missdiane | (Reply)

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I never heard of Miriam's Cup, but sounds like a great idea to recognize the women.

Well, if the juice boxes are Kosher for Passover... Nah, spring for a bottle of Kedem grape juice, it is really good.

By the way, don't invite any Egyptologists if you are going to talk about the Israelites building the pyramids. There was no evidence of any of the Semitic peoples in Egypt during the time when the pyramids were built. The famous pyramids at Giza were built by the pharaohs Khufu, Menkare, and Khafre in the Old Kingdom (2700 -2100 BCE) and were made of stone using the labor of peasants who were idle during the annual flooding of the Nile, (sort of like CCC during the Depression). There are records of the workers going on strike for better pay so they weren't slaves. Skilled workers were employed year round, but the heavy stuff was done by peasants.

Semitic names began appearing in Egyptian records during the New Kingdom (1570 to 1544 BCE), including some high officials and several notes about the problem of foreign nomads roaming around being a nuisance. It also corresponds to a major famine in the area of modern Israel and Palestine, so it fits with the story of Joseph. A group of these people were eventually used as slaves/forced labor to build the new capital city of Pi-Ramses in the delta under Ramsses II who is identified by most Egyptologists and Biblical historians as the pharaoh of the Exodus. Building the city of Ramsses is also mentioned in Exodus 1:11. They used clay brick for most of the city which ties in with the "bricks without straw" stuff.

The whole "we built the pyramids" thing isn't upheld by rabbinical interpretations either, but you will hear it every Passover from Jews who aren't scholars. Sounds more impressive than "we built some city no one has ever heard of." It was actually a major undertaking to build a capital city from nothing.

That is way more than you ever wanted to know, sorry for the lecture. I worked for the Egyptian Section of the museum when I was in college and the Egyptologists and Biblical Historians both threw fits about that myth every Passover.