Trial and Error: Three Exoduses

Wait? Three Exoduses? Isn’t there only one?

If you read the Torah carefully, you’ll see there are actually three, closely paired in multiple ways.

The first is the Exodus of Adam and Eve. G-d forces them out, into the big, bad world, cursing Adam that his bread will only come “from the sweat of your brow.” The result, over time, was not a success: after a few generations, G-d is forgotten. The world descends into paganism and the related “might makes right” ideology. Adam’s Exodus leads directly to the Flood, proof that mankind’s first Exodus was a complete and utter failure.

The second is the Exodus of Lot. Lot recognizes the angels who visit him, and he takes huge personal risk by bringing them in. Lot then bakes unleavened bread, matza, for the angels – reminding us of the curse of Adam, since unleavened bread maximizes the human investment, the “brow sweat.” But despite that promising beginning (risking his life to take in strangers), the story ends with catastrophe. After Lot leaves Sodom, he loses his wife (and sons-in-law) along the way, and is left alone with his dangerously foolish daughters. The result is cursed incest, and Lot disappears from the Torah forever.

Note the failures of these Exoduses, and perhaps the lessons learnt: G-d cuts both Adam and Lot loose, not interacting with them at all after they leave the Garden and Sodom, respectively. There was no mechanism to remind people of the miracles of the past, and so they were lost to memory.

I would argue that the Third Exodus, the one from Egypt, incorporates the lessons learned from the failed earlier ones!

For starters, in the Third Exodus, G-d does not abandon the people, as He had with Adam and Lot. Instead, He stays with them all the way through, from that terrifying night all the way through the wilderness, decades later. And indeed, the Third Exodus involves not just a husband and wife, but an entire household that binds together under one roof, sharing the home and meal and experience. Nobody is left alone.

G-d reminds the people of the Exodus of Lot, by commanding them to eat unleavened bread, the very same bread that is first mentioned in the text when Lot makes it for the angels (both events have a Last Supper) – and also a reminder of the curse of Adam, “by the sweat of your brow.” G-d is reminding the people of the direct similarities: a night of fear and angels and divine protection, a night of unleavened bread, a night of anticipation for the Exodus to come.

And G-d adds ritual to the mix, the ritual of commandments and food and various actions. The ritual of telling the story (G-d tells us, three times, how to tell the story - even before it happens!) so that the people will not, as Adam’s descendants had, forget what happened. Added to the retelling are a host of related rituals to reinforce the lessons: ridding ourselves of leaven (again a connection to Lot and Adam’s Exodus); the paschal offering, etc. The Third Exodus, improving on the earlier ones, was to be memorialized and become part of the cultural bedrock and fabric.

The lessons carry on throughout the Torah and Jewish practice today. Unleavened bread, first mentioned when Lot uses it to feed the angels, is characteristic again on Passover. And then it is the standard in the Tabernacle/Temple: offerings echo Lot’s offerings to the angels – no leaven was allowed, and all “breads” offered were matza. This in turn connects back to Adam, and the sweat of his brow: the First Exodus and the lessons we learn from it – key among them, that G-d realizes man must invest in order to grow.

The Third Exodus, correcting from the earlier ones, works well enough that the Torah does not need any more do-overs.