Joseph and all his brothers pass away. The Egyptians start to worry about the proliferation of the Children of Israel. In particular, they were concerned that they would become a ‘fifth column’ in the event of invasion by enemy forces.

Pharaoh and his ministers hatch a plan to contain the perceived threat presented by the Children of Israel. They effectively treated them as slaves, making them build store cities for the Egyptians. Egypt’s debt to Joseph is forgotten.

Pharaoh also orders that all Jewish male babies should be killed. However the Jewish midwives defy the edict with great self-sacrifice. One such beneficiary of their bravery is Moses, born to Jochebed and Amram.

He is placed in a wicker basket and put on the river, in the hope that some kindly person would find him. In fact, he is found by none other than Pharaoh’s daughter, who raises him in the palace. After killing an Egyptian who was attacking a Jew, Moses is forced to flee to Midian. There he marries Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, the local Priest.

Moses sees a vision of a burning bush and hears the voice of God calling upon him to become the leader of the Israelites.

Moses goes to Pharaoh with his brother Aaron who was to be Moses’ ‘director of communications’ - as Moses had a speech impediment.

It is significant that Moshe had a speech impediment as no one could say he was charismatic.

His message came across because of the power of the content i.e the word of God, not because of masterful oratory!

They demand that Pharaoh release the Jews for a few days in order that they may celebrate a festival in the desert at which they would worship the Almighty.

Not only does Pharaoh refuse, but also intensifies the workload upon the Jews. To be continued- in next week’s sedra.

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