This Week’s Bible Quiz
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We have now started the Book of Shemot during our weekly Torah readings on Shabbat. This week’s Torah portion describes our servitude in Egypt, and relates the story of Moshe, and how God appears to him in the wilderness at the Burning Bush, and commands him to take the Jews out of Egypt.
This week’s quiz is a simple question:
Why does God bring the Jews out of Egypt?
Out of the following list of reasons, choose the one correct answer, which is stated in the Torah during Moshe’s very first encounter with God:
1. To spend Pesach in the Catskills.
2. To take a cruise to St. Thomas.
3. To retire in Boca.
4. To invent bagels and lox.
5. To go to the Land of Israel.
6. To live in ghettos in Brooklyn.
7. To make movies in Hollywood.
8. To become doctors and lawyers.
9. To assimilate in America.
10. To receive the Torah on Mount Sinai.
The correct answer is #5 – to bring the Jews to the Land of Israel, as it states in the Torah:
“I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of Egypt, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large Land, to a Land flowing with milk and honey” (Shemot, 3:8).
Mount Sinai was to be a temporary stopover to pick up the Torah, but the goal of the Exodus was to bring the Jews to Israel. This is the goal of the Torah – to build a Torah nation in the Land of Israel.
You can disagree if you want, but that’s what it says in the Torah.
tell a friendAbout the Author: Tzvi Fishman was awarded the Israel Ministry of Education Prize for Creativity and Jewish Culture for his novel "Tevye in the Promised Land." For the past several years, he has written a popular and controversial blog at Arutz 7. A wide selection of his books are available at Amazon. The views expressed in this blog are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of The Jewish Press
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Why was Moses apprehensive about talking directly to Pharaoh? My quiz
Rabbi Dr. A.B.Levy
As the blog quiz was a multiple choice quiz so too should be your quiz, Rabbi Levy.
Here are my multiple choice answers.
Moses’ wife just delivered her second son and he needed circumcision; so, traveling to Egypt was out of the question.
Moses was stuttering and couldn’t talk straight.
Moses was the humblest man on earth; so, how could he bring himself to talk to a leader?
Moses realized that his people were stubborn and would not listen to him; so, G-d gave him words to say and miraculous signs to perform so that they would believe him.
Moses didn’t know at that time that Tzvi Fishman would be here at this time trying to do the same thing and that everyone now days has turned themselves into a Pharaoh even with Rabbinic certificates to govern their own lives according to the way he sees fit and yet apart from the Torah.
Moses was 80 years old and if you were the same age, would you want to walk to Egypt and live off a donky's back for food, etc. My feet hurt just to think about it.
@Yehuda i posted 8 choices
1. He was out of mitzrayim for so long he no longer had command of Pharaoh's dialect
2. He was scared like a chicken at a schohet's
3. He thought Aaron was a better choice
4. He really liked the old homestead
5. He didn't buy into any of this Spielberg concoction
6. He thought Cecil B. Demille's apocryphal version was best.
7. He had a major speech impediment and couldn't convey the brevity of the situation
8. He had a thing for one of Pharaoh's wives.
9. He was tired and didn't want to move again
10. It's Boca or nowhere okay Delray if the price is right.
To choose from Liad and Arthur in relation to this blog, I would choose the 5th item on Liad's list and the 10th on Arthur's list for they are both connected.
Complaints were given to Moses from the people even after they left Egypt that they miss the "Flesh Pots of Egypt". The flesh pots were not only for food but for everything for the flesh as to what America offers at the right price. The mentality of a slave is work and there is not a good enough reason to leave their work which is the same reason that Pharaoh gave for not letting our people go. 80% of the people didn't want to leave Egypt and this may represent the same percentage today and even for the same reason……the flesh pots…..to serve the flesh and not the soul. Aliyah to Israel is the elevation of the soul. Even after Aliyah, the desires of the flesh still needs some training and control to bring it in line with the soul. The battle is constant; however, Israel is the place to win this battle.
And now Egyptians call us to return to Egypt and release Israel for palestinians.
This will never happen!
5 is correct, however we can also focus on the words 'deliver them' – this becomes deliverence ['Liberty'] when attached to 'the hand of Egypt' [bondage]. Here, Liberty was ushered into the world 3,500 years ago in Egypt. The land by itself, wthout the premise of liberty, becomes wanting.
5 is correct, however we can also focus on the words 'deliver them' – this becomes deliverence ['Liberty'] when attached to 'the hand of Egypt' [bondage]. Here, Liberty was ushered into the world 3,500 years ago in Egypt. The land by itself, wthout the premise of liberty, becomes wanting.
That was easy. Israel has always been the promised land for Israel. It was hard to take Israel out of a culture they had lived in for 400 years – the "40 year wandering" was to help clear up the traits Israelites had acquired. The saying goes…"It was easy to take the Children of Israel out of Egypt, but not Egypt out of the Children of Israel." I'm a Christian and I love the Old Testament; its history of strength and the world of God. Israel will always be — that is the promise given.
That was easy. Israel has always been the promised land for Israel. It was hard to take Israel out of a culture they had lived in for 400 years – the "40 year wandering" was to help clear up the traits Israelites had acquired. The saying goes…"It was easy to take the Children of Israel out of Egypt, but not Egypt out of the Children of Israel." I'm a Christian and I love the Old Testament; its history of strength and the world of God. Israel will always be — that is the promise given.
The questions are too simple and do not impact today's foremost issues. Here are five questions that do:
Q1. Where does the Torah say the universe is 'finite'?
Q2. What is the Torah's definition of 'infinite'?
Q3. Where does the Torah say the universe & the earth are both billions of years old?
Q4. Which is the world's oldest alphabetical book?
Q5. Where is the oldest & most correct definition of 'species'?
How do I join here seems nice
The immediate purpose of the Exodus when Moses approached Pharaoh was for Israel to worship G-d. In the book of Exodus the word worship is mentioned twenty times. Going to the land was part of it, but the immediate objective was to worship and connect with Ha –Shem as a nation.
Exodus 8:20 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the water and say to him, 'This is what the LORD says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me.
Exodus 9:1
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go to Pharaoh and say to him, 'This is what the LORD, the God of the Hebrews, says: "Let my people go, so that they may worship me."
Exodus 10:7-8
Pharaoh's officials said to him, "How long will this man be a snare to us? Let the people go, so that they may worship the LORD their God. Do you not yet realize that Egypt is ruined?" Then Moses and Aaron were brought back to Pharaoh. "Go, worship the LORD your God," he said. "But just who will be going?"
The correct answer to the quiz was none of the above.
The Talmud states that those who live out side of Israel are as if they worship another god.