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(Source of illustration, HERE)

Odelia Drugu shared today with her ‘friends’ on Facebook a superb text on the meaning of Exodus in Judaism. I dare to say that most of what is said in this text is still valid for us, Christians.

Here is just a fragment, we wet your appetite:

Why does Judaism make such a big deal about the Exodus? Of course, on Passover it deserves the limelight. But every Shabbat and holiday, in the middle of Kiddush, apropos to nothing, the Exodus from Egypt is thrown in. Every day in reciting the Shema, we recall the Exodus. Even one of the 613 commandments of the Torah is to remember the Exodus every day.

Jewish history is not short on great historical episodes: the sacrifice of Isaac, the revelation at Sinai, the crossing into the Promised Land. Why should the Exodus get top billing?

The Jewish understanding of God has two foundations: 1) God created the world and 2) God intervenes in human affairs. Shabbat is testimony to the first premise; the Exodus is testimony to the second.

Although the concept of God as the creator was widely accepted in the Western world from the time the Jews introduced it, until the advent of Darwin, the second premise has always posed a predicament: If God is intimately involved in human affairs, why is there so much suffering in the world?

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Sounds interesting, isn’t it? Then, read on…

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