Moses & Ben-Gurion

How did Moses do it? According to Exodus 12:37, he led out of Egypt about 600,000 men, plus women and children--a total of more than 2,000,000 Jews.

The supply problem involved has long staggered another Jew with some experience in leading his people: Israel's Premier and first Defense Minister, David Ben-Gurion. Last week, while the rest of the world was racked by the summit crisis, Prime Minister Ben-Gurion's views on Exodus 12:37 threw the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) into an uproar, a motion of no confidence, and a hassle that continues in the press.

Logistics. Premier Ben-Gurion is no novice Bible scholar; in 1956 he organized a Bible study circle, which included several eminent scholars who met at his house in Jerusalem every other Saturday. Scheduled to speak before the Tel Aviv Journalists' Association on a nonpolitical topic last fortnight, Ben-Gurion happily turned to his longstanding concern about Moses' problem in logistics.

Armed with masses of Biblical quotes, he expounded the theory that Moses had only 600--not 2,000,000 mouths to feed. Recalling a similar argument advanced by Manchester University's retired Professor Harold H. Rowley, Ben-Gurion reasoned as follows: Genesis 46:26 indicates that only 66 people, apart from Joseph and his two sons, went to Egypt. If Menashes' son went too, the total was 70. They stayed in Egypt only three generations, despite Exodus 12:40, which puts their stay at 430 years. Ben-Gurion's reasoning: Levi was known to have had three sons who went to Egypt with Joseph--Gershon, Merari and Kohath (Numbers 3:17); Kohath in turn had four sons--Izehar, Hebron, Uzziel and Amram (Numbers 3:19}. Amram had two sons--Aaron and Moses (Exodus 6:20). Thus there were three generations between arrival in Egypt and the Exodus.

During those three generations, Levi had 25 grandchildren; double that figure for wives, attribute the same average for wives and grandchildren to all the original 70 migrants, and the result is a wieldy 600 men, women and children.

Heresy! Ben-Gurion himself seemed surprised at the furor that broke when his speech was reported in the Israeli press. Heresy, cried the Orthodox. The Mizrahi Party accused him of attacking the basic beliefs of Judaism. The ultraOrthodox Agudat Israel Party introduced in the Knesset a motion of no confidence.

Frantic politicking brought the Mizrahis back into the coalition government at the last minute and forestalled the possibility that Ben-Gurion and his Cabinet would have to resign. Foreign Minister Golda Meir persuaded Ben-Gurion not to make matters worse by engaging in a long scriptural argument on the Knesset floor with Agudat's white-bearded Rabbi Isaac Meir Levin. With several groups, including the Communists, abstaining, Biblical Scholar Ben-Gurion handily won his vote of confidence--61 to 6. But it was still a lesson in what every politician is supposed to know: that any utterance bearing on religion more specific than an attack on sin or an endorsement of God is fraught with political peril.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.