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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, February 10, 1984 11
Setting the Famine Story Straight
By DON McEVOY
National Conference
of Christians and Jews
All my early training was
that the Bible was true. It
was what it meant and it
meant what it said.
Oh, of course, I also grew
up knowing that George
and Ira Gershwin has
"Sportin' Life" singing "It
Ain't Necessarily So," but
that kind of skepticism had
little effect on me.
But now, in 1984, a docu-
ment has come to my atten-
tion that shatters all my
youthful illusions. I have
learned that a beautiful
story in the book of Genesis
is not the real story of what
happened. The text has ob-
viously been amended.
Here's the background.
Joseph, the favored son
of Jacob, was despised
by his jealous brothers.
They ganged up on him in
the fields one day, at-
tacked him, and then sold
him to the Midianites
who took him to Egypt
where he became a slave.
Young Joseph had a quite
remarkable career in
Egypt, making a meteoric
rise over the years from
slave-boy to a member of
Pharoah's cabinet as Secre-
tary of the Department of
Agriculture. While in that
post, he developed an
Ever-Normal Granary
Project through which grain
was stored in years of
bumper crops against the
possibility of lean years of
crop failure and famine.
1'
The famine came, but be-
cause of Joseph's farsighted
administration, Egypt had
plenty of grain in reserve.
But over in the Sinai Des-
ert, Jacob and his family
were near starvation. He
had no idea, at this time,
that the man who was re-
sponsible for Egypt's con-
tinued prosperity was his
long-lost son since the mur-
derous older brothers had
concocted a story about
Joseph's death many years
before.
- Knowing, nonetheless,
that Egypt had foodstuffs,
Jacob sent a delegation of
his sons to Egypt to plead for
help. To make a long story
short, Jacob and his family
got the grain they needed,
and there was a heartwarm-
ing reconciliation between
father and son. M least,
that is what the Bible says.
Now the truth of the
matter. That happy end-
ing was nothing other
than a rewrite of history
by a bunch of do-gooder,
bleeding-heart liberals.
What really happened
was the delegation from the
Sinai was met by a top offi-
cial of the Pharoah's gov-
ernment, one who worked in
the office right next to the
top man at the palace.
He listened to thier story.
Then he called a press con-
ference and announced that
despite rumors to the con-
trary there simply was no
documented evidence that
anyone was hungry. Of
•
course, he added, we have
all heard anecdotes, but
there is no hard evidence.
Besides, if anybody is hun-
gry it is their own fault.
Those who are claiming
that they are hungry are
just trying to get a free
meal.
He did, however, have
a commission appointed to
study the matter.
I read this factual account
in a Methodist magazine,
and I still trust the
Methodists. Don't You?
Eternity Bracelet
Eternity Necklace
Diamond Studs
Likud Defeated
on Debate Motion
JERUSALEM (JTA)
The Likud-led coalition suf-
fered an unexpected defeat
last week when the Knesset
voted 48-46 in favor of an
opposition motion to hold a
full-scale debate on the gov-
ernment's plans to expand
the Jewish quarter in Heb-
ron.
Deputy Premier David
Levy, speaking for the gov-
ernment, urged the Knesset
to drop the motions. He said
plans to extend the Jewish
quarter into what is pre-
sently an open air vegetable
market would be carried out
without moving any of IlLe
Arab vendors.
But Likud MK Dror
Seigerman voted with the
opposition and former
Minister - Without -
Portfolio Mordecai Ben-
Porat, who has just resigned
from the Cabinet,
abstained.
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