The story of Passover begins with the birth of Moses and is about fire and water. We ask ourselves, why did Pharaoh throw the Hebrew babies into the river? Why did he not kill them by the sword or simply strangle them? Why was Moses placed, in an ark, in the river? Why was Moses called Moses? What is the meaning of the burning bush?

The reason given in the Bible is that Pharaoh feared the strength and number of the Hebrew people and therefore sought to kill the male children to prevent them amassing an army to overthrow him (Ex. 1: 7-22).

And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying: Every son who is born you shall throw into the river, and every daughter you shall let live (Ex. 1:22).

Pharaoh was not so much afraid of the multitude of the Hebrew people, but the male force. However, the matter goes deeper than this. The Egyptian astrologers knew that a great leader was to be born. In Exodus 2:2-3 it is written:

And the woman conceived, and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a handsome child, she hid him three months (yerachim ירחים): And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark made of reeds, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child in it; and she laid it in the rushes by the river's brink.

In the Hebrew text, the term for 3 months is 3 ‘moons’ (Heb: yerachim). It is one of two instances in the Torah where the moon is used as a period of time. In all other instances, the term for month is hodesh, from the word hadash, meaning ‘new’. Why is the word ‘moonth’ used in this instance?

Moses lived at the time of the New Kingdom (16th - 11th century BCE), whose capital was Thebes, represented today by the great Temple of Karnak. At that time, Khonsu, the Ancient Egyptian god of the moon, was considered "the Greatest God of the Great Gods". He was the god who created all new life in all living creatures, yet also slew Pharaoh's enemies. The Egyptians were great astrologers. Through Khonsu the astrologers could see that a Hebrew child had been born into the world and would threaten Pharaoh’s power, hence the need to slaughter all newborn Hebrew male children. For this reason, it is said that after ‘3 moonths’ Moses’ mother could no longer hide him as the astrologers could detect the place where he was hidden.

But why were the Hebrew children thrown into the river?

Fire and Water:

Throughout the texts of the Bible, the term fire and burning is always associated with destruction, except in the case of the Hebrew people who were always protected by fire. God is described as an ‘all-consuming fire’ (Deut. 5:4 and 9:3-20). God spoke with Moses ‘out of the midst of the fire and had no form’ when pronouncing the Ten Commandments (Deut. 9:10-42). Moreover, during the exodus to the Land of Canaan, God guided the Children of Israel in a pillar of fire. Fire protects the Hebrew people.

The Egyptian astrologers knew that the Hebrew God was an all-consuming fire that protected the Hebrew people and they had to determine a way to destroy this boy-king at birth. The only element that could destroy fire was water, and Khonsu, the Egyptian god of the moon, was symbolized by water. The astrologers believed that the Hebrew God, the god of fire, had no means to combat the strength of water. It is for this reason that the Pharaoh made the decision to throw the boy-children into the water.

In order to deceive the astrologers Moses was put into the element that was to destroy him, i.e. water, and therefore, in their astrological search, they would believe him dead. Moreover, he was placed in an ark ‘disguised’ by being made of the reeds from the river and daubed with ‘slime and pitch’.

The Egyptian magicians ability to perform magic was limited to the water element. Thsi was why they were also able to perform the first two of the Ten Plagues but not the third. The first two involved the water element, but the other plagues were based upon the other elements of Earth, Air, Fire, and Aether!