The Movement for Reform Judaism

Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Romain, Chairman of the Assembly of Rabbis and Rabbi of Maidenhead Synagogue is a respected writer and broadcaster, frequently asked to comment on news issues on radio and television. In this fortnightly feature he addresses your concerns, giving responses to modern issues and queries.

This week's question: Is there any proof for Moses existing or the Exodus actually taking place?

The main record for both the life of Moses and the Exodus is the Torah (or Pentateuch). Strictly speaking, therefore, that is insufficient in terms of proof because you need to have an independent second source that corroborates the first, especially when the first text was written by the descendants of the main characters involved in the episode. (As an aside, it always seems laughable that when Christian missionaries, particularly those operating on university
campuses, try to prove the truth of Jesus, they quote as evidence the Gospels - which are written by the followers of Jesus and are therefore totally biased and can hardly be considered objective).  To return to the Exodus, although the Pentateuch itself cannot be cited, one might
refer to the scattered references in other books of the Bible - written by other authors at later periods, which refer back to it e.g. Isaiah 63.11 or I Chronicles 23.14-15. Clearly they are influenced by the Torah, and are certainly not contemporary to it, but at the same time
they indicate that there was a strong tradition that something major and consequential happened, even if the exact details of the Exodus cannot be verified.

In addition to this internal evidence, there is reference in Egyptian records to Israelites being in Egypt. This occurs on the stele (an upright slab or pillar with an inscription) of Merneptah, the son of Rameses II, who reigned as Pharoah in the first half of the 13th century BC/BCE. It was discovered in Thebes in 1896. This is very important historically, as it shows that the Israelites were indeed present in ancient Egypt in significant numbers to warrant mention. There may well have been other references at the time, but they have not survived the three and a half thousand years since then. It also has to be borne in mind that the Egyptians did not usually record defeats or traumas, only victories and events that showed the Pharoah in a glorious role, so the absence of any mention of a slave revolt or exodus is not surprising.

On a different level, whatever the exact nature of the Exodus, it clearly had a great effect in terms of national development, providing a sense of identity to twelve individual tribes and welding them into a unified nation. It also had a deep religious impact, leading to
commands such as "Love the stranger, for you yourselves were once strangers in the land of Egypt", while the cry of Moses - "Let my people go" - has inspired millions of people, reverberated down the centuries and around the world wherever people are oppressed, be it
Jews or non-Jews, right up to modern times, such as Apartheid South Africa and the former Soviet Union. As for Moses, subsequent Jewish tradition has been at pains not to laud him too much - for instance, he is barely mentioned in the Haggadah - to avoid turning him into an
object of veneration. It was his contribution that counted, and so even if no external proof of his existence has yet emerged, that is irrelevant to the values and ideals of Judaism itself.

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