Sermon by Rabbi Justus Baird, “Parting Gifts of the Egyptians”.

Audio only due to recording issues.

Rabbi Justus shared his outline of the sermon:

Element of Passover story that doesn’t get much attention in our retellings

• Right before the last plague [Ex 11], God tells Moses to instruct the Israelites to “ask their Egyptian neighbors for silver and gold,” adding, “I have disposed the Egyptians favorably toward the people.” Then, 1 chapter later [Ex 12], we read that the Israelites did exactly that. 
• This idea that the Israelites would leave Egypt with a substantial amount of Egyptian wealth was integral to the Exodus story from the beginning: 
  • Early on in the Exodus narrative, when God confronts Moses at burning bush [Ex 3] we read, “I will dispose the Egyptians favorably toward the people, so that you will not go away empty handed – each woman will ask for objects of silver and gold…” 
  • But idea shows up even earlier than that, all the way back in Gen 15, when God is talking to Abram – God tells Abram: “Know that your offspring will be strangers in a land not their own, they shall be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years, but I will execute judgment on the nation they shall serve [that is, Egypt], and in the end they [Israelites] shall go free with rechush gadol – great wealth.”

There are two primary interpretations, two ways to read, this element of the Exodus story in our tradition. I’ll explain them briefly, and then I’ll offer my own interpretation. 

• 1ST Read: THIS WEALTH WAS COMPENSATION FOR UNPAID SLAVE LABOR 
  • My favorite example of this interpretation appears in the Talmud [BT Sanhedrin 91a], in the form of a story that almost sounds like a joke:

Centuries after the Exodus, the rabbis wrote, the Egyptian people decided to take the Israelites to court to reclaim this silver and gold that was never paid back (explain sha’al: story rooted in rabbinic discomfort with the original text: did they “ask” or “borrow” via loan). The Egyptians choose the court of Alexander the Great, in 4th c BCE. The Egyptians say to Alexander: It says in the Torah: the Egyptians “lent them” (Exodus 12:36). You [Israelites] claimed you were borrowing it, but never returned it. Now give us back the silver and gold that you took from us! 

There was a Jewish lawyer at the time who told the rabbis he was willing to represent the Jews in this secular international court of sorts: Geviha ben Pesisa. The rabbis agreed to let him represent the Jewish people in front of Alexander the Great.  

So Geviha ben Pesisa says to the Egyptian plaintiffs: where is your proof that you are entitled to the silver and gold? They replied: From your Torah! 

• Geviha ben Pesisa retorts back: so I too will cite proof to you only from the Torah, which says: “And the children of Israel dwelt in Egypt for 430 years” (quoting Exodus 12:40), during which they were enslaved and engaged in hard manual labor. Give us the wages for the work performed by the 600,000 men above the age of twenty whom you enslaved for 430 years.

In other words, if you want your gold and silver back that we “borrowed,” first you’ll have to pay us back wages for the 430 years of servitude.

• This is the First reading: gold and silver were back wages for slave labor.
  Second Reading: THESE GIFTS MODEL JUST BEHAVIOR FOR HOW TO SET A SLAVE FREE

In Deuteronomy (15:13-15), we read, that when you set a Hebrew slave free, they should not go away empty handed: you should furnish them from your flocks, threshing floor, and vat, because you were once slaves in Egypt.” 

In this interpretation, the Exodus story is modeling for us how to treat our slaves. Even though the Egyptians did not have to give us anything, they did, and we should remember that and never send our own slaves away empty-handed. 

• 1st: the Egyptian gold and silver was delayed compensation for unpaid slave labor. 2nd: modeling moral behavior for sending away a slave with gifts
• I WANT TO OFFER A THIRD READING, which is that this element of the Exodus story is part of a pattern in the narrative that shows us that there was a sizable gap between the Egyptian people and Pharoah in their attitudes toward the Israelites.

You may recall in first chapter of Exodus, story of the Midwives, Shifra and Puah, who defy Pharoah’s orders to kill the 1st born Israelite boys. 

• It is likely that Shifra and Puah were Egyptian, and if so, it is the first evidence we have that not all the Egyptians hated Israelites. 

Then: if we turn to Moses’ conversation with God at the burning bush [Ex 3:22]: God tells Moses that God will dispose the Egyptian people favorably toward the Israelites, and the Israelite women will ask their neighbors for silver, gold, and clothing. The verse includes a striking phrase: וְשָׁאֲלָ֨ה אִשָּׁ֤ה מִשְּׁכֶנְתָּהּ֙ וּמִגָּרַ֣ת בֵּיתָ֔הּ

• Each Israelite woman shall ask her neighbor (shecheynah) and “mi-gar-tah beitah” – the ones living in the house. 
• This means that there were Egyptians living with Israelites in their homes. Some commentators, including Ibn Ezra, interpret this phrase to mean that some Israelites owned land and rented rooms to Egyptians – while other interpreters assume this means Israelites were living in Egyptian homes…but either way, the unavoidable conclusion is that Israelites and Egyptians were living together under the same roof. And thus, they had very close relationships.

Third Piece of Evidence: few chapters later, before the last plague [Ex 11]: when the text tells us again about asking the Egyptians for valuable objects, the text adds:

מֹשֶׁ֗ה גָּד֤וֹל מְאֹד֙ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם בְּעֵינֵ֥י עַבְדֵֽי־פַרְעֹ֖ה וּבְעֵינֵ֥י הָעָֽם

• Moses was an esteemed person throughout Egypt, in the eyes of Pharaoh’s courtiers – which would make sense if he grew up in Pharaoh’s palace – and in the eyes of the Egyptian people
• => it appears that Moses was popular among Egyptians, which would make the Egyptians more likely to give generously to the Israelites when the Israelites left.

These three small but important details: Shifta and Puah’s refusal; Egyptians and Israelites living under the same roof; Moses’ positive reputation among Pharoah’s court and the Egyptian people…the details re-orient the picture we paint about the relationship between the Israelites and the Egyptian populace.

• Yes, the story is clear that Israelites were forced into hard slave labor
• But at a minimum, we read in the scroll of Exodus that there were many Egyptians, like the midwives, but probably also thousands of everyday people who had relationships with Israelites, and even members of Pharaoh’s court, who were at least sympathetic to the plight of the Israelites and maybe even actively empathetic. 
• Perhaps this is why God tells us in the book of Deuteronomy:
  לֹא־תְתַעֵ֣ב מִצְרִ֔י — כִּי־גֵ֖ר הָיִ֥יתָ בְאַרְצֽוֹ
  You shall not Abhor an Egyptian, for you were a stranger in their land

The deeper truth that this little element of the Exodus story sheds light on is the following: there is always daylight between factions within any people. 

• Sometimes the daylight is between the leadership and the grassroots, other times it is between factions or parties. 
• We know this to be true in our own communities – it is most certainly true of our American Jewish population and the Israeli Jewish population. 
• But this seemingly small element from the Exodus story about how the Egyptian people behaved toward the Israelites reminds us that it is true of our declared enemies as well. 
• Surely it is true of the Iranians with whom we are currently at war. And about our fellow Americans that we disagree with. In any group of people, there is always daylight – that is, surprising gaps in attitudes – in political sympathies. 

As we prepare to once again retell the story of the Exodus, let us not forget the part of the story in which some, probably even most, Egyptian people were kind and generous to the Israelites as they escaped, as a reminder to seek out sympathetic individuals and factions even amongst our greatest enemies.

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