The Historical Proof of the Exodus

The plagues in Egypt and the great miracles in the desert testify to the revelation of Hashem as the giver of the Torah.

A reader of Deuteronomy might be surprised to find that the Torah presents a worldwide challenge to all religions to present a history of divine revelation to an entire nation. Deuteronomy (Chapter 4) highlights the uniqueness of Judaism compared to other beliefs and religions:

"Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day Hashem created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of Hashem speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?

Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation from another by testing with signs, wonders, war, a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by great and awesome deeds, like all the things Hashem did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? You were shown these things so that you might know that Hashem is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven he let you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire..."

This is a fascinating fact:

Since the giving of the Torah, 3,300 years have passed; there are over 4,000 religions on earth, yet not a single one speaks of a divine revelation witnessed by an entire people!

Apart from the revelation at Sinai shown to the whole nation of Israel during the Exodus, there has never been any other divine revelation that an entire people witnessed.

These are the final words of the Torah: "before the eyes of all Israel." Thus, the Torah proved its truth through a historic divine revelation that occurred before an entire nation.

This challenge set by the Torah of Israel has stood the test of time, because it is impossible to fabricate a historical event that an entire nation witnessed. This is the historical proof for the truth of the Exodus as recounted in the Torah.

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The Difference Between Legend and History:

Here it's important to explain the fundamental difference between legendary tales and the history of an entire people:

1. Legends - These are based on the testimony of one or a few individuals. For example: Muhammad spoke of an angel appearing to him in a cave, but how can this be verified? No one else was there; he could have imagined it or even lied (as the saying goes "You'll have to prove you don't have a sister"). Therefore, it's just a legendary tale, not a true history of a people. Christians say a few disciples believed in Jesus and only four people wrote about it. How can we trust them? They might have been mistaken or deceitful. In India, people believed Buddha achieved enlightenment under a tree; no one else witnessed this. Hence, it remains a legend.

Neither Christians nor Muslims tell of public miracles witnessed by whole peoples. Their stories are based on few individuals, because massive historical fabrications witnessed by entire peoples are impossible.

The mere fact that there are millions of Christians and Muslims does not make their stories truer because they do not claim that their ancestors saw divine revelation with their own eyes. Their ancestors believed in one person, and millions believing in one are like an inverted pyramid standing on a point—it shakes, and the pyramid falls.

2. On the other hand, history - It is based on the testimony of millions, an entire people who saw events with their own eyes and passed these historical traditions to their descendants. For example: the Holocaust is a historical event, as was the American Civil War. How do we know these events truly occurred? Because millions were present and testified, passing these massive testimonies to their children from generation to generation. Millions of Holocaust survivors told their children what happened, commemorating Holocaust Remembrance Day for this horrific historical event. Thus, this testimony has historical proof, unlike a legend based on one person's story.

Our sacred Torah provides historical proof of its truth by documenting historical events the entire Israelite nation witnessed with their own eyes: the Ten Plagues, the Splitting of the Sea, the pillar of fire and cloud, manna falling from heaven, Korach and his followers swallowed by the earth, the walls of Jericho falling at the sound of shofars, and most crucially, the revelation at Sinai where Hashem spoke to all of Israel. These are earth-shattering miracles seen by the entire nation, not just Moses alone, making them history.

Here lies the difference between false legendary tales and true history: Legends are based on a single individual's testimony, while history is based on the testimonies of millions. While one person can lie or err, millions cannot be convinced they saw an event that did not occur.

A nationwide history cannot be fabricated. If suddenly a prime minister claims a victory in World War III and demands a memorial day, no nation would believe it, for our eyes see there hasn't been a World War III, nor a victory by any prime minister.

Similarly, Israel would not celebrate Passover commemorating miracles of the Exodus if the entire nation hadn't witnessed these miracles with their own eyes. After all, one cannot invent a holiday for a nationwide historical event that never happened. Each people knows what their ancestors, grandparents told them, and what their national history is.

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Belief Isn't Just Because It's Written in a Book:

Some mistakenly say "The Jewish people believe in the Exodus only because it is written in the Torah." They do not understand that one cannot convince an entire nation to believe in a book that documents a history that never happened. The French know Napoleon Bonaparte existed not because it's written in their history books, but because their ancestors communicated it. History books are tools for documentation, but if the history weren't real, no nation could be persuaded just because it is written in a book...

The people themselves are the proof of their ancestral history, not the book.

The historical existence of events like the revelation at Sinai is proven by the nation passing it down from generation to generation. This is the essence of history, a testimony that travels through the tradition of an entire people, passed down from millions to millions, not starting from one individual.

The Jewish people faithfully pass down the Torah for thousands of years. All its ancestors witnessed firsthand the events described, which is why they agreed to pass this book to millions of their descendants. As the Torah says: "Remember the days of old, consider the years of generations long past. Ask your father, and he will inform you, your elders, and they will tell you" (Deuteronomy 32:7).

What affirms that the accounts in the Five Books are true history is the people who reliably transmit it from generation to generation from their ancestors, who first witnessed the events with their own eyes. Otherwise, they wouldn't have agreed to pass on this book, its holidays, and commandments.

If one could invent grand miracles that no one saw, we would find fabricated mass histories all over the world, especially in religions trying to establish themselves based on divine revelations and significant prophet miracles. Certainly, Jesus, Muhammad, and Buddha wanted their religions based on earth-shattering miracles for all to see, but they knew they couldn't, for one cannot convince a people to believe in a history that did not occur.

For this reason, all other religions appear like inverted pyramids, where one person's story is the foundation of their entire belief.

The Torah of Israel is the only one in the world claiming a mass event in which the entire Jewish nation without exception (men, women, elders, children) experienced and received the Torah directly from the Creator of the Universe. All of Israel witnessed the divine revelation at Mount Sinai, not just Moses. Thus, the Torah of Israel proved its divinity against all other religions in human history.

It's no coincidence that Israel's Torah is the most famous and influential in the world and that the Jewish people are known and discussed throughout history and to this day. Nor is it by chance that we are the only nation singing "He gave us a true Torah," and bless Hashem in synagogues: "Blessed are you, Hashem, our God, King of the universe, who chose us from among all nations, and gave us His Torah; blessed are you, Hashem, the giver of the Torah!"

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A Note on Belief in Individual Stories:

Here it's essential to explain, that by the power of the mass revelation at Mount Sinai, we believe in all individual prophet stories in the Tanakh, as well as the tales of the Tannaim and Amoraim, for their righteousness and divine spirit stem from this proven Torah of truth that all Israel witnessed.

The Torah itself commands us to listen to the prophets because of the revelation that happened at Mount Sinai:

"The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your fellow Israelites. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of Hashem your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, 'Let us not hear the voice of Hashem our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die'..." (Deuteronomy 18:15-16).

Thus, Israel was commanded to heed the prophets' prophecies and believe their stories because of the mass divine revelation already proven at Sinai.

The Torah also commands us to heed the wise of each generation: "Observe and do everything they instruct you. According to the Torah instructions they give you and the decisions they tell you, you must act. Do not turn aside from what they tell you, neither to the right nor to the left" (Deuteronomy 17:10-11). This is explained in my article on the authority of sages from the Torah.

Therefore, when we believe in the tales of individual prophets and righteous ones, our faith is not like that of the nations, who place blind faith in their prophets without knowledge. Our belief in our prophets and righteous ones is due to the understanding of the Torah's truth, proven before an entire people.