Pharaoh can see no reason for everyone to be part of the worship of the Lord. The rest of the people, the servants and subjects of the king, are dependant on the relationship between the leaders–the priests and the royalty–and the various deities they serve. For him, a religion’s rituals are done by the functionaries or the leaders of the tribe. This short exchange between Moses and Pharaoh is crucial to an understanding of Judaism, and monotheism. Pharaoh’s response is swift: “…Not so, let the male adults go and worship the Lord, for this is what you ask.” Angrily, Pharaoh brings the meeting to an end: “And he drove them out from before him.” The interview is over, the deal is off, and the locusts arrive the next day. And now, with his response to Pharaoh, Moses lays the groundwork for universal suffrage and the French and American Revolutions: “With our young people and our old people we will go, with our sons and our daughters…we will go, for it is a holiday to God for us.”
