General Introduction
Basic Ideas
Historical Background
Laws and Customs
Sources
Activities
Educational Aims
1. The pupils should know how Jacob's family came to arrive in Egypt and why.
2. The pupils should know that Jacob's family settled in Goshen so as not to mix and assimilate with the Egyptians.
3. A family of seventy people increased so much that they became a people, and were referred to as such by Pharaoh.
4. The people of Israel filled Egypt and begun to assimilate with the Egyptians.
5. Pharaoh was afraid of Israel and issued four decrees against them.
6. The Egyptians not only imposed excessive hard labour on the Israelites, but also 'embittered their lives'.
7. The Israelites groaned from the work, and cried out to God to rescue them.
1. Jacob left the Land of Israel temporarily and hoped to return there.
2. God's kindness to Jacob's family in Egypt was to increase their size until they became a people.
3. Pharaoh decreed 'lest they increase' (Exodus 1:10) and God said 'so they increased' (Exodus 1:12).
4. The slavery was intended to mould the character of the people of Israel and to prepare them for receiving the Torah.