Lesson video

Hi everyone, my name is Rabbi London.

And today we are going to learn about Moses and the Exodus.

Before we get started, please turn off any applications on your phone, or any notifications if you're able to.

Please end any conversations you might be in the middle of and try to find a place where you're going to find the least amount of distractions.

Today you're going to need a pen or pencil and some paper or something to write with and something to write on.

Please take this moment to go and get those things.

Feel free to press pause and come back when you're ready.

In this lesson, we are going to learn about the Jewish beliefs about Moses and then learn about the story of the Exodus, the leaving from Egypt.

As I said, you're going to need a pen or pencil and some paper, or something to write on.

Please make sure that you have those things with you.

So who is Moses? Let's get to the very beginning.

The story of the escape from Egypt, or the Exodus.

So the leaving from Egypt can be found in the book of Exodus, which is in the Torah.

It's the second book of the Torah.

A few classes ago we were talking about creation and all the stories about creation take place in the first book of the Torah, Genesis.

The second book is Exodus.

And here's where we hear, listen or read the stories of Moses and the Israelites or the Jewish people leaving Egypt after being slaves.

Moses is an important prophet in Judaism.

According to Jewish tradition, Moses is the only prophet who spoke to God face to face.

All other prophets, according to Jewish tradition, spoke to God in dreams. But Moses had conversations with him.

So a little bit of a background and biography of Moses.

Moses was born to Jewish slaves in Egypt, but he grew up in Pharaoh's household.

He was born during a time where Pharaoh wanted to kill all of the boys that were born to Jewish slaves.

Pharaoh was afraid of them.

But Moses' parents decided not to listen to that decree, and put Moses in a basket and put him into the Nile, had his sister Miriam watched over him until the daughter of Pharaoh saw this basket in the water and took him out.

So Moses grew up amongst Pharaoh and his entire household while everyone else within his family and his circle, all the Jewish people were working in very difficult labour in Egypt.

Moses eventually ran away from Egypt because he was caught after he murdered, he killed an Egyptian who was being extremely cruel to a Hebrew slave.

He eventually returns to Egypt, but only after God commanded him to.

And God told Moses that he is going to be the one to free the Jews from slavery.

When Moses ran away from Egypt, he ran to a land name named Midian.

and there he met a man named Vitro or in English, you might hear it named Jethro, who was a priest or a leader of this land.

It was also here in Midian, that Musha met Zipporah, who became his wife.

Zipporah was Vitro's daughter.

While Musha was living in Midian, he worked as a shepherd, watching over sheep, making sure they had everything that they needed when they were hungry, when they were thirsty, watching over them as he took walks to make sure no one got lost.

Keep all those ideas in mind, because many of them are great ideas of what makes a good leader.

When Musha, when Moses was walking out with his sheep, tending them, one ran away.

And as a good leader, and a good person who's taking care of what needs to be taken care of, he ran after that sheep.

And as he was trying to find the sheep, he saw a bush that was burning.

This is known as the burning bush.

Now what was special about this bush is although there was fire, the bush itself wasn't being consumed or destroyed by this fire, which is really weird to think about.

And it's here, in the Torah, where this is where Musha and God first talked.

And the Lord said, "I've surely seen the affliction of my people "that are in Egypt.

"And I've heard their cry by reason other taskmasters, "for I know their pains, "and I am come down to deliver them "out of the hand of the Egyptians, "and bring them up out of the land "unto a good land and a large "unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

"Come now therefore, "and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, "that thou mayest to bring forth my people, "the children of Israel out of Egypt." So what happens in these verses? What does God say to Moses? Well, God notices that, and pays attention that his people, meaning the Jewish people in Egypt are in pain and our suffering, and God recognises that their being slaves is very difficult.

And God says that it is now my time to deliver my promise, the promise and the covenant that he made with Abraham.

So it's now my time to deliver them to the land of milk and honey, meaning the promised land.

And then the very last part of what I brought, is God telling Moses, you, you Moses, are going to be the one who brings them out of Egypt.

Let's take a pause.

Please write a summary in your own words and use full sentences.

I'd like you to describe what happened at the burning bush.

And please make sure to include the names of who is present, what is the commandment and what covenant is being fulfilled.

Feel free to look back at the task for a reminder.

When you're finished writing, please press play to resume the video.

Welcome back.

So, what happened at the burning bush? The two names of beings that were present, were Moses and God.

There was a bush that was on fire, although it was not burning down.

And through the bush, God spoke to Moses, telling Moses that he is going to be the one to help free the Jewish people from Egypt.

The covenant that is being fulfilled is the covenant that God made with Abraham.

When he told Abraham, that his descendants would be slaves, but then they would be freed.

This is the time that they're getting freed.

Well, I was going to ask a question, and it seems like I've already given you the answer.

So I'll ask anyways, according to Jewish tradition, what is one characteristic of Moses? Of the one characteristic on the screen, so read all four.

One is the first human, two, the only prophet to speak to God face to face.

Three, the person to make the first covenant with God, or four, the first monotheist? And the answer is that according to Jewish tradition, Moses is the only prophet to speak to God face to face.

Where did Moses grow up? Did Moses grow up as a Jewish slave in Egypt? In Canaan? In a basket in the Nile, or in Pharaoh's household? Moses grew up in Pharaoh's household.

In what book of the Torah do we find the story of Moses and leaving Egypt? In Genesis? Deuteronomy? Exodus, or Leviticus? Exodus.

We read the story of Moses and leaving Egypt in the book of Exodus.

Moses leading the Jewish people out of Egypt was the fulfilment of God's covenant with Abraham? God's covenant with Moses? A dream that Moses had? Miriam's wish for her brother? God's covenant with Abraham.

Moses leading the Jewish people out of Egypt was the fulfilment of God's covenant with Abraham.

What was Moses his job in Midian? Was he a baker? A shepherd? A doctor or a professional juggler? Moses was a shepherd when he was living in Midian.

So Moses after the burning bush goes back to Egypt.

Before he actually agrees to go, he kind of bargains or argues with God telling God, I don't think I'm ready to do this.

Who am I? And God convinces Moses that he really is good enough.

But he also tells Moses, if you are still worried, take your brother Aaron.

So Moses and Aaron go to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to try to convince him to let the Jewish people leave the land.

But Pharaoh does not let the people go.

According to the Torah, Pharaoh's heart becomes hard, so he's not able to feel compassion or be nice to the Jewish people.

In return, God sent 10 plagues.

It is only after the 10th plague that Pharaoh allows the Jewish people to leave.

So the 10 plagues come one right after another sort of affecting only the Egyptians.

According to Jewish tradition, the Jewish people who are living in Egypt were not affected by any of the plagues that were going on around them.

So, for example, the first plague was blood, meaning that all of the water in all of Egypt turned to blood according to tradition.

But in the Jewish homes, they were able to have clean, fresh drinking water.

The second plague was frogs.

There were frogs that came everywhere throughout the country.

There are some stories about the frogs and it's a debate of were there really one frog that was a really giant frog, and that got hit and then little baby frogs came out of it.

I know, kind of crazy, or was it just swarms and swarms of frogs that came in from everywhere around you? Following the plague of frogs was lice.

Yeah, exactly.

Those gross itchy things that go into your hair that no one really likes.

Yeah, there was lice everywhere, was very uncomfortable.

The fourth plague in some translations is wild beasts, and in some translations, is flies.

So the land was overtaken by wild beasts or flies, which probably made it quite scary and annoying to be around.

Following that plague was the disease of livestock, many cattle, so sheep or cows that got really sick.

And then we're boils, which are the gross skin disease.

And then hail.

And according to stories that the rabbis tell, the hail was not only, it had fire inside of ice.

And then there were locusts kind of like grasshoppers taking over all of the land.

And finally the final two plagues, the plague darkness where no one was able to see in front of them.

The rabbis say that the it was so dark that a person wasn't able to see their hand in front of them.

It was during the time of the plague of darkness, that according to Jewish tradition, the Jewish people were then starting to prepare to leave Egypt because they were still able to see even though it was dark.

And the final plague, which is probably the most difficult or painful plague, was the death of the firstborn children.

After this plague, Pharaoh said, you can all leave, go and leave as fast as you possibly can.

We're going to pause for a moment and I Want you to go back, one slide, and copy down the 10 plagues.

You can write them in your own words.

And after each plague, I want you to draw a picture.

Something that's going to help you remember what the plagues were.

Press pause, and then press play when you're finished with the task.

So the 10 plagues happen, Pharaoh finally says, leave get out.

And the Jewish people, the Hebrew slaves go as fast as they can.

They're not sure if Pharaoh is going to change his mind again, they don't know what's going to happen.

So they want to take the opportunity as they're able to.

And so in the middle of the night, according to Jewish tradition, this all happens in the middle of the night, all the Jewish people gathered their belongings and ran.

And this instance is called the Exodus.

The word Exodus, just like the name of the book, means a mass departure of people.

So the Israelites leaving Egypt is known as Exodus.

So let's try and imagine being the Israelites, we're leaving Egypt, running fast, probably a little bit scared, also probably a little bit excited that after so many years of hard labour and difficult work, we're now going to be free.

But we're running, we don't know where we're running to or what's going to be outside.

The Israelites leave Egypt and they coming to the Red Sea, and at that moment, they feel trapped and scared.

I can imagine feeling that way.

Seeing that on one side, there's this big sea, and on the other side are actually the Egyptians trying to come back after me.

At the Red Sea, God caused a great miracle, which allowed the sea to split in half.

And the Israelites were able to cross through safely.

If you remember back to the lesson when we were talking about women in Rosh Hashanah, we learned about Miriam, who had drums and tambourines and sang and danced with the women while crossing the sea.

It is this crossing that she was singing about this great miracle of being able to be saved, not only of leaving Egypt, but crossing a sea that no one thought they would be able to cross.

Jewish communities from all over the world celebrate the Exodus or the leaving of Egypt every year during a holiday called Passover, or Pisa, which we're going to talk more in detail about in a few lessons.

Which Jewish festival remembers the escape of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt? Rosh Hashanah? Yom Kippur? Chanukah, or Passover? Passover is the Jewish festival that remembers the escape of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt.

What miracle happened at the Red Sea? The Jewish people all knew how to swim, the water became drinking water, the sea split and the Jewish people were able to cross safely, it started to rain delicious desserts.

The sea split and the Jewish people were able to cross to safety is the miracle that happened at the Red Sea.

It would have been really cool if there were delicious desserts that rained down.

In what book of the Torah is a story of leaving Egypt? Genesis? Leviticus? Exodus, or Deuteronomy? Exodus.

The story of leaving Egypt is in the book of Exodus.

Some true or false? All Jewish people believe that God wrote the Torah.

Wow, this is a question that we didn't go over yet.

Well, I'll give you a sneak peek into our next lesson where we're going to talk more.

The answer to this is false.

Not all Jewish people believe that God wrote the Torah.

Well, it looks like I gave you a slight sneak peek into our next lesson together, where we're going to learn about the Torah and Mount Sinai.

But first before we get ahead of ourselves, because we just learned all of this new material, today we spoke about Moses and the Exodus.

According to Jewish tradition, Moses was born to Jewish slaves, but he grew up in Pharaoh's household.

Moses ran away to a land named Midian and there he was a shepherd.

And while he was watching the sheep, and a sheep got lost, he came in touch with a burning bush.

And it was there that God told Moses that Moses was going to be the one to free the Jewish people from slavery.

Moses went to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh did not let the Jewish people go until after 10 plagues befell the Egyptians.

Finally, the Jewish people were allowed to leave.

But they came across the Red Sea.

And it was there where a miracle happened, that they were able to cross the sea to safety.

Before we leave, try and think of three things that you learned today.

And feel free to share them with your parent, your carer, your friends, your teacher.

And please don't forget to complete the end of the lesson quiz.