“If the exodus was fiction, why would the ancient Jews make it such a big deal and make strict laws for everyone to follow? Did they know it was fake?”

 “If the exodus was fiction, why would the ancient Jews make it such a big deal and make strict laws for everyone to follow? Did they know it was fake?”

It’s worth pointing out that, if the Jewish people set out to create a set of ‘origin myths’ for themselves, they were unbelievably modest in doing so.

Many ancient cultures, in their popular myths, had their founders descended from kings. The Greeks had their founders descended from gods, and they were not alone in doing so. And then we have a similarly ancient group, the Jewish people… who proudly claim to be descended from slaves.

This is not just an isolated detail. Most ancient cultures held up their founders and rulers as exemplary people, to be imitated however possible. To this day, Muslims strive to follow the example of Muhammad, and Christians ask themselves “what would Jesus do?”. The Jewish Scriptures, by contrast, go out of their way, repeatedly, to show that their most revered figures are flawed humans, just like the rest of us.

Think of Abraham, exiling his concubine and his son because his henpecking wife told him to do so. Think of Jacob, succeeding through repeated trickery, only to be tricked in turn. Think of Moses, and the fits of rage and disobedience — to God! — That kept him out of the Promised Land. Think of King David, who had a trusted soldier murdered so that David could steal his wife… and who was reprimanded for this by his own prophet, and could say nothing in response. These are the inspiring stories of ancestors that Jews tell themselves!

In my opinion, this, by itself, lends credence to the Jewish origin stories. Had they been creating origin stories out of thin air, they surely would have done a much more inspiring job.

In fact, from a different perspective, one could argue that the Jewish people didn’t find their forefathers inspiring at all. They found stories of justice inspiring. Over and over, you see Jewish Scriptures telling stories of justice being done… with blatant disregard for how much it makes Jews look bad in the process.

One can imagine ancient Jews carefully maintaining the old stories, preserving them as exactly as they could — just as their Torah has been painstakingly copied, letter by letter, for thousands of years — and choosing to emphasize the stories, not of glory, but of justice.

As Albert Einstein wrote: “The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence -- these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.”