Pharaoh's Revolution

A central character in the Exodus story is Pharaoh. He is the one who controls the fate of the Jewish people in his hands. He is the one who instigated the first anti-semitic propaganda against the Jewish people.

The first thing we are told about Pharaoh is the following:

A new king arose, who did not know Yoseph.

Joseph was the man who saved Egypt from the seven-year famine which starved the entire middle east. Furthermore, if one looks in the Torah portion of Vayigash, it is clear that he made Pharoah incredibly wealthy. We are told that people themselves sold not only their land, but themselves as slaves to Pharoah. They were indentured to him - the great and powerful as well as the weak and dispossessed. It is therefore fitting for G-d to call Egypt “the house of slaves”, because everyone there was a slave to Pharaoh. Pharaoh’s strength came from Joseph. How could he have forgotten him?

The Abarbanel says that it is possible that this was 2 or 3 generations later, and he did not recognise Yoseph, because time had passed on. Interestingly he then adds the words of the Tanchuma which flatly contradicts this assertion. The Tanchuma states:

'A new king' [means] one who initiated new decrees of calamity upon them. This is comparable to a man who stoned the statue (eikon) of a duke. The King said, 'Take him and behead him; today he did this to that [the duke], tomorrow he will do the same to me.' The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: 'Now [he says] "who knew not Joseph" (Exodus 1:8); tomorrow [he will say] "I know not the Lord" (Exodus 5:2).'

The Medrash suggests that Pharoah’s refusal to “know” G-d, and therefore his inability to let the Jewish people go - “I do not know the Lord, and I will not send out Bnei Yisrael”, is a result of his inability to “know” Joseph. Superficially one could suggest that Pharoah had not been educated in his people’s history. He did not know Yoseph, and therefore he could not appreciate what Yoseph had done for him. In the same way, Pharoah was not educated on any level to know about G-d. the milieu in which he lived contradicted any possibility of him knowing G-d. This notion would seem to support the importance of education as being the weapon of choice to defeat anti-semitism. If lack of knowledge is the source of Pharoah’s mistreatment of the Jewish people, it is logical that providing that knowledge would have prevented Pharaoh from acting in the vicious way that he did.

While this could be one of the learning points of the Medrash, I do not believe that it is its main meaning. This source provides a parable of a person who destroyed a statue. It reminded me of the moment when the Berlin wall was broken down. This was more than a juvenile acting out against authority. It was an act of defiance, and a clear message that the regime that had continued for such a long period of time had ended.

If we look at the Medrash in this way, Pharaoh’s act was one of rebellion and defiance. He was essentially stating that the era of Joseph was at an end, and that there was a new dawn in a new Egypt.

Taking an even closer look at the Medrash, perhaps one could suggest that the statue of the duke is a representation of his power- a power which is endowed upon him by the King, either by blood, or through a service of valour. If someone defaces the statue, they are denying the lineage of the duke which is in essence the bond which connects the duke to the king. It is not a huge jump to say that if someone defaced the statue of the duke, he would also not recognise the authority of the King.

Joseph’s leadership and advice to Pharaoh which originally saved the country were based purely on Joseph’s connection to G-d. When interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, he constantly mentions his Master, saying “G-d will answer for the peace of Pharoah”, and “That which G-d does He is showing Pharaoh”. When Pharaoh tells his people to change their view of Bnei Yisrael, he is no longer following the plan laid out by the duke, which was set up by the King himself (G-d).

It must be noted that this decree was not in Pharaoh’s economic interest. At the end of the portion of Vayigash, we see that the whole population of Egypt, and their lands all belonged to Pharaoh. The people had sold themselves into slavery to Pharaoh in order to buy grain that had been collected by Joseph during the years of plenty. Such was Pharaoh’s hatred and fear of the Jewish people that he was prepared to break his economic powerbase in order to enslave them.