The Big City

The Biblical story on which the Jewish festival of Passover is based says that Moses told Pharaoh Ramses II, the Egyptian leader, that he must free his Jewish slaves or his country would suffer terrible punishments. When the Pharaoh refused, Egypt was afflicted with 10 terrible plagues the last one of which was the killing of every first-born child and beast in Egypt. The Jews avoided having their own first-borns killed by marking their houses with lambs blood and so God ‘passed over’ their houses and didn’t murder their children.

I expect you can see where I’m going with this. Wasn’t Moses the Osama Bin Laden of his time, but even worse because Egypt wasn’t a democracy? The people who’s children were murdered had no role in choosing their leader and no say in his policies. They really were the ultimate innocent victims. Of course it’s great that the Jews were freed from slavery in Egypt, but look at the price! Maybe I’m over-sensitive because I am a first-born child and so is my oldest daughter. The Jews could have told their Egyptian neighbours what they needed to do in order to avoid having their first-born children killed. If they had done that it really would have merited an annual celebration. As it is I think the events are more worthy of a sad memorial, like a smaller version of Holocaust Memorial Day.

I was talking to my Dad about this and he asked me how else the Children of Israel could have free themselves from slavery. It’s a question some Palestinians have clearly been asking themselves.