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עמוד:47
Chapter 3 Juggling Identities Moses grew up in Egypt and was raised in Pharaoh’s palace , far from his people . In spite of this , he chose to defend his people : “ And he went out to his brothers and saw their hardship . ” ( Exodus 2 : 11 ) When he saw one of his Hebrew brothers attacked by an Egyptian , he defended him and killed the Egyptian . As a result , Moses was forced to flee Egypt and go to Midian , where he met some shepherds harassing Yitro’s daughters . He rushed to defend and rescue them . Yitro’s daughters told their father : “ An Egyptian rescued us from the shepherds . ” ( Exodus 2 : 19 ) The sages asked why Yitro’s daughters referred to Moshe as an “ Egyptian” . “ Was Moshe Egyptian ? No , but he dressed like an Egyptian . ” ( Exodus Raba 1 : 23 ) The same could be said about us . We don’t look different from other citizens of our countries . We speak and dress like everyone else ; we read the same books , see the same movies and , in most cases , have non-Jewish friends and acquaintances . But because we’re Jewish , we sometimes find ourselves in complex situations faced with various dilemmas . The situations vary from place to place : in some places Jews face many dilemmas , while in other places , less . In this chapter the forum participants will share some of the dilemmas they have encountered and we will examine how we would deal with these kinds of situations .
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