Moses vs. the Jewish Collaborators

In those days, Moses was elevated to a position of authority. He went out to his brethren and observed their suffering. [Exodus 2:11]

Moses was probably the first Jew raised in an Egyptian palace. He was known as the son of Batya, the daughter of Pharoah. The emperor trusted the young Moses and in his teens was made the administrator of the royal quarters.

But Moses always knew he was Jewish and quietly sought to end the suffering of his people. He would help the Jewish slaves with their loads. He even urged Pharaoh to stop the oppression. The young man tried reason: “Why are you working your slaves to death? Don’t you realize they will die and you will no longer have workers?” Moses had a solution that his godfather accepted: The Jews would receive one day off a week. It was later called the Sabbath.

The slaves loved Moses but others were wary. They felt threatened by this whippersnapper who had Pharaoh’s ear and sought to improve the lot of the Jews. The Egyptian policy was to do everything to harm this minority, particularly to stop the phenomenal population growth. The goal was to keep the Jewish men out of the house, away from their wives and the prospect of additional children. The Egyptian foremen would burst into Jewish homes at all hours of the night and drag out the men for some useless job.

Sometimes, the foremen would notice a fetching Jewess, and while the men were gone would come back for their wives. That was the case of an Egyptian taskmaster who pulled out a Jewish policeman and then returned to have sex with his wife. When the Jew returned home, he knew something was wrong. Soon, the taskmaster understood that he had been exposed and made the Jew’s life miserable.

Moses saw the Egyptian strike and curse the Jew. Nobody intervened.

Moses turned this way and that way that and saw that there was no one observing him, so he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. [Exodus 2:12]

But somebody was watching. Dotan and Aviram were Jewish collaborators. Their job was to urge the Jews to cooperate with the Egyptian oppressor. Resistance would be futile, the two intoned. Dotan was the orator, the politician. Aviram was the field organizer, entrusted with gathering the crowds. Although they became life-long partners, each hated the other.

When Moses went out the next day, he saw two Hebrew men quarreling. Moses said to this wicked person, “Why are you going to strike your fellow?” [Exodus 2:13]

The wicked one was Dotan whom the Midrash says raised his hand to kill Aviram. Despite their enmity, both agreed that Moses was a threat to their status. The young man was giving the people hope, the notion that slavery need not be permanent.

The man [Dotan] retorted, “Who appointed you as a leader and judge over us? Do you intend to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” [Exodus 2:14]

This exchange, which took place some 3,500 years ago, became a template in Jewish history: the use of Jews to intensify and extend the oppression of the Chosen People. The descendants of Dotan and Aviram would betray the Jews in their service for Babylonia, Greece, Rome as well as their modern-day counterparts. The axiom of the antisemites was that the most efficient oppression of Jews required their collaboration.

History books term the end of the 18th Century as the age of Jewish emancipation. Actually, this marked the widespread use of Jews to force the masses to abandon their religion. Whether in Prussia, France, Russia or Great Britain, young Jews were recruited to convert to Christianity and then intimidate their brethren to do the same.

To establish credibility, these apostates were awarded high positions. Benjamin Disraeli became prime minister of Britain during the Victorian era. Heinrich Heine was touted as one of the greatest German writers. Karl Marx would actually begin a new religion — Communism. All of them made a career of public self-hate. Decades later, Marx’s book, “A World Without Jews” would become a favorite of Hitler.

“Money is the jealous god of Israel, besides which no other god may exist. Money abases all the gods of mankind and changes them into commodities. [A World Without Jews. Karl Marx. Page ix. Philosophical Library, 1960.]

When Dotan threatened to tell Pharaoh of the killing of the Egyptian, Moses was alarmed. He also had a brainstorm. For years, Moses didn’t understand why the Jews were suffering so much. There were other slaves throughout the empire, but only the Jews underwent such oppression. His answer was Jewish collaboration with the enemy.

Frightened, Moses concluded, “So the fact is known!” [Exodus 2:14]

Dotan would inform on Moses and the 20-year-old would flee Egypt. He would settle in distant Midian where he would be a shepherd, a job that always kept him on the go. On the face of it, Moses might have been able to placate Pharaoh. After all, the Egyptian taskmaster had raped a woman and abused her husband, acts that any noble emperor could not tolerate.

Instead, what Moses ran away from was the network of Jewish collaborators and informers. He feared that this had become the norm in an Egypt that enslaved his people for eternity. After all, there were millions of Jews who worked for the Egyptian regime and its slave industry. The unfortunates who were building the pyramids no longer had hope.

Perhaps Moses was right. The Jews would be destined to remain slaves forever. Many might even refuse the offer of emancipation because slavery was the life they had always known. Moses would remain in Midian.

Enter G-d and everything changed.