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The Influence of Ancient Egyptian Civilization on Israeli Religious Thought It is commonly believed that the connection between the Israelites and Judaism with Egypt is limited to the period before the Israelites left the Delta region—specifically the Eastern Province, the Land of Goshen—with Prophet Moses during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II (around 1240 B.C.), according to the biblical account. This event, known as the Exodus, marked the departure of the Israelites from Egypt. However, according to both the Torah and the Quran, the Israelites had entered Egypt during the time of Joseph. They lived there for approximately 430 years until their departure with Moses, according to the biblical text (Exodus 12:37, 50, 51). This significant historical event continues to be a topic of intense debate among archaeologists, historians, and scholars of religion worldwide without reaching a definitive consensus. We will provide a detailed analysis of this event later in this study to enhance cultural and historical awareness. Thus, the over 400-year period under the influence of Pharaonic Egyptian civilization deeply embedded clear Egyptian influences on the lives, beliefs, and thoughts of the Israelites both before and after receiving the Mosaic Law. These influences left a marked impact on Jewish religious thought from the Pharaonic period—a single episode in the broader tapestry of Egyptian history—up to the present day. It is crucial for Egyptian scholars, in particular, to recognize and understand these influences. I will touch upon only the most prominent and tangible of these influences, as they are numerous and require a separate discussion to cover them all in detail: 1. The Shape of the Tablets of the Law (לוחות הברית): The shape depicted by the Israelites after leaving Egypt for the tablets that bore the Ten Commandments, known among Jews worldwide as the Tablets of the Covenant, did not conform to any traditional geometric shapes (square, rectangular, circular, cylindrical, etc.). Instead, they adopted the same form depicted by the ancient Egyptians and recorded on temple walls and countless papyrus scrolls for the feathers of justice. This shape was characteristic of the crown of the god Amun in ancient Egyptian belief. It is inconceivable that this congruence in shape is merely a coincidence for something with such definitive significance and meaning: divine justice, symbolizing the deity ruling over all creatures. The form of the feathers of justice represented a clear religious philosophy in ancient Egyptian thought, one that remains ingrained in the Egyptian consciousness today, similar to numerous other Pharaonic symbols still used in everyday life thousands of years after the great Egyptian civilization. An example is the emblem of the Egyptian judiciary and courts: the feather and the scales (the feather of justice derived from the crown of Amun, used to record human deeds until the hour of judgment, and the scales for weighing deeds at the moment of the fateful trial toward eternal life). This philosophical religious thought remained firmly rooted in the Egyptian awareness that the Israelites experienced for 430 years. Consequently, they used it in the form of the tablets bearing the words of the Lord, embodying a more physical representation than a spiritual and emotional one. It is well known that the Israelites rejected the divine law revealed to Moses and did not accept the abstract emotional thought that aimed to correct their representational emotional thought from the time of Jacob (Israel) through his descendants to Moses. Thus, the tangible representational influences of ancient Egyptian civilization on rituals and the form of religious practices, as we will see later, were more pronounced than their influences on spiritual beliefs regarding the relationship between man and his Creator. 2. The Worship of the Golden Calf (עגל הזהב): The first reaction of the Israelites when a dispute arose between them and Prophet Moses after receiving the divine law at Sinai, which called them to embrace abstract emotional thought and reject the tangible representation of the deity, was to reject this call and adopt the image of the calf. They made it from the gold they managed to gather—or seize—and worshipped it following the rituals of ancient Egyptian religion. The image of the calf was the animal form of the Egyptian god Apis, which was worshipped in Egypt throughout the late Pharaonic period and the Hellenistic period. The calf's form was not new in ancient Egyptian religious thought as a representation of the deity. From the beginning of the formation of creation theories in ancient Egypt, the image of the goddess Hathor—as a cow—dominated Egyptian religious thought and worship. Although this worship was based on a spiritual philosophy with symbolic and sophisticated meanings, progressing from the tangible to the abstract, starting with the Ennead of Heliopolis (Isis and Osiris) and reaching its peak in the creation theory at Memphis (the god Ptah), only the tangible ritualistic aspects of the Egyptian creed, which the Israelites experienced for hundreds of years, stuck in their minds and consciousness. These aspects were also inherited from their ancestors, who came from the Canaanite civilization before reaching Egypt. The Israelites did not assimilate into the Egyptian civilization and its religious philosophy as the Ptolemies did until Cleopatra's era; they remained isolated due to their status as foreign peoples not part of the Egyptian social fabric, to the extent of being used as forced labor during the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II. Therefore, their immediate and spontaneous reaction after their dispute with Moses was the worship of the calf (Hathor or Apis), which was deeply ingrained in their consciousness from the Egyptian ritualistic religious practices that were stronger than the abstract spiritual thought brought by their prophet Moses. 3. The Idea of the Ark of the Covenant and the Temple (ארון הקודש וההיכל): The wooden chest carried by religious priests in Pharaonic Egypt to hold their most sacred and valuable religious symbols in the holiest place of their temples (the Holy of Holies)—a tangible representation of the gods Amun, Horus, Osiris, etc.—was taken out for the people to see only during Egyptian religious festivals. The priests carried it on their shoulders to other temples and then returned it to the Holy of Holies, which only the high priest and the Pharaoh could enter during his lifetime and the legitimate heir upon preparing the body for mummification before burial. This ancient Egyptian religious ritual was an integral part of the Pharaohs' religious creed, depicted repeatedly with each Pharaoh on temple and royal tomb walls, especially in Luxor (Thebes). This Egyptian religious ritual profoundly impacted the Israelites' psyche and consciousness. It accompanied them after receiving the Mosaic Law at Sinai, and they practiced it for over five hundred years after their Exodus from Egypt. When the Israelites began to record their Torah, they documented this religious ritual inspired by the Egyptian religious thought they had lived under for over four centuries. Their depiction of the Ark of the Lord—or the Ark of the Covenant—in the Torah, in 2 Samuel 6, included a detailed description of the Ark that contained their most sacred religious symbols, the Tablets of the Law. It was placed on wheels to be transported from place to place (instead of being carried on the priests' shoulders, as in Egyptian thought). They also engraved this depiction of the Ark of the Covenant—similar to the wall carvings in Luxor temples—on the walls of an ancient Jewish synagogue in Capernaum, Palestine, from 300 A.D. (after the temple was destroyed by the Romans). Thus, the influence of ancient Egyptian tangible thought on Jewish thought persisted not only in the Pharaonic period that coincided with the Exodus (around 1200 B.C.) but also in tangible rituals and forms that remain ingrained in Jewish consciousness to this day, thousands of years later. The concept of the temple, or the direction of prayer towards a specific point at the furthest end of worship places, close to the mundane movements of the people, to ensure the highest degree of reverence and spiritual connection with the Lord or Creator, was transferred from ancient Pharaonic Egyptian worship rituals. This concept was known as the Holy of Holies in ancient Egyptian temples, constructed according to specific astronomical and geometric angles to align with the eastern direction, where the sun rises as a symbol of the appearance of the god Ra or a manifestation of Ra to his people, according to Egyptian religious philosophy. This idea of the Holy of Holies in Egyptian temples was transferred to the Israelites when they received the Mosaic Law and embodied it in the concept of the temple (similar to Solomon's Temple). They documented it with their own hands after five hundred years of leaving Egypt. 4. The Practice of Circumcision: There is a strong belief among Jews that the practice of circumcision originated with the Israelites and began with Prophet Abraham when he performed it on his sons, Ishmael and Isaac. However, historically and archaeologically, this practice is a purely Egyptian custom dating back thousands of years to the Pharaonic period. Numerous wall carvings in ancient Egyptian temples and tombs depict this procedure being performed on male children aged between ten and thirteen years, with the Egyptian surgeon or doctor using a special flint knife (from the tombs of nobles in Saqqara). Historically, it is evident that the Israelites adopted this ritual during their centuries-long stay in Egypt, making it part of their religious heritage after Abraham's visit to Egypt and his marriage to Hagar, who performed the ritual on her sons according to ancient Egyptian customs. Israeli Jewish researcher Uri Yehuda confirms this fact in his book "The True Torah," published in 2000. He revealed many historical inaccuracies among Jews that falsify history and truth, either intentionally or unintentionally. Yehuda stated that the purification ritual was an ancient Egyptian custom from the beginning of the dynasties and included a carved image on the wall of a temple in Saqqara from around 3000 B.C., explaining how this ritual was transferred to Israel after Abraham's arrival in Egypt and his marriage to Hagar. 5. Religious Hymns (Psalms): These differ from divine rituals as they are human creations, expressing one's faith in the Creator—God or the Lord—through chanting divine abilities and glorifying them as a form of religious prayer. These human hymns were widespread among ancient Egyptians, especially religious priests, who composed hymns to the Lord or the deity representing Him. These hymns continued until the Hellenistic and Ptolemaic periods. Many Pharaonic hymns were composed for the god Ra, including one attributed to Pharaoh Akhenaten, praising Ra, who represented Aten—the Creator and Controller of the Universe. The ancient Egyptians' religious hymns influenced the Israelites, who lived in Egypt for over four centuries and transmitted them orally through generations. These hymns inspired many Hebrew religious hymns in the Psalms, attributed to King David, known as the Psalms of David, which were similar in form and expression to ancient Egyptian hymns. Thus, ancient Egyptian tangible religious thought greatly influenced Jewish thought during their stay in Egypt and afterward, despite their attempts to move towards abstract emotional thought through the Mosaic Law. The Israelites could not escape the influences and customs they experienced in Egypt for centuries. This Egyptian influence persists in Jewish religious thought to this day, manifesting in tangible religious rituals that carry the essence of ancient Egyptian thought more than abstract emotional philosophy.