And where this amalgamation cannot be effected--as in the case of the Israelites--who are too homogeneous for commixture or even communion with other people,--the slave, in the progress of events, acquires the knowledge of the master. When Moses could emulate the Egyptian priesthood, he was able to embody and to represent his people, and to lead them forth from bondage; for then they had acquired all the knowledge which was possessed by the Egyptian; and as they could derive nothing further from the instruction of their masters, the period had naturally arrived for their emancipation. Upon this susceptibility of acquisition, on the part of the slave, depends the whole secret of his release from bondage. It is his mental and moral inferiority which has enslaved, or subjected him to a superior. It is his rise, morally and intellectually, into the same form with his master, which alone can emancipate him.
Y'know, it's been a while since my last seder, but I don't recall any natural emancipation that happened because the Israelites were so much more learned than when they entered Egypt. I'm pretty sure there were some miracles, some divine intervention that got them out of there--the very quintessence of supernatural occurrences. It's not like they were kept as slaves because they kept failing a written test, and were just allowed to leave once they learned enough to pass it, or they one day realized that the Egyptians didn't actually lock their pens.
3 comments:
*LOL* I'm imagining the Israelites in pens ooking like chimps until one, one day, checks the door and it opens and, with testing, starts to ook a little louder and make the squeeling noise and they all file out excitedly! Of course it would have been cleaned up to civilizational level equivalents as time went on.
Oh, and for anyone else reading this, my family's Jewish so this really is supposed to be more teasing/ribbing than just being mean to folks.
Not To mention that there is no evidence that the Israelites were ever actually slaves in Egypt. Also the fact that the bulk of the Old Testament was, in fact, made up out of thin air.
I'm imagining the Israelites in pens ooking like chimps until one, one day, checks the door and it opens and, with testing, starts to ook a little louder and make the squeeling noise and they all file out excitedly!
That appears to be about how it went.
Also the fact that the bulk of the Old Testament was, in fact, made up out of thin air.
But working under the assumption that it were true, as this guy appears to be, just makes it all the more funny to me.
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