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Q: In a previous column you said the Bible refers to the people who left Egypt in the Exodus as not just the Jewish people but as a “mixed multitude.” What is the source and the significance of that verse? – J from Lake Worth, Fla.)

A: Thank you, J, for your careful reading of my column. The verse I quoted and to which you referred is Exodus 12:38, “A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds – a great deal of livestock.” The Hebrew words for a mixed multitude are erev rav. The Bible often hides deep meanings in just a few words. Without fanfare God is reminding us that although the impulse for the Exodus was the enslavement of the Jewish people, the need for a release from the house of bondage was equal for all those enslaved in Egypt. Egypt at that time (13th century BCE) was a racist country. Surrounded and protected by deserts on the east and west and enriched by the Nile River, the longest freshwater river in the world (more than 4,000 miles long, unless the Amazon River is measured differently). The result of this geographical isolation was that Egypt only treated native Egyptians as citizens with rights. All other nationalities were consigned to lower classes, or slavery. We see this in the reference to Joseph eating alone even when he achieved great power.

"They served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves; because the Egyptians could not eat food with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians." – Genesis 43:32 (NKJV)

For all these reasons many people, in addition to Jews, wanted freedom. This was God’s gift to all people and the Exodus was the sign that God’s “strong hand and outstretched arm” were extended to all people seeking freedom. The foundation of God’s taking a mixed multitude out of Egypt was that God created all people in God’s image. This meant that all our rights came from God and not from the state. Another way to say it if you are building a country like America that is built on this biblical belief of the creation of people in the image of God may be familiar at this time of year after reading it for 250 years, “all men are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights and that among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” What this means is that even without Moses, God would have found another messenger to go to the Pharaoh and say, “Let my people go.” My people meant all people. Freedom is God’s gift to us and our gift to the world.

Q: I notice in reading your answers that you occasionally refer to the path up the mountain. I understand you to be speaking of all the different religions going to the top, but just taking different paths. If each religion has its own God, then all the Gods must be gathered on the mountaintop awaiting their followers. Is the God of Moses there among all the gods, considering that He commanded Moses not to have any other gods before Him? In light of the first of Ten Commandments, will the God of Moses fraternize with other gods? If He did, would it not appear hypocritical? – From W in Knightdale, North Carolina

A: I am in sales not management, dear W, and so I have no idea who God hangs with. What Father Tom and I believed is that God – our God – the one God – The Creator of Heaven and Earth did not give all the truth about human flourishing, the expiation of sins and forgiveness to just one faith. It just does not make sense that one faith got everything right and all the rest of them got everything wrong. We also believed that some religions got way more right than wrong and we felt immensely grateful that the faith we inherited from our ancestors (Judaism and Catholicism) were definitely in the way-more-right-than-wrong group. However, both of us were grateful for the way other faiths filled in some of the parts that our religion either got wrong or got only partly right. For example, our friendship with the Dalai Lama taught us to consider more deeply simplicity, gratitude and forgiveness – all of which are taught in our faiths but perhaps not as strongly as they could be. In any event our one-man’s-path-up-the-mountain metaphor gives us hope for a day and a place when all the truth will be revealed and when God will be absolutely, undeniably, positively … one.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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