Forgetting Joseph

According to the ancient chronology of Israel, called Seder Olam, just over one hundred years after Jacob and his family entered Egypt, the last of his sons passed away. That son was Levi who died at the age of one-hundred thirty-seven. Seder Olam also marks Levi's passing as the period when Egypt initiated the enslavement of the Children of Israel. We learn from Parashat Shemot (Ex. 1:1–6:1) that this process was enabled by a “king arose who knew not Joseph.”

A variety of opinions are offered as to why this pharaoh is characterized in this manner. Ibn Ezra relates that the above verse simply means the pharaoh was not of royal lineage. The Or HaChaim commenting on Exodus 1:6:3 teaches that as long as any of the original tribal heads, that is, the brothers of Joseph survived, they were esteemed by the populace of their adopted country, especially after the Egyptian leadership returned from the burial of Jacob and reported how the Canaanite kings paid homage to Jacob's funeral procession.

With the death of Levi that changed.

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch believed that this change in attitude can be attributed to the pharaoh being a foreigner who had led an invasion that overthrew the previous dynasty so that he, literally, had never heard of Joseph.

Remarkably, the Egyptian annals found, in the ancient Turin Canon, records that a new dynasty came to power during Egypt's 6th Dynasty and that it's founder, Pharaoh Teti was a foreigner who was obviously not a descendant of the nation's ruling families and that he took on a royal pedigree by marrying Iput, the daughter of Pharaoh Unas, who died without leaving a male heir. Teti's reign was cut short by palace intrigue and he may have been assassinated. Scholars debate this but do agree that this pharaoh faced severe opposition from his administrators and possibly his prime minister. Teti's son, Pepy, inherited the crown after wresting it from Userkaf, a pretender to the throne. But Pepy's time as pharaoh was even shorter than Userkaf.

This new, foreign dynasty eventually gained impressive stability when Pepi's son, Pepi II took the throne and ruled for an amazing ninety-four years, the longest reign of any king in Egypt's history. What makes this figure so intriguing is that the length of his reign matches that of the pharaoh called Melol in the Jewish sources such as Me'Am Lo'Ez and Sefer HaYashar. He is identified as the Pharaoh of the Oppression, the one who subjected Israel to crushing harshness and according to the aforementioned sources, he ruled Egypt for ninety-four years.

When we read of the misadventures of these historical pharaohs who ruled before Pepy II, it's easy to imagine that one of them had been persuaded to ignore the accomplishments of Joseph. The Sages tell us the"persuasion"came in the form of being forced to abdicate until he toed the party line which was to delegitimize the Children of Israel. The nobles and possibly the Egyptian priests who surrounded the king went to work rewriting history, obliterating any mention of Joseph. The populace quickly forgot how he had saved them from famine and built Egypt into a rich and powerful nation. Further dehumanization of Israel led to the final solution: Tossing male Hebrew infants into the Nile. The sages tell us that one of the many reasons for drowning the infants in the Nile was that pharaoh's advisors told him that Israel’s God would not retaliate against Egypt because He had promised to never flood the world again.

Egypt had forgotten Joseph but God remembered His People with the birth of Moses who was saved from death by being hidden in a reed basket and placed in the Nile when he was three months old. But salvation for the Children of Israel wouldn’t begin until Moses was eighty years old.

Moses’ compassion for his people’s years of suffering made him doubt his own ability to convince them that he was sent by God to release them from their harsh servitude. HaShem gave Moses three signs to prove that he was the long-promised deliverer:

• The first was turning his staff into a snake.

• The second was Moses' hand turned leprous and then healing the hand.

• The third sign was turning water from the Nile into blood.

The third sign was the first plague, one which appears to be referenced in an ancient text which recounts how Egypt was destroyed by a series of calamities. Known as the Ippuwer Papyrus, it speaks specifically of the Nile turning to blood and also states:

“He who poured water on the ground has captured the strong man in misery.” 

Compare the above statement to Exodus 4:9: “God told Moses to take water from the river and pour it on the ground, and it would turn into blood.” 

All three of the aforementioned signs were a demonstration that HaShem has the ultimate power over life and death, as well as complete control over the creation.

Convincing pharaoh and his people to release Israel from bondage would need more than three signs. It would take a frightful year of Ten Strikes against Egypt and their gods.

Today, we see this same evil process at work. People in power and their co-horts chanting antisemitic slogans in the streets have already forgotten how just decades ago we cheered Israel's miraculous victory during the Six Day War. Universities traffic in lies about Israel and the Jewish People and their God-given right to the land of their forefathers. Like the ancient Egyptians, many people no longer regard Israel’s positive impact in every field, including modern medicine, technology and global disaster relief work. We are seeing an ancient pattern emerging as, "the nations rage and the people imagine a vain thing."