The History of Judaism
From Canaan to Egypt

Joseph was the 11^th son of Jacob and the second son of Rachel. Jacob loved Joseph and the rest of his sons were very jealous of him. They sold him for 20 pieces of silver to some Egyptian traders. Joseph prospered in Egypt and was favored by the Pharaoh.

Jacob learned that Joseph was in Egypt and not killed as his other sons told him.  He took his family to Egypt during the famine that came to the land of Canaan in about 1300 B.C.E. More and more children were born to Jacob’s sons and grandsons. Soon the Pharaoh began to fear that they would become too powerful and take over the land. He started to make them slaves and forced them to do manual labor. The Jews built many of the cities, roads and pyramids for the Pharaoh. Still the Jews continued to multiply. This scared the Pharaoh and he ordered that the first born sons should be killed.

Moses was born to Amram, Jacob’s great grandson, at this time. His mother, Yocheved, placed him in a basket in the Nile River and hid it with reeds that grew along the river.nbsp; Pharaoh’s daughter found the baby and called him Moses, which means “drawn from water” and raised him as her own son. Yocheved became Moses’ nurse and taught him about his Jewish background.

When Moses was 80 years old, the Jewish people were suffering a lot under Pharaoh. One day when Moses was in the fields working as a shepherd, an angel of the Lord spoke to Moses from a bush that was filled with flames but did not burn. The angel told him to go to the Pharaoh and tell him to let the children of Israel leave Egypt. Moses didn’t want to be the person to talk to Pharaoh so he threw down his shepherd’s staff and it turned into a snake. Then Moses put his hand inside his coat and it turned white like leprosy, but was healed when he put his hand back into his coat.

Photo Courtesy of McGill Fine Art