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The Exodus You Almost Passed Over
Is there an Exodus story that we almost passed over? Every year we read the story of the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt. It seems like something we already know. But do we? Questions haunt the careful reader. Among Doesn’t the name “Passover” seem a bit strange? Why not just call it Freedom Day, or Independence Day? And did the Exodus have to be so complicated? Couldn’t an all-powerful deity have teleported the Israelites out of Egypt and spared everyone the arduous process of the Ten Plagues? Then there’s the uncomfortable parts of the Why, exactly, did God have to harden Pharaoh’s heart? Was that really fair?
In this book, Rabbi Fohrman invites us to look at the Exodus story with fresh eyes – to join him, as it were, on a guided adventure, a close reading of the ancient biblical text. In so doing, Rabbi Fohrman reveals a side of the Exodus story that illuminates not just our past, but our future, and tells not only of our freedom, but of our destiny. This book will uncover secrets that lay hidden in this ancient and sacred saga and tell the tale of the Exodus you thought you knew.
In this book, Rabbi Fohrman invites us to look at the Exodus story with fresh eyes – to join him, as it were, on a guided adventure, a close reading of the ancient biblical text. In so doing, Rabbi Fohrman reveals a side of the Exodus story that illuminates not just our past, but our future, and tells not only of our freedom, but of our destiny. This book will uncover secrets that lay hidden in this ancient and sacred saga and tell the tale of the Exodus you thought you knew.
323 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 4, 2023
359 people are currently reading
997 people want to read
About the author
David Fohrman
18 books88 followersRabbi David Fohrman lectures internationally on Biblical themes. He heads the Curriculum Initiative of the Areivim Philanthropic Group, and directs the Hoffberger Institute for Text Study. He currently resides in Woodmere, NY with his wife and children, where he also serves as resident scholar at the Young Israel of Woodmere. Rabbi Fohrman's first book, The Beast that Crouches at the Door, was a finalist for the 2007 National Jewish Book Award. In earlier years, Rabbi Fohrman served as a senior editor and writer for ArtScroll's Schottenstein Edition of the Talmud, and taught Biblical themes at the Johns Hopkins University. His recorded lectures are available at rabbifohrman.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
January 17, 2021
I will NEVER read the Exodus the same way again. Rabbi Foreman has a captivating way of writing that keeps you flipping through the pages. Will definitely be referencing this one!
November 30, 2019
Loads of fun. I pay $18 a month for a subscription to AlephBeta, and it is worth every penny, with hours and hours of content that cover various Old Testament stories with careful attention to grammatical nuances. What makes Fohrman particularly fun is that even when he builds up a textual reading that you don't quite buy, he always pays attention to psychology and some sort of cool idea about family legacy, creativity, or temptation that is worth thinking about. If you want to try him out, this book is a great place to begin. It's one of the best written books for an average Joe that I have read in a LONG time. It's not academic or complicated or anything like that. It's conversational and so is accessible to normal people, but is intelligent and a quick read for serious intellectuals.
Fohrman begins by asking all the awkward questions we never ask: why does God bother with all the plagues instead of just freeing Israel miraculously? What's with the attempts to persuade Pharaoh? What's with all the emphasis about the names YHWH and Elohim? Why is this event named Passover and not Independence Day? Why does God harden Pharaoh's heart? Isn't that evil? Even when I come to disagree with Fohrman's conclusion and I am always stimulated by the questions he ask and take seriously the position he takes.
I will try to offer some analysis here without giving away too many spoilers, since half the fun is the sense of discovery. First, Fohrman makes the fascinating note that Moses both tells Pharaoh to let the people go and then asks for a measly three days' journey to the wilderness. He reads the situation as a monotheistic apologetic, and the way he does so is quite fascinating. In fact the whole book is premised on the idea that Pharaoh is given every chance to say "yes" to Moses. This leads to a tour de force ending in which all the cool stuff on Isaiah and Zechariah are in the footnotes. Don't miss the last pages!
I also think that this is basically right. Of course, it does put a Calvinist like me in a bit of a tricky spot, since I was taught growing up that the whole point of the God hardens heart/Pharaoh hardens his heart stuff shows that there is no distinction between the hidden, predestining God and the free actions of men, which a friend recently said was actually Buddhist. Calvin, being himself a fan of Jewish interpretation and way ahead of his time, has a very good commentary and I decided to see if what I had been taught, was essentially what he taught. And it was: "In this word Moses teaches us that the hardness of heart, to which God had devote Pharaoh, was voluntary; so that the sin rested in himself, nor did the secret appointment of God avail anything to lessen his culpability" (comm. on 7:4). The hardening of the heart is not an external causes, but God's predestining decision, the secret appointment of the hidden God, to make Pharaoh harden his heart. Anything outside of this is going to reduce to Open Theism or inconsistent Open Theism due to the fact of divine omniscience: God cannot create creatures who will do things He won't know about beforehand or even creatures who can choose between a number of omnisciently know options, since the fact of God not knowing which option would be chosen would indeed compromise his omniscience.
Fohrman seems to imply the opposite by implying freewill by talking about the possibility of Pharaoh repenting. If true, this would be a shame, because Fohrman elsewhere describes the divine name as implying divine transcendence. Perhaps though it's more complicated and Fohrman merely means that God only speaks to creatures about possibilities from the creature's perspective. At the same time, Fohrman is extremely profitable to read on this point. He argues that God strengthens Pharaoh so that he's not just giving in because of fear, which is quite interesting. Still it actually seems to be worse than Calvin's opinion because God merely predestines the events with his hidden hand, whereas for Fohrman God is strengthening Pharaoh in a bad decision that has consequences for loads of other people. If God wanted to give people a real chance, there are better ways to give it to them. This is why the book of Job is so important: we really don't know why God chooses to let bad things happen and the farthest explanation you can get is because God wants to and since He's a transcendent and perfectly good being, He must have a reason that works for Him. This is all in one episode of Little House on the Prairie, by the way.
Still, I would rather read Fohrman than Calvin, partially because we all live downstream from Calvin and have better scholarship, but partially also because Fohrman pays close attention to the two Hebrew terms that are used to describe hardening. They're not the same. It makes you feel as you read that the story of Exodus is a real story and that each turn in the plagues means something different. That's how we need to read.
The reading of the Red Sea crossing was shockingly brilliant. Don't miss that. However, the more daring move that Fohrman makes is that what should have been the Exodus actually had happened years earlier! I won't spoil things but he basically gives a fascinating detour to Genesis and discusses Jacob and Joseph. I don't know if I buy it all, but again Fohrman finds great significance in what is happening to Jacob, Joseph, and Pharaoh at the end of the book. We often skip over it all, and don't find significance as Hebrews does in the faith of Jacob blessing Joseph and expecting his descendants to return to their land.
And one big final thing: Fohrman is very good at contrasting polytheism with monotheism and reads Israel's relationship with God as that of a loving parent. He has some really great descriptions of this. For him, though, the Exodus is the moment that Israel acts in faith and chooses to become the bechor. This is right and good and the crux of the different readings between the Rabbis and Rabbi Jesus and Rabbi Paul. For the Christian, the Passover is so called because God passed over the people of Israel in mercy because of the lamb, as a foreshadowing of the way God forgives our sins because of the death of Christ. For a Jew such as Fohrman, it has to be not trust in God's unearned mercy, but a work that determines your eternal fate. I realize that there may not seem to be much difference, but the whole controversy about faith and works hinges on this.
Thank you David Fohrman, for all you do. This was a fun book and I enthusiastically commend it and the work of AlephBeta to all my friends, rich or poor, small or great. Don't pass over this book!
Fohrman begins by asking all the awkward questions we never ask: why does God bother with all the plagues instead of just freeing Israel miraculously? What's with the attempts to persuade Pharaoh? What's with all the emphasis about the names YHWH and Elohim? Why is this event named Passover and not Independence Day? Why does God harden Pharaoh's heart? Isn't that evil? Even when I come to disagree with Fohrman's conclusion and I am always stimulated by the questions he ask and take seriously the position he takes.
I will try to offer some analysis here without giving away too many spoilers, since half the fun is the sense of discovery. First, Fohrman makes the fascinating note that Moses both tells Pharaoh to let the people go and then asks for a measly three days' journey to the wilderness. He reads the situation as a monotheistic apologetic, and the way he does so is quite fascinating. In fact the whole book is premised on the idea that Pharaoh is given every chance to say "yes" to Moses. This leads to a tour de force ending in which all the cool stuff on Isaiah and Zechariah are in the footnotes. Don't miss the last pages!
I also think that this is basically right. Of course, it does put a Calvinist like me in a bit of a tricky spot, since I was taught growing up that the whole point of the God hardens heart/Pharaoh hardens his heart stuff shows that there is no distinction between the hidden, predestining God and the free actions of men, which a friend recently said was actually Buddhist. Calvin, being himself a fan of Jewish interpretation and way ahead of his time, has a very good commentary and I decided to see if what I had been taught, was essentially what he taught. And it was: "In this word Moses teaches us that the hardness of heart, to which God had devote Pharaoh, was voluntary; so that the sin rested in himself, nor did the secret appointment of God avail anything to lessen his culpability" (comm. on 7:4). The hardening of the heart is not an external causes, but God's predestining decision, the secret appointment of the hidden God, to make Pharaoh harden his heart. Anything outside of this is going to reduce to Open Theism or inconsistent Open Theism due to the fact of divine omniscience: God cannot create creatures who will do things He won't know about beforehand or even creatures who can choose between a number of omnisciently know options, since the fact of God not knowing which option would be chosen would indeed compromise his omniscience.
Fohrman seems to imply the opposite by implying freewill by talking about the possibility of Pharaoh repenting. If true, this would be a shame, because Fohrman elsewhere describes the divine name as implying divine transcendence. Perhaps though it's more complicated and Fohrman merely means that God only speaks to creatures about possibilities from the creature's perspective. At the same time, Fohrman is extremely profitable to read on this point. He argues that God strengthens Pharaoh so that he's not just giving in because of fear, which is quite interesting. Still it actually seems to be worse than Calvin's opinion because God merely predestines the events with his hidden hand, whereas for Fohrman God is strengthening Pharaoh in a bad decision that has consequences for loads of other people. If God wanted to give people a real chance, there are better ways to give it to them. This is why the book of Job is so important: we really don't know why God chooses to let bad things happen and the farthest explanation you can get is because God wants to and since He's a transcendent and perfectly good being, He must have a reason that works for Him. This is all in one episode of Little House on the Prairie, by the way.
Still, I would rather read Fohrman than Calvin, partially because we all live downstream from Calvin and have better scholarship, but partially also because Fohrman pays close attention to the two Hebrew terms that are used to describe hardening. They're not the same. It makes you feel as you read that the story of Exodus is a real story and that each turn in the plagues means something different. That's how we need to read.
The reading of the Red Sea crossing was shockingly brilliant. Don't miss that. However, the more daring move that Fohrman makes is that what should have been the Exodus actually had happened years earlier! I won't spoil things but he basically gives a fascinating detour to Genesis and discusses Jacob and Joseph. I don't know if I buy it all, but again Fohrman finds great significance in what is happening to Jacob, Joseph, and Pharaoh at the end of the book. We often skip over it all, and don't find significance as Hebrews does in the faith of Jacob blessing Joseph and expecting his descendants to return to their land.
And one big final thing: Fohrman is very good at contrasting polytheism with monotheism and reads Israel's relationship with God as that of a loving parent. He has some really great descriptions of this. For him, though, the Exodus is the moment that Israel acts in faith and chooses to become the bechor. This is right and good and the crux of the different readings between the Rabbis and Rabbi Jesus and Rabbi Paul. For the Christian, the Passover is so called because God passed over the people of Israel in mercy because of the lamb, as a foreshadowing of the way God forgives our sins because of the death of Christ. For a Jew such as Fohrman, it has to be not trust in God's unearned mercy, but a work that determines your eternal fate. I realize that there may not seem to be much difference, but the whole controversy about faith and works hinges on this.
Thank you David Fohrman, for all you do. This was a fun book and I enthusiastically commend it and the work of AlephBeta to all my friends, rich or poor, small or great. Don't pass over this book!
April 6, 2022
A truly fascinating and rewarding read on Exodus.
I read this book in conjunction with reading Exodus with Father Mike Schmitz and the Bible In A Year Program. When we came to the part of God ‘hardening’ Pharaoh’s heart, I was perplexed and concerned. How, thought I, can the fair, just, loving God I know take away Pharaoh’s free will and make him so stubborn and recalcitrant toward freeing the Israelite slaves that a catastrophic destruction was the only way to see God’s will accomplished? It just didn’t sit right with me. So I began to do some research and found Rabbi Fohrman’s book (thank you BEMA podcast).
Rabbi Fohrman explains clearly and quite convincingly how there are actually two Hebrew words used in Exodus regarding Pharaoh’s heart: chizuk halev or “strength of heart” which basically means courageous and kibbud halev or blind stubbornesss/hardness of heart.
There are a few occasions in which Pharaoh is blindly stubborn, when the text uses ‘kibbud halev’. He is, after all, not only trying to hold onto his slaves but he is in a struggle to maintain his concept as a god to himself and to the Egyptian people. In the text if God is the one changing Pharaoh’s mind and the phrase is ‘chizuk halev’ , then we can say God was lending Pharaoh courage to persevere in the cause he believes in. This is not taking Pharaoh’s free will at all.
Rabbi Fohrman contends God’s Plan - for Pharaoh to recognize God is the Creator and to free the Israelites - demands Pharaoh’s free choice. This cannot be coerced and it cannot be a sham. By depriving Pharaoh of ‘free will’, using a ‘divine sleight of hand’ as the Rabbi says, would be cheating and pointless. I have to agree.
I learned so much from Rabbi Fohrman tracing the chizuk halev/kibbud halev throughout the 10 Plagues and explaining the ‘game plan’, if you will, between God and Pharaoh. One point the rabbi made which sticks with me is this: he contends the struggle, the battle, was really a battle between God and Pharaoh up to a point, a battle for Pharaoh’s heart. It was only after it was clear the battle was lost, was futile, that circumstances took a very, very dark turn beginning with the seventh plague and culminating in the death and destruction of the 10th plague and aftermath of Pharaoh’s pursuit of the Israelites, in spite of all rhyme or reason.
I read this book in conjunction with reading Exodus with Father Mike Schmitz and the Bible In A Year Program. When we came to the part of God ‘hardening’ Pharaoh’s heart, I was perplexed and concerned. How, thought I, can the fair, just, loving God I know take away Pharaoh’s free will and make him so stubborn and recalcitrant toward freeing the Israelite slaves that a catastrophic destruction was the only way to see God’s will accomplished? It just didn’t sit right with me. So I began to do some research and found Rabbi Fohrman’s book (thank you BEMA podcast).
Rabbi Fohrman explains clearly and quite convincingly how there are actually two Hebrew words used in Exodus regarding Pharaoh’s heart: chizuk halev or “strength of heart” which basically means courageous and kibbud halev or blind stubbornesss/hardness of heart.
There are a few occasions in which Pharaoh is blindly stubborn, when the text uses ‘kibbud halev’. He is, after all, not only trying to hold onto his slaves but he is in a struggle to maintain his concept as a god to himself and to the Egyptian people. In the text if God is the one changing Pharaoh’s mind and the phrase is ‘chizuk halev’ , then we can say God was lending Pharaoh courage to persevere in the cause he believes in. This is not taking Pharaoh’s free will at all.
Rabbi Fohrman contends God’s Plan - for Pharaoh to recognize God is the Creator and to free the Israelites - demands Pharaoh’s free choice. This cannot be coerced and it cannot be a sham. By depriving Pharaoh of ‘free will’, using a ‘divine sleight of hand’ as the Rabbi says, would be cheating and pointless. I have to agree.
I learned so much from Rabbi Fohrman tracing the chizuk halev/kibbud halev throughout the 10 Plagues and explaining the ‘game plan’, if you will, between God and Pharaoh. One point the rabbi made which sticks with me is this: he contends the struggle, the battle, was really a battle between God and Pharaoh up to a point, a battle for Pharaoh’s heart. It was only after it was clear the battle was lost, was futile, that circumstances took a very, very dark turn beginning with the seventh plague and culminating in the death and destruction of the 10th plague and aftermath of Pharaoh’s pursuit of the Israelites, in spite of all rhyme or reason.
May 5, 2024
As usual Rabbi Fohrman did not disappoint! The book got better and better with each chapter. It was so hard to put down. The perfect read as Passover approached or anytime of the year!
February 7, 2017
Another fantastic work by Fohrman. Years ago, I had been following many of Fohrman's lectures through the Hoffberger Institute and some of my favorite material had been his work on Jacob, Joseph and the Exodus. He even had a video series on YouTube that allowed you to follow his teaching through the story of the Exodus. It was incredible and then it disappeared.
I now know why. He has expanded on much of his material and put it together in this book. The path he takes to weave the details together is fantastic and easy to follow, all without sacrificing the intellectual wrestling that is necessary for good rabbinic teaching.
If you enjoyed "The Beast That Crouches At the Door" as I did and if you thought that he even got better with his observations in "The Queen You Thought You Knew" on the story of Esther, than I think you will find that he continues to grow in his ability to community through writing here in this book. An incredible read that examines the Text and takes the reader on a journey toward deeper understanding, guided by the sages and rabbis.
I now know why. He has expanded on much of his material and put it together in this book. The path he takes to weave the details together is fantastic and easy to follow, all without sacrificing the intellectual wrestling that is necessary for good rabbinic teaching.
If you enjoyed "The Beast That Crouches At the Door" as I did and if you thought that he even got better with his observations in "The Queen You Thought You Knew" on the story of Esther, than I think you will find that he continues to grow in his ability to community through writing here in this book. An incredible read that examines the Text and takes the reader on a journey toward deeper understanding, guided by the sages and rabbis.
March 4, 2021
I could hardly put it down!
I am an avid reader but this is the first non-fiction book that has ever captivated me. The author writes a clear and compelling analysis of the Exodus story analyzing the thoughts, emotions and intents of all the individuals. Highly recommend!
I am an avid reader but this is the first non-fiction book that has ever captivated me. The author writes a clear and compelling analysis of the Exodus story analyzing the thoughts, emotions and intents of all the individuals. Highly recommend!
April 6, 2021
Rabbi Fohrman brings incredible insight into the Exodus story that really got me rethinking everything I was taught as a child. I highly recommend this if you want to look at Pesach with fresh eyes and gain some really great Dvar Torahs for your seders!
January 19, 2025
Wonderful dissection of the exodus story. Fohrman is great at writing complex ideas into simple language.
There is so much more to the Exodus than meets the eye that's found by looking into the hebrew. It unveils Gods pursuit of not only Israel, but also the hearts of the egyptians. And how God strategically uses the plagues to challenge polytheism and reveals Himself as YHWH, the set-apart divine creator, and not just elohim, a mere power, as the nation of egypt was very familiar with.
Also the connections between Israel, Gods firstborn, and Joseph, Jacob's honorary firstborn, in that they both felt as though they were cut off from their father's house, a discarded son. However, all along their father was crying at the loss of their beloved son and seeking to redeem them.
Only con: I can only imagine how much better this book would have been with messianic connections as well.
There is so much more to the Exodus than meets the eye that's found by looking into the hebrew. It unveils Gods pursuit of not only Israel, but also the hearts of the egyptians. And how God strategically uses the plagues to challenge polytheism and reveals Himself as YHWH, the set-apart divine creator, and not just elohim, a mere power, as the nation of egypt was very familiar with.
Also the connections between Israel, Gods firstborn, and Joseph, Jacob's honorary firstborn, in that they both felt as though they were cut off from their father's house, a discarded son. However, all along their father was crying at the loss of their beloved son and seeking to redeem them.
Only con: I can only imagine how much better this book would have been with messianic connections as well.
May 26, 2025
This is probably the best book I have read this year. My overall reflection would just be thankfulness to serve a God who loves His people.
April 21, 2023
Excellent read, worth a reread.
May 1, 2022
This book is focused on the Ten Plagues that Egyptians suffered before the Hebrews left Egypt (although it takes plenty of little detours along the way). Fohrman asks readers: why are there so many, when God could have taken the Hebrews out with one blow? And at the start of the plague process, why does Moses meekly ask the Egyptian king for a three-day holiday rather than demanding instant liberation?
Fohrman suggests that Moses's initial request was a kind of "Plan A": if the king had been amenable to reason, there would have been a joyous three-day holiday, the departure from Egypt would have been a more gradual and less plague-filled process, and the Egyptians would have learned to appreciate the Hebrew God. If this had occurred, more of the civilized world would have moved towards monotheism more rapidly.
Why does this theory make sense? Fohrman juxtaposes the story of the Exodus with the story of Joseph's reconciliation with his father Jacob at the end of the book of Genesis. Just as the Hebrews felt abandoned by God, Joseph might have felt abandoned by his father Jacob after his brothers allowed him to be sold into slavery (because even though Jacob was not in the plot, Joseph had no way of knowing this). Just as the Hebrews reconciled with God before leaving Egypt, Joseph reconciled with Jacob after learning that Jacob had no knowledge of his brothers' behavior. And just as the Hebrews left Egypt, Jacob's bones left Egypt after his death. But when the latter happened, the Egyptian king was very helpful: Egyptians participated in the mourning for Jacob and provided a kind of honor guard for his funeral. Because of the other parallels in the two stories, Fohrman believes that the Egyptians could have been similarly helpful in Israel's liberation process.
One obstacle to this argument is the Torah's repeated references to God "hardening" or "strengthening" the heart of the king, which imply that the king had no free will to say yes. Forhman suggests, however, that 1) much of this hardening occurred later in the plague process, after it become clear that the kind would not endorse Plan A, and 2) the "strengthening" does not mean that the king's hostile actions were inevitable, but merely that God gave the king enough mental strength to not be overwhelmed by the miracles of the plagues, this giving the king free choice rather than depriving him of free choice.
Fohrman suggests that Moses's initial request was a kind of "Plan A": if the king had been amenable to reason, there would have been a joyous three-day holiday, the departure from Egypt would have been a more gradual and less plague-filled process, and the Egyptians would have learned to appreciate the Hebrew God. If this had occurred, more of the civilized world would have moved towards monotheism more rapidly.
Why does this theory make sense? Fohrman juxtaposes the story of the Exodus with the story of Joseph's reconciliation with his father Jacob at the end of the book of Genesis. Just as the Hebrews felt abandoned by God, Joseph might have felt abandoned by his father Jacob after his brothers allowed him to be sold into slavery (because even though Jacob was not in the plot, Joseph had no way of knowing this). Just as the Hebrews reconciled with God before leaving Egypt, Joseph reconciled with Jacob after learning that Jacob had no knowledge of his brothers' behavior. And just as the Hebrews left Egypt, Jacob's bones left Egypt after his death. But when the latter happened, the Egyptian king was very helpful: Egyptians participated in the mourning for Jacob and provided a kind of honor guard for his funeral. Because of the other parallels in the two stories, Fohrman believes that the Egyptians could have been similarly helpful in Israel's liberation process.
One obstacle to this argument is the Torah's repeated references to God "hardening" or "strengthening" the heart of the king, which imply that the king had no free will to say yes. Forhman suggests, however, that 1) much of this hardening occurred later in the plague process, after it become clear that the kind would not endorse Plan A, and 2) the "strengthening" does not mean that the king's hostile actions were inevitable, but merely that God gave the king enough mental strength to not be overwhelmed by the miracles of the plagues, this giving the king free choice rather than depriving him of free choice.
April 13, 2022
3.5/5 - some really good exegesis here on the Exodus story, and some interesting midrash around the story of Joseph in/out of Egypt and how that connects to the exodus story. I honestly wished this part of the book went deeper, but still appreciated all that it covered. My favorite part was Forman's take on the "Exodus that might have been" and his views on God strengthening/hardening Pharaoh's heart.
My major issue is the structure of the book itself. I felt like so much time was spent setting up the exodus story, only to then very cover the plagues and the exodus in its entirety very quickly. Then just as much time was spent on Joseph. I would have started the book slowly walking through exodus, while stopping to explain and set up the story with what is found in the introduction section. Then quickly explain the Joseph story and spend the last third connecting them and showing why this is important (this part of the book is genuinely amazing, but just feels rushed!).
I do love where Forman ends the book, explaining the Exodus that might have been - "in the future profession, Israel, a national bechor, would lead, but they would be nearly invisible. Their numbers would be dwarfed by others (pagans) who, with jubilation, would share Israel's purpose. They would all be there to honor the father of all. May we speedily see the day".
My major issue is the structure of the book itself. I felt like so much time was spent setting up the exodus story, only to then very cover the plagues and the exodus in its entirety very quickly. Then just as much time was spent on Joseph. I would have started the book slowly walking through exodus, while stopping to explain and set up the story with what is found in the introduction section. Then quickly explain the Joseph story and spend the last third connecting them and showing why this is important (this part of the book is genuinely amazing, but just feels rushed!).
I do love where Forman ends the book, explaining the Exodus that might have been - "in the future profession, Israel, a national bechor, would lead, but they would be nearly invisible. Their numbers would be dwarfed by others (pagans) who, with jubilation, would share Israel's purpose. They would all be there to honor the father of all. May we speedily see the day".
March 7, 2022
Rabbi David Fohrman takes his readers and immerses them in the story of the Exodus,a story many of us profess to know like the back of our hand. Fohrman reveals that we may not be so familiar with our hands. Like a skilled palm reader, Fohrman brings lines from the Torah to life. He brilliantly weaves together images and motifs using threads sprinkled throughout the God’s story. Threads previously thought to be random or out of place.
I am mixing metaphors, not sure if Fohrman is more of a palm reader or a weaver, but I know he is a wonderful teacher and writer, breaking down and building back up Exodus in such a palatable way. If you want to in be in awe of the tapestry that is the Hebrew Bible, pick up this book.
I am mixing metaphors, not sure if Fohrman is more of a palm reader or a weaver, but I know he is a wonderful teacher and writer, breaking down and building back up Exodus in such a palatable way. If you want to in be in awe of the tapestry that is the Hebrew Bible, pick up this book.
July 25, 2022
This is a fascinating book! It flows easily and pulls readers along. One need not know Hebrew to appreciate Rabbi Fohrman's insights. He writes engagingly, as if he's giving a TED talk that gradually builds the case for reading the account of the exodus in light of the Joseph story (among other things).
He's a master at noticing Hebrew wordplay and inspires you to look at the text again more closely.
I didn't find every connection or parallel or interpretation persuasive, but some of these insights will no doubt make their way into future Torah Tuesday videos!
He's a master at noticing Hebrew wordplay and inspires you to look at the text again more closely.
I didn't find every connection or parallel or interpretation persuasive, but some of these insights will no doubt make their way into future Torah Tuesday videos!
September 14, 2024
Another great work by Rabbi David Fohrman. Really interesting thoughts on the Exodus and its connections to the Joseph story and what it means to be a bechor to the Creator God. Like all of Rabbi Fohrman’s teachings, this book keeps you on the edge of your seat, eager to keep discovering what the Text may have to say.
March 30, 2021
Amazing book. Genuinely riveted at points. Made me relook at some of the classical thinking in a different lens
October 16, 2025
Filled with insights from the Exodus story as well as the 'Exodus that could have been.' Left me with the poignant thought, "Will I be an actor or a pawn in God receiving glory?"
January 21, 2025
This was amazing. Even better than the last. Fohrman takes apart the exodus and puts it back together in a way that makes the story come alive. Read this book.
April 16, 2025
This is one of the more fascinating and thought-provoking books on the Exodus of Israel from Egypt that I've ever read. Mr. Fohrman has a knack for making complex things seem simple and for making connections in the text that I hadn't noticed before. This is a long review because I enjoyed the book so much, so the tl;dr version is: Read this book and be challenged to think about the Exodus and the plagues in Egypt in new ways. Mr. Fohrman, being a rabbi, there is one great and vital part of the Exodus that he misses, but I will get to that in due course.
Mr. Fohrman includes several themes in his book while discussing the Exodus so I'll use those themes to organize my review:
1. Monotheism vs. Polytheism. Mr. Fohrman points out, correctly in my view, that the story of Moses and Pharaoh and the Exodus is a gigantic clash between the Egyptians who were polytheists, the Pharaoh himself being considered a "god," and the Jews who were monotheists. Mr. Fohrman argues quite convincingly, that God's aim in this great confrontation was to confront Pharaoh and all of Egypt with a God with whom they were not familiar. He uses several lines of evidence to support his argument and my view is that he defends his thesis quite well. From Pharaoh's initial response to Moses request to let the people go: “But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go.””(Exodus 5:2 NAS20)
"Who is this God that I've never heard of?" asks Pharaoh, "I don't know this God." He would come to know him, or at least his power anyway.
Mr. Fohrman asks a question which sums up this great clash, engineered by God himself: "What if you took an entire civilization that was absolutely committed to the polytheistic world view, a civilization that regarded its own king as a god within a pantheon of gods, and managed to convince it that polytheism was a lie, that there was one supreme being that was the Creator, and that they and their king were subjects of that Creator?"
In this way, the ten plagues are a gift of grace because in it, God is working to get Pharaoh and all of Egypt to understand that polytheism is a lie that keeps them, ironically enough, enslaved, while if they come to faith in the one, true, loving God, they would be, ironically enough, set free.
There are a couple of issues that Mr. Fohrman focuses in on in this section. He points out, and I've never heard this before, that Pharaoh seems more interested in the precise use of power, than the power itself. For instance, in the plague of frogs, Moses says, "Give me a time and the frogs will be gone." As Mr. Fohrman points out, if your house was overrun with frogs wouldn't your response be: "Do it now!" But Pharaoh says, "How about doing it tomorrow." What?!? Why tomorrow? Why not now. The author comments: "For some reason, Pharaoh seems more interested in the precision with which God wages a plague against the Egyptians than in the raw power of the plague itself."
Why is this? Well, I'm not going to tell you, dear reader. You're going to have to read the book yourself.
Another line of argument here is Mr. Fohrman points out that, with a pantheon of gods, many of which conflict with each other and who act capriciously according to their whims, one has to sacrifice to keep the gods happy and by this measure, the more valuable the sacrifice, the more likely one is to get the god to act on your behalf. He comments: "The more painful the sacrifice, the better: the god will see that I am serious about serving it. The more outrageous the sacrifice, the better. How better to get the attention of a temperamental but somewhat distracted, and possibly even bored, deity than through some sensational act like child sacrifice?"
But what about a God who acts to create the world in which we live and indeed, the people who live there and who seems to care about them personally? Mr. Fohrman suggests that all that is required here is gratitude. I think he is correct.
Another theme that the author takes up is the notion of how Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Did Pharaoh harden his heart or did God harden Pharoah's heart? The Scriptures say both things. What's going on here? Exodus uses two expressions for hardening one's heart that we cannot see in English. Here is a good example:
“But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not let the sons of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.”(Exodus 9:34-35 NAS20)
The first "hardened his heart" and the second "Pharoah's heart was hardened" are not the same words in Hebrew. The first hardened means: something like "made heavy" literally and the second means something like "made strong." Mr. Fohrman's explanation of this is fascinating and I'm not enough of a scholar of Hebrew to know if he is correct, but his argument sure is interesting. He writes: "if, in reading through the plagues, you ever find that God is the one to change Pharaoh’s mind, and the phrase used to describe that change of mind is chizuk halev—then that, right there, is an instance of God lending courage to the embattled Egyptian leader, enabling him to continue the fight he still believes in, deep down."
His argument is, that when God hardens Pharoah's heart to "make it strong," it's to allow Pharaoh to do what he wants to do all along, oppose this God Moses is talking about, but the nature of the destruction of the plagues is such that he is losing his will to keep up the opposition, so God gives him the will to do what he wants to do all along! It's an intriguing argument and, at least in my way of thinking, makes a lot of sense.
The theme of the firstborn is a large portion of this book, indeed, the author argues it is the most important part of the Exodus story: "The firstborn theme is the fabric out of which this story is woven. To know the Exodus is to know firstbornness."
His argument is something along the lines of: "Israel is God's firstborn, and through the firstborn, God is going to bless the whole earth." It's an argument that any Christian would agree with because that is a basic restatement of the covenant that God made with Abraham, that through his seed, all of the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Here is where I part ways with Mr. Fohrman. He argues that as Israel enters the promised land, they have become a great nation, who believe in only the one, true God, and if all of the nations would just look at the evidence: the titanic battle between Pharaoh and God, they would come to the same conclusion. The only problem with this line of thought is that the children of Israel were a huge failure in this regard, indeed, that precisely is why they had to spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness, because of their unbelief. What to do?
As Christians we argue that God acts in history to correct this unbelief on the part of Israel. He sends God's genuine firstborn, Christ, to be the perfect demonstration of the love of God the Father, so that Israel and all nations will be reconciled with God, or as Christ himself put it: "““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”(John 3:16 NAS20) Israel failed as the firstborn, Christ did not.
Finally, (and there is much more here that I've left out), Mr. Fohrman has a fascinating discussion of the similarities and differences between the funeral of Jacob, the Pharaoh at that time and Joseph, and
the Pharaoh of the Exodus and Moses. At first glance, the reader will say, "what is this guy talking about? These are two different things." Well, keep reading because the parallels are clearly there and fascinating and the author makes a really good argument that the reader should note the differences between the two stories and why they are there.
I've only scratched the surface in this review, which is why you need to read the book for yourself. The discussion of the great battle between a polytheistic worldview and a monotheistic one itself is worth reading the book, it's very well done and, in my view, very convincing what God is up to with the plagues and the Exodus.
There are, of course, parts that I'm not convinced of. Mr. Fohrman refers to the Jewish "sages" and some of their arguments, which are speculative at best. At one point he argues that during the passage of the Red Sea, not only was there a dry path between two walls of water, but there were fruit trees the people could eat from. This seems (and likely is) laughable, however, the reason the sages argue this is that they note the similarities between the creation account in Genesis, and the Red Sea crossing in Exodus. Amazingly enough, there are a lot of similarities, so many that the reader cannot help but wonder if this point is to be seen as a sort of new beginning as Israel becomes the great nation that God prophesied it would be, but fruit trees? No.
There are a couple of other weird arguments like this, but they don't detract from the overall book which is excellent and gave me a new understanding of the plagues, the Exodus, and the titanic battle between God and Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt.
Mr. Fohrman includes several themes in his book while discussing the Exodus so I'll use those themes to organize my review:
1. Monotheism vs. Polytheism. Mr. Fohrman points out, correctly in my view, that the story of Moses and Pharaoh and the Exodus is a gigantic clash between the Egyptians who were polytheists, the Pharaoh himself being considered a "god," and the Jews who were monotheists. Mr. Fohrman argues quite convincingly, that God's aim in this great confrontation was to confront Pharaoh and all of Egypt with a God with whom they were not familiar. He uses several lines of evidence to support his argument and my view is that he defends his thesis quite well. From Pharaoh's initial response to Moses request to let the people go: “But Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go.””(Exodus 5:2 NAS20)
"Who is this God that I've never heard of?" asks Pharaoh, "I don't know this God." He would come to know him, or at least his power anyway.
Mr. Fohrman asks a question which sums up this great clash, engineered by God himself: "What if you took an entire civilization that was absolutely committed to the polytheistic world view, a civilization that regarded its own king as a god within a pantheon of gods, and managed to convince it that polytheism was a lie, that there was one supreme being that was the Creator, and that they and their king were subjects of that Creator?"
In this way, the ten plagues are a gift of grace because in it, God is working to get Pharaoh and all of Egypt to understand that polytheism is a lie that keeps them, ironically enough, enslaved, while if they come to faith in the one, true, loving God, they would be, ironically enough, set free.
There are a couple of issues that Mr. Fohrman focuses in on in this section. He points out, and I've never heard this before, that Pharaoh seems more interested in the precise use of power, than the power itself. For instance, in the plague of frogs, Moses says, "Give me a time and the frogs will be gone." As Mr. Fohrman points out, if your house was overrun with frogs wouldn't your response be: "Do it now!" But Pharaoh says, "How about doing it tomorrow." What?!? Why tomorrow? Why not now. The author comments: "For some reason, Pharaoh seems more interested in the precision with which God wages a plague against the Egyptians than in the raw power of the plague itself."
Why is this? Well, I'm not going to tell you, dear reader. You're going to have to read the book yourself.
Another line of argument here is Mr. Fohrman points out that, with a pantheon of gods, many of which conflict with each other and who act capriciously according to their whims, one has to sacrifice to keep the gods happy and by this measure, the more valuable the sacrifice, the more likely one is to get the god to act on your behalf. He comments: "The more painful the sacrifice, the better: the god will see that I am serious about serving it. The more outrageous the sacrifice, the better. How better to get the attention of a temperamental but somewhat distracted, and possibly even bored, deity than through some sensational act like child sacrifice?"
But what about a God who acts to create the world in which we live and indeed, the people who live there and who seems to care about them personally? Mr. Fohrman suggests that all that is required here is gratitude. I think he is correct.
Another theme that the author takes up is the notion of how Pharaoh's heart was hardened. Did Pharaoh harden his heart or did God harden Pharoah's heart? The Scriptures say both things. What's going on here? Exodus uses two expressions for hardening one's heart that we cannot see in English. Here is a good example:
“But when Pharaoh saw that the rain and the hail and the thunder had stopped, he sinned again and hardened his heart, he and his servants. So Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not let the sons of Israel go, just as the LORD had spoken through Moses.”(Exodus 9:34-35 NAS20)
The first "hardened his heart" and the second "Pharoah's heart was hardened" are not the same words in Hebrew. The first hardened means: something like "made heavy" literally and the second means something like "made strong." Mr. Fohrman's explanation of this is fascinating and I'm not enough of a scholar of Hebrew to know if he is correct, but his argument sure is interesting. He writes: "if, in reading through the plagues, you ever find that God is the one to change Pharaoh’s mind, and the phrase used to describe that change of mind is chizuk halev—then that, right there, is an instance of God lending courage to the embattled Egyptian leader, enabling him to continue the fight he still believes in, deep down."
His argument is, that when God hardens Pharoah's heart to "make it strong," it's to allow Pharaoh to do what he wants to do all along, oppose this God Moses is talking about, but the nature of the destruction of the plagues is such that he is losing his will to keep up the opposition, so God gives him the will to do what he wants to do all along! It's an intriguing argument and, at least in my way of thinking, makes a lot of sense.
The theme of the firstborn is a large portion of this book, indeed, the author argues it is the most important part of the Exodus story: "The firstborn theme is the fabric out of which this story is woven. To know the Exodus is to know firstbornness."
His argument is something along the lines of: "Israel is God's firstborn, and through the firstborn, God is going to bless the whole earth." It's an argument that any Christian would agree with because that is a basic restatement of the covenant that God made with Abraham, that through his seed, all of the nations of the earth would be blessed.
Here is where I part ways with Mr. Fohrman. He argues that as Israel enters the promised land, they have become a great nation, who believe in only the one, true God, and if all of the nations would just look at the evidence: the titanic battle between Pharaoh and God, they would come to the same conclusion. The only problem with this line of thought is that the children of Israel were a huge failure in this regard, indeed, that precisely is why they had to spend 40 years wandering in the wilderness, because of their unbelief. What to do?
As Christians we argue that God acts in history to correct this unbelief on the part of Israel. He sends God's genuine firstborn, Christ, to be the perfect demonstration of the love of God the Father, so that Israel and all nations will be reconciled with God, or as Christ himself put it: "““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.”(John 3:16 NAS20) Israel failed as the firstborn, Christ did not.
Finally, (and there is much more here that I've left out), Mr. Fohrman has a fascinating discussion of the similarities and differences between the funeral of Jacob, the Pharaoh at that time and Joseph, and
the Pharaoh of the Exodus and Moses. At first glance, the reader will say, "what is this guy talking about? These are two different things." Well, keep reading because the parallels are clearly there and fascinating and the author makes a really good argument that the reader should note the differences between the two stories and why they are there.
I've only scratched the surface in this review, which is why you need to read the book for yourself. The discussion of the great battle between a polytheistic worldview and a monotheistic one itself is worth reading the book, it's very well done and, in my view, very convincing what God is up to with the plagues and the Exodus.
There are, of course, parts that I'm not convinced of. Mr. Fohrman refers to the Jewish "sages" and some of their arguments, which are speculative at best. At one point he argues that during the passage of the Red Sea, not only was there a dry path between two walls of water, but there were fruit trees the people could eat from. This seems (and likely is) laughable, however, the reason the sages argue this is that they note the similarities between the creation account in Genesis, and the Red Sea crossing in Exodus. Amazingly enough, there are a lot of similarities, so many that the reader cannot help but wonder if this point is to be seen as a sort of new beginning as Israel becomes the great nation that God prophesied it would be, but fruit trees? No.
There are a couple of other weird arguments like this, but they don't detract from the overall book which is excellent and gave me a new understanding of the plagues, the Exodus, and the titanic battle between God and Pharaoh and the gods of Egypt.
September 20, 2022
Typo p. 139: Joseph should be Jacob
Notes:
+ Power and the nature of God
- In some verses, el is the Hebrew word for “power”
- “The second commandment states: ‘Thou shalt not have [allegiance to] any other elohim before Me.’ Just plug in our working definition of elohim, and suddenly it all starts to make sense: the text adjures us not to have allegiance to other ‘powers’ besides God”
- “[The Exodus is] the only place in the Bible where the Deity Himself wants to make sure everyone is on the same page about His name. It happens twice in the Exodus story: once when God first encounters Moses at the Burning Bush, and again, just before the Ten Plagues begin… At the moment God is set to unleash the greatest expressions of sheer power ever seen in human history, the Ten Plagues, God makes clear to Moses that power is not His name. It is not who He is, fundamentally. God will make use of power, as He is about to do—but it does not define Him. Instead, the essence of God is about something else… This name of God is close, but not exactly equivalent to, each one of the three Hebrew words that denote past, present, and future existence… YHVH seems to convey something else entirely. Comprised of an overlay of the Hebrew words for was, is, and will be, it seems to denote the simultaneous experience of all three of these states. It is was, is, and will be—experienced all at once… How did God get outside of time? The answer is: He exists outside of time because He is the creator of time… God, of course, had always been the Creator, but this had never been demonstrated unambiguously to humanity. Now it would be. The Exodus would be the vehicle for that”
- “Why would it be important for God to reveal to the world that He was not merely El Shaddai, a very powerful force—but YHVH, the one Creator-God?... It wasn’t just a matter of divine ego, or dispensing with false competition from imaginary gods. It was about changing the very meaning of spirituality. It was a matter of introducing the ideas of gratitude, morality and love into the vocabulary of human interaction with the Divine. It was a matter of revealing to mankind that there was a Parent up there in the heavens, a parent who cared about what went on with His children… Parents deeply wish for connection with their children. A child wants that connection too, for reasons that go well beyond self-interest or hope of material gain. To nurture a loving and lasting relationship with a parent is one of life’s great triumphs”
+ The problem of pharaoh’s free will
- “To the extent that Pharaoh’s free will was compromised by God Himself, how can this same God hold Pharaoh responsible for his actions?”
- Chizuk halev = “strengthening” of Pharaoh’s heart, as a synonym for courage
- Kibbud halev = “hardening” of Pharaoh’s heart, as a synonym for stubbornness
- “Why is Pharaoh’s consent so important to God?... If you could somehow convince the king of that very powerful, very stable nation—a man who actually regarded himself as a god—that he was not a god; that there was no pantheon of gods; that he, like everybody else in the world, were subjects of a single Creator of All…well, that would undoubtedly stand as a great historical testament to the truth of monotheism. Future generations would be able to look back at this event, and see in it evidence of the existence of a Creator of All.”
- God gives pharaoh courage so that his capitulation isn’t based on mere expediency, but rather on true conviction and acknowledgement that he is the one creator
+ Monotheism talking to polytheism
- “Why, exactly, does Moses open with one conception of God and then transition to another? Which of these two visions is the real one?”
- The first description of God goes over pharaoh’s head, so Moses has to put it in terms he can understand, not because the Israelites were actually sacrificing to propitiate an angry God, but because pharaoh could not understand going to the desert to celebrate in gratitude with God
- “For some reason, Pharaoh seems more interested in the precision with which God wages a plague against the Egyptians than in the raw power of the plague itself… Maybe he was battling God over something for which precision, strangely, counts even more than power. What could that be?... The gods in the polytheistic pantheon are powerful, but they are not all-powerful—which means they have needs… If someone is going to go knocking on heaven’s door, the only one upstairs to answer it is the all-powerful Master of the Universe—the One God, who designed and brought into being the totality of Creation. Are you going to barter with that God? What needs does He have? What could you possibly give Him? Does Parker need your Monopoly money?... A gift of gratitude is not about barter or fulfilling needs. It’s about finding a way to express genuine recognition to someone for their kindness. Whether “needed” or not, the gift builds and nurtures the underlying relationship between giver and recipient… How do you convince a society of polytheists, led by a king who thinks he’s a god, that the force he and his countrymen are facing is not one of the polytheistic powers, but is in fact the One Creator-God?... Any particular plague can be chalked up to the action of a particular, annoyed, provincial god. No matter what force you decide to muster, the polytheist can fit the catastrophic events into his narrative… The polytheist will tell you that this unpredictability comes from competition between the gods. Looking at nature through a polytheistic lens is like watching an eighteen-wheeler barreling down the highway at 85 miles per hour with seven strong men struggling for control of the steering wheel. There’s plenty of power there, but precious little control or precision”
- “What belief or idea did Pharaoh subscribe to that made it possible for him to justify what he was doing?... In the polytheistic worldview, the gods don’t command moral authority; their reign is based upon raw power… [So] your goal might be to defeat the idea that keeps the Hebrews enslaved. If you could change the oppressor’s allegiance to that idea, then servitude and oppression would fall away of their own accord… One way or the other, the slaves will be freed and the world will learn that there is a Creator”
+ Parallels between Jacob’s burial by Joseph and the Exodus
- Family destiny lay in a specific place and return was necessary
- “The route of the burial party anticipates the route of the Exodus.”
- Egyptian armies “accompanied” both, one as an escort, another as an attacker
- All are welcome and meant to join, even the initially dispossessed: “Only Joseph holds the moral force to take the venom out of an attack of dispossessed children… If, after all the pain, anger and misunderstanding in his past, Joseph can solemnly give Jacob honor—if, after everything, he can wed his destiny to that of his family—then perhaps other fragments of dispossessed families can find in Joseph an example to emulate. If Joseph can make it back, perhaps there is hope for them, too”
+ Parallels between creation and Exodus chase
- Hovering over the water
- Separation by cloud and darkness
- Parting of waters
+ 40 days
- “The elapse of forty days signifies something: transition, a passage to a new world”
Quotes:
The threat to the firstborn on the night we went free, and their redemption from that threat—these ideas are evidently more fundamental than we might have supposed. Passover gets its name from them… God had an overarching vision: He wished to transmit His values to humankind, to all His children—but to bring about that vision, God required the service of a bechor [first-born]. If Pharaoh denied the Almighty this, then God would deprive Egypt of the very same benefit: How will you transmit the values of Egypt from generation to generation without the benefit of your child-leaders?
November 25, 2019
Rabbi Forman brings the Exodus story to life and makes it applicable today in this book. As a Jewish thought leader, he has changed forever how I think about my Christian faith. Truly this story will breath life into the Torah in a way I never thought possible.
April 9, 2023
It's been a minute since Ive read a torah tome cover to cover. But the content that used to speak to me the most was the thoughtful reading of the Torah itself, hashems word as it were. Really from first principles, requiring no rabbinical or outside knowledge to understand, a person can read the text of the bible, carefully and purposefully, and find a whole world of meaning that is not readily apparent on a casual read. I was introduced to this method of Torah study when I spent a year in Israel at 19. The premise is straightforward. Unlike other cannon in Judaism or otherwise, the Torah is purported to be the literal word of God. Not a man's description of events like the gospels, or a record of human discussion like the Talmud. As such, each and every word is assumed to have been chosen with ultimate precision. There is not one word too many, one word too few, or one suboptimal word
People do not generally read with that assumption in mind. And when one does, there is much to uncover.
Rabbi Fohrman does this better than I have ever seen. His reading of the text of the Exodus story is very compelling. Questions that I have heard my entire life around the exodus story are answered with beautiful parsimony when you read as carefully as Rabbi Fohrman does in this book. And almost nothing feels forced.
Questions like:
Why the plagues as they were? What is the significance of the plagues and their order?
How could God have hardened Pharaoh's heart and then punish him?
What is the whole point of the Exodus story in the first place? Is it just to free the Jews? And if so, certainly that could have been done in a simpler more efficient way for an omnipotent God than ten plagues on Egypt.
Why is it even called Passover?? (Which it is directly in the text, as well as festival of matzhas.) Why not Festival of our Freedom? We call it that in prayers, but not in the Torah.
And many more you didn't even know to ask.
The basic idea: The story of Exodus is the story of God revealing the reality of a single God to the world and in the process developing a nation to be the messenger of that idea.
The Egyptians were polytheistic, believing that different natural phenomena were controlled by different gods. It was not that any of these gods were the parent or creator of humanity. They were gods to be feared and pleaded with, not gods to love and celebrate. The plagues were precise in that they methodically and purposefully eroded pharoahs belief in the polytheistic idea. From outdoing the Egyptian sorcerers, to controlling the location of events, to the time of events, to combining natural forces which were thought to be under the purview of different gods (hail combined fire and ice), ending finally in pharoahs explicit confession of guilt and acknowledgement of the sovereignty of the one God, YHVH.
A wonderful biproduct if this way of reading, is that you realize how much fascinating and crucial content you don't even know was there even though you've read it a dozen times. It was never contextualized properly, it's true meaning never laid bare. I had no recollection that pharaoh had ever said, "I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked." And yet when I opened the text to see for myself there it was. It never really meant much before. Just an errant line of a beaten down king in the middle of the story. It wasn't even at the end of the plagues and so I had just lumped it in with the plagues story where most detail was just lost.
Of course pharaoh goes on to renege yet again on his promise to free the Jews and the final the plagues arrive and the Jewish nation is born.
But did it have to be that way? It is said that the Torah is timeless. It speaks as it needs to to each generation. This book really shows me how that is. We live in a very different world from that of 4000 years ago, or 3000, or 2000, or 1000. Human morality has evolved, and monotheistic abrahamic religions have spread. A fascinating facet of Rabbi Fohrman's reading is that it is so careful and absolutely textual, but also modern in it's moral sentiments. It describes a very inclusive and non-tribal sentiment, which really is the exact opposite of what a less thoughtful reading would reveal. And that reading has been available for thousands of years. But it was just waiting for the right civilization to find it. Previous worlds had the versions that allowed them to relate to God. And so do we.
Highly recommend this book. Ingenious, parsimonious, and philosophically satisfying.
People do not generally read with that assumption in mind. And when one does, there is much to uncover.
Rabbi Fohrman does this better than I have ever seen. His reading of the text of the Exodus story is very compelling. Questions that I have heard my entire life around the exodus story are answered with beautiful parsimony when you read as carefully as Rabbi Fohrman does in this book. And almost nothing feels forced.
Questions like:
Why the plagues as they were? What is the significance of the plagues and their order?
How could God have hardened Pharaoh's heart and then punish him?
What is the whole point of the Exodus story in the first place? Is it just to free the Jews? And if so, certainly that could have been done in a simpler more efficient way for an omnipotent God than ten plagues on Egypt.
Why is it even called Passover?? (Which it is directly in the text, as well as festival of matzhas.) Why not Festival of our Freedom? We call it that in prayers, but not in the Torah.
And many more you didn't even know to ask.
The basic idea: The story of Exodus is the story of God revealing the reality of a single God to the world and in the process developing a nation to be the messenger of that idea.
The Egyptians were polytheistic, believing that different natural phenomena were controlled by different gods. It was not that any of these gods were the parent or creator of humanity. They were gods to be feared and pleaded with, not gods to love and celebrate. The plagues were precise in that they methodically and purposefully eroded pharoahs belief in the polytheistic idea. From outdoing the Egyptian sorcerers, to controlling the location of events, to the time of events, to combining natural forces which were thought to be under the purview of different gods (hail combined fire and ice), ending finally in pharoahs explicit confession of guilt and acknowledgement of the sovereignty of the one God, YHVH.
A wonderful biproduct if this way of reading, is that you realize how much fascinating and crucial content you don't even know was there even though you've read it a dozen times. It was never contextualized properly, it's true meaning never laid bare. I had no recollection that pharaoh had ever said, "I have sinned this time: the Lord is righteous, and I and my people are wicked." And yet when I opened the text to see for myself there it was. It never really meant much before. Just an errant line of a beaten down king in the middle of the story. It wasn't even at the end of the plagues and so I had just lumped it in with the plagues story where most detail was just lost.
Of course pharaoh goes on to renege yet again on his promise to free the Jews and the final the plagues arrive and the Jewish nation is born.
But did it have to be that way? It is said that the Torah is timeless. It speaks as it needs to to each generation. This book really shows me how that is. We live in a very different world from that of 4000 years ago, or 3000, or 2000, or 1000. Human morality has evolved, and monotheistic abrahamic religions have spread. A fascinating facet of Rabbi Fohrman's reading is that it is so careful and absolutely textual, but also modern in it's moral sentiments. It describes a very inclusive and non-tribal sentiment, which really is the exact opposite of what a less thoughtful reading would reveal. And that reading has been available for thousands of years. But it was just waiting for the right civilization to find it. Previous worlds had the versions that allowed them to relate to God. And so do we.
Highly recommend this book. Ingenious, parsimonious, and philosophically satisfying.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 27, 2023
The Exodus You Almost Passed Over is an in-depth analysis of the biblical Exodus story, but as the title implies, Rabbi Fohrman also takes us on a journey through what he sees as the story's deeper hidden meanings.
At the heart of his interpretation is the surprising argument that the outcome of the Exodus story was not preordained, and in the possible alternative outcomes, there lie important messages. "Although you and I know how the Exodus story actually turned out, events were not preordained, so to speak, to unfold the way they did. They could have - and perhaps even should have - unfolded along different paths."
The key Exodus story that Fohrman speaks about here is the famous story of Israelite slavery in Egypt, Moses' call to action by God through the burning bush, his demand to Pharoah to let the Israelites go and the miraculous sequence of plagues, escape, and ultimately parting of the Red Sea that leads to the freedom of the Israelite people (and which is the basis 0f the Jewish Passover/Pesach celebration).
In Fohrman's interpretation, there were three possible (and for God, two preferable) outcomes that he describes as plans A, B, and C (with C being they actual outcome that we all learned in religious school as children). But first, he takes a moment to explain why the general sequence of events needed to happen in the first place. Since God is all powerful in this story, why did there need to be plagues and death at all? Couldn't he just have magically moved the Israelites out of Egypt?
"Consider, for example, the ninth plague, the plague of darkness," Rabbi Fohrman says. "Can you imagine a better opportunity? The Egyptians can't see a blasted thing. The Israelites are enjoying full lighting privileges. Why not just walk right out of Egypt." "One thing seems clear," Fohrman argues, "for some undetermined reason, there appears to be an unwritten rule throughout the Exodus narrative, a rule God is choosing to adhere to: the Israelites aren't going anywhere unless Pharaoh says they are."
God has another point to make, says Fohrman, one that proves not only to the Israelites, but the rest of the world too, that there is only one creator God and that all other "gods" are imaginary and powerless.
Still, why all the destruction and death of innocents and why did God repeatedly "harden" Pharaoh's heart to assure that there would be more plagues, more death and destruction?
Fohrman argues that by looking back at a less well-known biblical passage involving another Pharaoh - the story of the burial of Joseph's father Jacob - suggests that God actually offered this Pharaoh an opportunity to make a more just and less dramatic choice, but he refused to believe in the one creator God. This he describes as Plan A.
Plan B, says Fohrman, was for Pharaoh to come to his senses as a result of the plagues that followed. If he had, the death of the first born, the final plague might never have had to happen. And in fact, in Fohrman's close interpretation of the language of the Hebrew bible, it's clear that Pharaoh did in fact change his mind and was willing to let the Israelites go. But here is where it gets strange. Fohrman argues that plan B failed because Pharaoh only agreed to free the slaves for expedience's sake and not because he recognized the existence of the singular "creator God" and God simply could not have the story conclude without recognition of the true reality.
Ultimately, it's an interesting exegesis and provides the reader with insights into the possible significance of the story, and I found it intriguing (if not altogether convincing).
Early in the book, in an effort to make sure that his interpretation is accessible to all readers, regardless of their familiarity with biblical stories, I found the book too simplistic for my tastes. It felt, to start, a bit like a 6th grade level retelling of Moses and the Exodus story. But ultimately, Fohrman's style evolves into a more complex and insightful analysis that I found intriguing and worth reading.
It's an interesting (and quick) read for those who have always struggled with the moral justice of a story that involves the death of many innocent bystanders. It's not the best book of this type that I have encountered (that accolade would go to the books written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks), but it is worth the time.
At the heart of his interpretation is the surprising argument that the outcome of the Exodus story was not preordained, and in the possible alternative outcomes, there lie important messages. "Although you and I know how the Exodus story actually turned out, events were not preordained, so to speak, to unfold the way they did. They could have - and perhaps even should have - unfolded along different paths."
The key Exodus story that Fohrman speaks about here is the famous story of Israelite slavery in Egypt, Moses' call to action by God through the burning bush, his demand to Pharoah to let the Israelites go and the miraculous sequence of plagues, escape, and ultimately parting of the Red Sea that leads to the freedom of the Israelite people (and which is the basis 0f the Jewish Passover/Pesach celebration).
In Fohrman's interpretation, there were three possible (and for God, two preferable) outcomes that he describes as plans A, B, and C (with C being they actual outcome that we all learned in religious school as children). But first, he takes a moment to explain why the general sequence of events needed to happen in the first place. Since God is all powerful in this story, why did there need to be plagues and death at all? Couldn't he just have magically moved the Israelites out of Egypt?
"Consider, for example, the ninth plague, the plague of darkness," Rabbi Fohrman says. "Can you imagine a better opportunity? The Egyptians can't see a blasted thing. The Israelites are enjoying full lighting privileges. Why not just walk right out of Egypt." "One thing seems clear," Fohrman argues, "for some undetermined reason, there appears to be an unwritten rule throughout the Exodus narrative, a rule God is choosing to adhere to: the Israelites aren't going anywhere unless Pharaoh says they are."
God has another point to make, says Fohrman, one that proves not only to the Israelites, but the rest of the world too, that there is only one creator God and that all other "gods" are imaginary and powerless.
Still, why all the destruction and death of innocents and why did God repeatedly "harden" Pharaoh's heart to assure that there would be more plagues, more death and destruction?
Fohrman argues that by looking back at a less well-known biblical passage involving another Pharaoh - the story of the burial of Joseph's father Jacob - suggests that God actually offered this Pharaoh an opportunity to make a more just and less dramatic choice, but he refused to believe in the one creator God. This he describes as Plan A.
Plan B, says Fohrman, was for Pharaoh to come to his senses as a result of the plagues that followed. If he had, the death of the first born, the final plague might never have had to happen. And in fact, in Fohrman's close interpretation of the language of the Hebrew bible, it's clear that Pharaoh did in fact change his mind and was willing to let the Israelites go. But here is where it gets strange. Fohrman argues that plan B failed because Pharaoh only agreed to free the slaves for expedience's sake and not because he recognized the existence of the singular "creator God" and God simply could not have the story conclude without recognition of the true reality.
Ultimately, it's an interesting exegesis and provides the reader with insights into the possible significance of the story, and I found it intriguing (if not altogether convincing).
Early in the book, in an effort to make sure that his interpretation is accessible to all readers, regardless of their familiarity with biblical stories, I found the book too simplistic for my tastes. It felt, to start, a bit like a 6th grade level retelling of Moses and the Exodus story. But ultimately, Fohrman's style evolves into a more complex and insightful analysis that I found intriguing and worth reading.
It's an interesting (and quick) read for those who have always struggled with the moral justice of a story that involves the death of many innocent bystanders. It's not the best book of this type that I have encountered (that accolade would go to the books written by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks), but it is worth the time.
August 4, 2024
A recommendation from the BEMA podcast which came as a Christmas present. It came with high expectations of insightful discussion of what is taken for granted as a story we already know well enough. A people in slavery get rescued in a miraculous way, the slavers are defeated, justice is done. And while the miracles are not an easy thing for moderns to swallow, the main point seems clear enough. By paying attention to the strange elements of the text, Forhman points out a different layer of the story which I am sure is easily missed. And it is very much attention to the text, taking it seriously, rather than liberally or mystically, that draws out the point. This is highlighted by the frequent reference to the Hebrew, which I assume will consolidate the teaching for those who read it, which I don’t. While the interpretation doesn’t offer a massive change to the story, it certainly deepens it and offers a more nuanced view of the trajectory toward judgement that a face value reading takes. As a bonus, Fohrman also suggests that there is a parallel story in Genesis which contrasts and contextualises much of what takes place in Exodus.
A large element of the argumentation is the use of counter-factuals – timeline analysis doesn’t allow for much else – but these beg the question of whether the option presented are the only ones possible. In a class, I am sure Fohrman would welcome the discussion, but in a book there is only so much to and fro that one can have. Better than nothing.
A large element of the argumentation is the use of counter-factuals – timeline analysis doesn’t allow for much else – but these beg the question of whether the option presented are the only ones possible. In a class, I am sure Fohrman would welcome the discussion, but in a book there is only so much to and fro that one can have. Better than nothing.
June 12, 2023
This book came highly recommended, and I learned a lot from it. Fohrman has a keen eye for often overlooked details in the text, and is a master model for asking questions that you wish you would have thought to ask yourself. Though he spends a great deal of time setting up his interpretations (this makes the book perhaps longer than it needs to be), he is also a gifted writer and it can be argued this drives his interpretations home.
The highlight of the book for me was Fohrman's discussion of the Joseph story and the burial of Jacob. He puts this story in conversation with the Exodus story in a very fruitful and convincing way, and by doing this draws to light the significance of some otherwise confusing passages in the Exodus story. Also not to be missed is the second appendix to the book on Joseph's coats. Finally, new to me and something I appreciated was Fohrman's frequent dialogue with older Jewish interpreters.
I will definitely be using this book as a resource in the future as I return to the Exodus story.
The highlight of the book for me was Fohrman's discussion of the Joseph story and the burial of Jacob. He puts this story in conversation with the Exodus story in a very fruitful and convincing way, and by doing this draws to light the significance of some otherwise confusing passages in the Exodus story. Also not to be missed is the second appendix to the book on Joseph's coats. Finally, new to me and something I appreciated was Fohrman's frequent dialogue with older Jewish interpreters.
I will definitely be using this book as a resource in the future as I return to the Exodus story.
May 1, 2024
This book is sure a brain-twister, you sure need to go to the Bible and see for yourself what the author is saying or what other translations might say. Yet, there were so many gems in there, so much to consider that I ended up underlining a lot in this book. While the Midrash is mentioned quite a bit, you'd find that quite often it makes sense, other times you might completely disagree like I did, but still consider other Biblical interpretations of the text. It sure opened my mind to search for details in the text of the Bible, especially in familiar texts such as the Exodus. While a short review such as this, can't possibly give it justice, I sure hope it will peak your interest and give it a try. The author writes in such an entertaining way that it almost felt like I was watching a movie even though I knew how the story would end. You might also find it a fascinating read. I probably would give it a 4.5 stars but since I have no option for that and a 4 wouldn't be right, a 5 star it is.
July 21, 2025
I would not have guessed that a book about the Exodus could be a page-turner, but this one pulled it off. It has been fascinating to find new meaning in the words of the text, detect new patterns in the stories, and reverse long-held opinions. I am definitely hunting down Fohrman's other books.
There were a couple of times I got hung up on his conclusions. For example, I'm still not satisfied with his explanation of the meaning of the Passover, but it could be that I have a different understanding of it because I believe its ultimate fulfillment and meaning are in Christ. I also struggled when he said that the idea of sin and righteousness would have literally been foreign to Pharaoh. Just from the little I absorbed on our trip to Egypt, I know that the Egyptians believed in the concept of Ma'at (order and justice) and that hearts were weighed on a scale in the afterlife. This seems to give the lie to the idea that as polytheists, the Egyptians weren't aware of sin.
There were a couple of times I got hung up on his conclusions. For example, I'm still not satisfied with his explanation of the meaning of the Passover, but it could be that I have a different understanding of it because I believe its ultimate fulfillment and meaning are in Christ. I also struggled when he said that the idea of sin and righteousness would have literally been foreign to Pharaoh. Just from the little I absorbed on our trip to Egypt, I know that the Egyptians believed in the concept of Ma'at (order and justice) and that hearts were weighed on a scale in the afterlife. This seems to give the lie to the idea that as polytheists, the Egyptians weren't aware of sin.
March 24, 2022
When we seriously study stories from the biblical books of Genesis and Exodus, we are often left with questions. Why did the characters act that way? Wasn’t there any better way for God to have handled that problem? Is there something we’re missing? The ancient rabbis asked many of the same questions because the details not specifically included in the stories are often the most interesting. Rabbi David Fohrman asks and attempts to answer these questions in “The Beast That Crouches at the Door: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Beyond” and “The Exodus You Almost Passed Over” (both published by Aleph Beta Press/Maggid Books). Both books offer discussions that will intrigue and challenge readers.
https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
https://www.thereportergroup.org/past...
April 13, 2023
Rabbi David Fohrman has a way of providing an entirely new perspective on something you thought you already knew well. Then, he makes it seem like that new perspective was obvious all along.
Throughout his many writings, I've found a coherence to the ideas and a clarity of vision that are truly inspiring. The Exodus You Almost Passed Over is no different. In this book, he presents an evaluation of Jewish history and a glimpse into where and how things went wrong. He looks at stories from multiple angles: from the perspectives of individuals within the story, their predecessors/ancestors, and through the long lens of history. It's a remarkable way to reconnect with biblical texts, reexamine what you thought you already understood, and build your appreciation of the interconnectedness of the many narratives that he ties together.
Throughout his many writings, I've found a coherence to the ideas and a clarity of vision that are truly inspiring. The Exodus You Almost Passed Over is no different. In this book, he presents an evaluation of Jewish history and a glimpse into where and how things went wrong. He looks at stories from multiple angles: from the perspectives of individuals within the story, their predecessors/ancestors, and through the long lens of history. It's a remarkable way to reconnect with biblical texts, reexamine what you thought you already understood, and build your appreciation of the interconnectedness of the many narratives that he ties together.
April 30, 2024
This is the best commentary I've ever read on the Exodus. Rabbi Fohrman's writing is deep but not so intellectual that he talks above his audience. I'll probably sit on this one to absorb all that he revealed, and then I'll pick it up again and discover so much more. There were many places that I could see him using as a launch for peripheral subjects, but please don't take that to mean that he didn't thoroughly cover his topic in this book. I love the way that he presents a question or concept, explains every aspect, and then returns to it seamlessly at a later point in the book. And he never loses the reader along the way. I couldn't wait to dive into each chapter with him. Such a worthy, eye-opening read.
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