Posted on 04/13/23
| News Source: FOX News
As Passover 2023 continues, Jewish faith leaders are examining its timeless lessons and applying them to issues all Americans deal with today.
The story of Passover, culminating in the liberation of the Jewish nation and the destruction of Egypt, begins with a deceptively simple line: "A new king rose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph," Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director of the Coalition for Jewish values in Baltimore, Maryland, told Fox News Digital, referencing Exodus 1:8.
"If we unravel the meaning of this cryptic statement, we learn that this account offers a prescient warning for America today," Menken said.
"Joseph, per the biblical account, was the prophetic and economic genius who saved Egypt, he continued.
Joseph understood Pharoah’s dreams, saw that "years of plenty would be followed by famine," and showed Pharoah the path forward: to "collect surplus grain throughout the years of plenty, and sell that scarce resource during the famine," he noted.
Rabbi Yaakov Menken, executive director of the Coalition for Jewish Values, is based in Baltimore. (Coalition for Jewish Values)
"In so doing, he saved countless Egyptians from starvation, enriched the royal coffers and made Egypt a magnet for international trade," he also said.
"He was also a Jew, and together with his family founded a distinct ethnic community in Egypt," he explained.
The Jews followed "biblical morality" and rejected Egyptian idols, but "participated in and enhanced" the national economy, Menken also said.
"America cannot afford to be torn apart by the new King."
The Bible’s "succinct statement" that Pharoah did not know Joseph, then, means "much more" than forgetting the human man that Pharoah was, he noted.
"Pharoah decided that allowing others to live by moral values and principles was a threat, rather than the boon it actually was," he continued.
He absurdly argued that while Joseph had saved the country, "Joseph’s family would join Egypt’s enemies and destroy it," he added.
"Pharoah then set out to destroy the Jewish nation under this false pretense ... and the nation he fractured and destroyed was Egypt itself."
Menken said that today, we "cannot afford to forget the past, abandon what we learned or demonize values."