decided to undergo circumcision.

When the Lord passed through the land of Egypt, He blessed every Israelite for his fulfilment of the two commands, the command of the paschal sacrifice and the command regarding circumcision."

The Lord performed a great miracle for the Israelites.

As no sacrifice may be eaten beyond the borders of the Holy Land, all the children of Israel were transported thither on clouds, and after they had eaten of the sacrifice, they were carried back to Egypt in the same way.

[210] THE SMITING OF THE FIRST-BORN

When Moses announced the slaying of the first-born, the designated victims all repaired to their fathers, and said: "Whatever Moses hath foretold has been fulfilled.

Let the Hebrews go, else we shall all die."

But the fathers replied, "It is better for one of every ten of us to die, than the Hebrews should execute their purpose."

Then the first-born repaired to Pharaoh, to induce him to dismiss the children of Israel.

So far from granting their wish, he ordered his servants to fall upon the first-born and beat them, to punish them for their presumptuous demand.

Seeing that they could not accomplish their end by gentle means, they attempted to bring it about by force.

[211] Pharaoh and all that opposed the wishes of the first-born were of the opinion that the loss of so inconsiderable a percentage of the population was a matter of small moment.

They were mistaken in their calculation, for the Divine decree included not only the first-born sons, but also the first-born daughters, and not only the first-born of the marriages then existing, but also the first-born issuing from previous alliances of the fathers and the mothers, and as the Egyptians led dissolute lives, it happened not rarely that each of the ten children of one woman was the first-born of its father.

Finally, God decreed that death should smite the oldest member of every household, whether or not he was the first-born of his parents.

[212] What God resolves is executed.

At the exact instant marking the middle of the night, so precise that only God Himself could determine and discern it, He appeared in Egypt, attended by nine thousand myriads of the Angels of Destruction who are fashioned some of hail and some of flames, and whose glances drive terror and trembling to the heart of the beholder.

These angels were about to precipitate themselves into the work of annihilation, but God restrained them, saying, "My wrath will not be appeased until I Myself execute vengeance upon the enemies of Israel."

[213] Those among the Egyptians who gave credence to Moses' words, and tried to shield their first-born children from death, sent them to their Hebrew neighbors, to spend the fateful night with them, in the hope that God would exempt the houses of the children of Israel from the plague.

But in the morning, when the Israelites arose from their sleep, they found the corpses of the Egyptian fugitives next to them.

[214] That was the night in which the Israelites prayed before lying down to sleep: "Cause us, O Lord our God, to lie down in peace, remove Satan from before us and from behind us, and guard our going out and our coming in unto life and unto peace,"[215] for it was Satan that had caused frightful bloodshed among the Egyptians.

[216] Among the slain there were, beside the Egyptian first- born, also the first-born of other nationalities residing in Egypt, as well as the Egyptian first-born dwelling outside of their own land.

[217] Even the long dead of the first-born were not spared.

The dogs dragged their corpses out of their graves in the houses, for it was the Egyptian custom to inter the dead at home.

At the appalling sight the Egyptians mourned as though the bereavement had befallen them but recently.

The very monuments and statues erected to the memory of the first-born dead were changed into dust, which was scattered and flew out of sight.

Moreover, their slaves had to share the fate of the Egyptians, and no less the first- born of the captive that was in the dungeon, for none was so low but he hated the Hebrews, and rejoiced when the Egyptians decreed their persecution.

[218] The female slaves that ground corn between mill-stones were in the habit of saying, "We do not regret our servitude, if only the Israelites are gagged, too.

[219] In dealing out punishment to these aliens in the land of Egypt, God showed that He was at once the Master of the land and the Lord over all the gods of the nations, for if the slaves and the captives of war had not been smitten, they would have said, "Mighty is our god, who helped us in this plague."

[220] For the same reason all the idols of the Egyptians were swept out of existence in that night.

The stone idols were ground into dust, the wooden idols rotted, and those made of metal melted away,[221] and so the Egyptians were kept from ascribing their chastisement to the wrath of their own gods.

Likewise the Lord God slew the first-born of the cattle, for the Egyptians paid worship to animals, and they would have attributed their misfortunes to them.

In all these ways the Lord showed them that their gods were but vanity.