Shemos - 5773

One of the curious aspects of the Galus Mitzrayim is the fact that the tribe of Levi was not enslaved. Rashi (Shemos 5:4) raises this point to explain why Moshe and Aharon were apparently free to come and go as they wished. Ramban, citing the Rashi, agrees and quotes the Midrash Rabba which is the source for the idea. Then Ramban offers a conjecture as to why this was so: Every nation had its sages who taught its doctrines; Pharaoh therefore provided this for the Hebrews as well by freeing the tribe of Levi to perform this function.

This strikes us as odd. Was Pharaoh truly concerned for the spiritual enlightenment of his slaves?

Perhaps we can suggest an alternative explanation. There is a well-known aphorism of Karl Marx, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” This means that religion, by holding out the promise of a blissful afterlife as a reward for suffering in this world, tends to anesthetize people to their suffering and suppress the motivation for revolution to make this world a better place. Perhaps it was put best by Vladmir Lenin:

Religion is one of the forms of spiritual oppression which everywhere weighs down heavily upon the masses of the people, over burdened by their perpetual work for others, by want and isolation. Impotence of the exploited classes in their struggle against the exploiters just as inevitably gives rise to the belief in a better life after death as impotence of the savage in his battle with nature gives rise to belief in gods, devils, miracles, and the like. Those who toil and live in want all their lives are taught by religion to be submissive and patient while here on earth, and to take comfort in the hope of a heavenly reward…Religion is opium for the people. Religion is a sort of spiritual booze, in which the slaves of capital drown their human image, their demand for a life more or less worthy of man. (Novaya Zhizn No. 28, December 3, 1905)

In the history of man, there was no religion more focused on the afterlife than the Egyptian state religion. The mummies, tombs, and pyramids all testify to the extensive preparations for the “next world” that was in store. (Although our museum artifacts represent the provisions made for the Pharaohs, the focus on the afterlife was common to all social classes.) We may suggest that this religious doctrine satisfied the needs of the state to suppress revolution and maintain tight control over an enslaved populace.

There is a tendency for people to assume that everyone thinks as they do. (If I want a power saw for my birthday, undoubtedly my mother also wants one for her birthday!) Pharaoh assumed that the Hebrew religion would be based on the same premises as the Egyptian religion and would thus serve to facilitate the further enslavement of the Hebrews.

But Pharaoh was soon to discover something that the Communists were to discover hundreds of years later. Even after Communism evolved from a revolutionary movement to a movement that was determined to crush revolution, there was still a need to suppress religion. While religion sometimes encourages an attitude of acceptance and passivity, it can also serve as a force for idealism and radical social change. (Recall that the overthrow of Communism in Poland was driven by the Catholic Church.)

Pharoah assumed that Moshe and Aharon, the finest of Shevet Levi, would be the teachers of a doctrine that would advance his domestic political agenda. By the time he came to realize that Moshe and Aharon were the vanguard of revolution, it was too late.