I wish to take you to the Egyptian election of 1446 BCE.

Pharaoh was running for office as Lord, Master and Tyrant of all before him. He was, as well, the human incarnation of the sun god, Ra. The leader of the opposition was Moses “Moishe” Rabbeinu Nethaniah.

Pharaoh was running on a platform of “No Change Other than for the Worse, and If You Think it’s Bad Now, You Just Wait”. Moses was running his campaign under the slogan, “Let my people go!”

Pharaoh, naturally, had the media completely on his side, as were virtually all of the scribes and the academic members of the priestly class. He was heading for a landslide win.

And while the hand of G-d was eventually to prove decisive, there was, until after the tenth plague, quite some division within the Israelite community. This has been, until now, a little-known fact that my recent research has finally been able to bring to light.

There were some who of course said they wished to leave Egypt and return to the ancestral home, which they had left so long ago. They were sick of being slaves. They wished to have their own community and live in freedom. They no longer wished to be a persecuted minority. They were fed up with making bricks without straw.

They especially didn’t like to have to hide their infant children in the bullrushes to keep them from being murdered. Many felt unsafe going to the local butcher shop. There were some parts of the city they could not enter wearing a kippah.

But there was another side, and surprisingly there were many among the Israelites who supported Pharaoh.

Look, they said, we have it pretty good.

We’ve been here for 400 years. It is Moses who is rocking the boat. He is the one causing most of the trouble in our lives.

I mean really, do you want us to give up everything we have so that we can spend forty years wandering around in a desert. How would we even cross the Red Sea?

I’m sticking with Pharaoh.

We have jobs. We have places to live and food to eat. Because of the Nile, there are no famines like there were in the time of Jacob. We share many of the values of Pharaoh, like when he distributed grain to everyone during the seven thin years.

It’s not perfect. Sure it could be better. But what does Israel really mean to us?

And so began a tradition, that has continued from that day to this.