Shabbat Passover

Torah Is Not History  

Exodus 12:21 - 12:51 & Numbers 28:16 - 28:25

Thoughts on Passover

By: David Wolpe for ReformJudaism.org

There is no reliable evidence that the Exodus ever occurred-and it almost certainly did not happen the way the Bible recounts it. Archaeologists have not found a single shred of evidence in the Sinai that accounts for the Exodus (given variously as between 1500 and 1200 B.C.E.), though they have discovered evidence of other peoples in the area who predated the Israelites. It is improbable (albeit not impossible) that 600,000 men crossed the desert 2,500 years ago without leaving a single shard of pottery or Hebrew carving. And had a large influx of Israelites suddenly arrived after hundreds of years in Egypt, their cups and dishes would look very different than those of native Canaanites.

But it does not matter. Knowing the Exodus is not a literal historical account does not ultimately change our connection to our faith.

We need to separate faith from historical claims. It is not an historical claim that God created us and cares for us. But that a certain number of people walked across a particular desert at a particular time in the past, after being enslaved and liberated, is an historical claim, and one cannot then cry "unfair" when historians evaluate it.

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