parsha bit: Va'eira

[cellio]

When God sent the plague of blood, it affected not just the Nile but all Egyptian water. Rabbi Avun ha-Levi said that if a Jew and an Egyptian sat together, drinking from the same jug, the Jew drank water while for the Egyptian it was blood. Even if the Egyptian had the Jew pour the water for him, it turned to blood in his hands. Only if the Egyptian paid money for the water did it remain water. (Exodus Rabbah 9:10)

I think this is a sad midrash in one way. If, in the midst of oppression and plagues, a Jew and an Egyptian were able to sit down together as peers (which would be pretty remarkable), wouldn't a better teaching be that for that Egyptian, the water stayed water? But perhaps my modern thinking informs this; such a thing would certainly have undermined some of the power of the plagues. The p'shat (plain reading) of the torah account does not seem to allow for innocent Egyptians, which troubles me. I think we're supposed to read it at the grand, national level, not at the level of individual participants. I have trouble doing that sometimes.

Comments

[naufiel.livejournal.com]

Sorry, I've got more questions than answers. Welcome to my world. :-)

Isn't that the best way to be? I like people who have more questions than answers.

one has to wonder what processes would have been in place for formalizing the conversion during the slavery

See, that's another issue I'm wondering. Ruth is said to be the first convert, but midrash states many things about Abraham and Sarah converting people, there's the sticky point around the rape of Dinah, Joseph's wife is a total mystery, and also those Egyptians leaving with the Jews in the Exodus. Was saying "I'm a Jew!" enough?

[cellio]

I like people who have more questions than answers.

Same here. I'm not sure it's the majority position though, hence the comment (to someone I don't know). :-)

Conversion: good question. I've heard other midrashim along those lines too; they often sound like retrojection or wishful thinking to me, but I haven't made a study of it. Rut is about the only documented case we have (which is why she forms the model for conversions today).

The torah talks a lot about "the stranger in your midst"; I suspect that the erev rav did not, in general, convert, else they would be Jews, not the erev rav or strangers. I think the people who left Egypt with the Jews were, mostly, just along for the trip, though I imagine some did ultimately become Jews. Do you know of midrash that talks about the erev rav?