According to Rabbi Horowitz, God has a plan for history. Exile is a result of sin but it is also part of this divine plan – we are told that God calculated the end of the subjugation. In the following section, Horowitz suggests that the period of exile and oppression was predicted in the Covenant of the Pieces (sections) in the time of Abraham. God said that Israel would be enslaved 400 years. How do we arrive at this number? First, he suggests that Israel’s exile was partially a product of Abraham’s failure to trust God. But even then, God led our forefather to feel with certainty that there would an end to the exile. Built into the exile was the ultimate punishment of Egypt as well. In a land not their own: Abraham was not distressed about Israel’s future subjugation because he knew that in the end his descendents would be redeemed. This is hinted at throughout the story of the Exodus. The garrison city which Israel was forced to build for Pharaoh was called Pit’hom –from Pi Tehom, the mouth of emptiness, because in the end Israel’s service in Egypt would amount to nothing for the Egyptians and the Israelites would even leave Israel with great wealth. Israel’s exiles culminating in the Exodus is also hinted at in the expression “In a land not their own;” is a reference to the four exiles that the patriarchs faced, two in the time of Isaac and two in the time of Jacob; Isaac spent time in Beer Lehai Roi²⁵ after his father’s death, and in Avimelekh’s kingdom, and Jacob spent time with Laban in Aram and then in Egypt. Lo lahem is an abbreviation of the four exiles” Lechai, Avimelekh, Laban Ha-Arami, Mitzraim. The first letters of these four words spells Lo lahem. Another interpretation of “a land not their own:” We learn that a person who is not satisfied with what he already has does not have anything²⁶: “Who is rich? One who is satisfied with his portion.”. If he desires more than he has, then even the things in his possession are not his because he lacks trust in God. Our ability to trust in God protects us – it allows us to be satisfied with what we have. The evil inclination, on the other hand, rules over that which our eyes see while wisdom is present for those who desire only that which is already in their hands. That is why Egypt is called “a land that is not their own,” while the land of Israel is said to be an inheritance. Abraham sinned because when he responded to God’s promise by asking, “How shall I know that I am to possess it?”²⁷ Abraham’s desire lengthened the time of the exile and until Israel was worthy of inheriting the land. God told him that “that the iniquity of the Amorites was not complete,” and that they would not inherit until the fourth generation,²⁸ implying that it was not Abraham’s righteousness that allowed them to inherit the land but the wickedness of the nations who were already there that allowed for their liberation. Also, the land could not be inherited as long as there were divine sparks that were hidden in the land. By asking this question Abraham sinned and strengthened the nation’s hold on the land. Israel’s exile was all part of the redemptive process that began with the birth of Isaac. According to the Torah there were four hundred years from the birth of Isaac until the Exodus from Egypt.²⁹ The four hundred years can be divided into three periods: 1. from the birth of Isaac until the Jews arrived in Egypt. 2. The period of slavery: from Joseph until the birth of Miriam. It was during this period that Pharaoh enslaved Israel by using, “farekh”³⁰, ruthless, is midrashically read as peh rakh, literally a soft tongue. According to the Midrash Pharaoh was able to con the Israelites into slavery with soft words and only then did he begin to oppression., light enslavement. 3. The period of oppression: from the birth of Miriam leading up to the Exodus. Together these two last periods together were 86 years. It was during this final period that God revealed Himself to Moses as YHVH, the name of God associated with compassion. This is why Pharaoh had never heard of YHVH; Pharaoh only recognized Israel’s God as Elohim. The gematriah of the name Elohim is 86, equal to the number of years of enslavement and oppression in Egypt. The time from the birth of Isaac until the oppression of the nation is 314 years which is hinted at in God’s name, El Shaddai. This is also alluded to in the verse: “I am YHVH; I appeared to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as El Shaddai, but I did not make myself known to them as YHVH.” El Shaddai is associated with compassion since it was a time of exile but not a time of oppression. Thus the period from the birth of Isaac until the death of Joseph was 314 years. And the period from the death of Joseph until the birth of Miriam was 54 years, alluded to in the verse: “Know well that your offspring shall be strangers in a land not theirs (314 years from the birth of Isaac until the death of Joseph) and they shall be enslaved and oppressed (between the death of Joseph and birth of Miriam until the Exodus – 86 years) four hundred years. But I will execute judgments on the nations they served and in the end they shall go free with great wealth.”³¹ – “I will ‘judge’” is taken as an allusion to the 54 years of slavery that took place between the death of Joseph and the birth of Miriam. The word dan has the gematriah of 54. How did Rabbi Horowitz come up with the connection between this number and the period of slavery? This is not clear. The period between the death of Pharaoh and the Exodus would have been 70 years. Horowitz points out that Joseph was 30 when he was brought to Pharaoh. There were seven years of plenty, and two more years of famine before Jacob agreed to send his sons to Egypt. They would have arrived in the third year – which means Joseph would have been forty when they arrived and he lived until he was 110 – which would have been another seventy years, between the arrival of the family and the death of Joseph. From that point to the birth of Miriam was another 54 years. From Miriam’s birth until the Exodus would have been eighty six years, Miriam’s age when Moses returned from Midian (since she was six years older than Moses). Together from the time of the descent into Egypt until the Exodus would thus be 210 years: 70 years plus 54 years plus 86 years. The 54 years would be the remainder after adding up the years of Joseph’s life plus Miriam’s age. It is hinted at in the word dan. The first 70 years would have been a time of exile without enslavement, the second period from the death of Joseph to the beginning of the enslavement, and the final period from the birth of Miriam to the period of oppression. Egypt was thus doubly punished for their treatment of the Israelites. Normally, because they were Noahides, they should have been punished with death but not required to pay for their poor treatment of the Israelites. However these two crimes happened separately: they had to pay for the years of slavery (Israel left with great wealth) and with death for their oppression of Israel during the final period.

footnotes: ²⁵ Genesis 25:7 ²⁶ Pirkei Avot ²⁷ Genesis 15:8 ²⁸ Genesis 15:16 ²⁹ Genesis 15:13 ³⁰ The word pharekh ³¹ Genesis 15:13-14. The words dan anokhi