This Passover weekend, Tablet published Alana Neuhaus as I suspect is her ancestral name. (I am a litwak myself.) Newhouse brings to our attention the rabbi Rashi, that chamushim means "fifth" rather than "armed". The "armed" interpretation might involve military structure at some later date, like the Roman legionary "century". Shemot Rabbah agreed.
For my part I've seen the Egyptian bondage as, in the main, a bondage by Egypt over Canaanites, which might include those in Canaan itself during the Pharaonic dynasties XVIII-XIX. Other amateurs - like Dr Freud, at his best - argued that the Exodus only involved the Levites who had Egyptian names so were dissident priests, meaning we don't even need involve Semites. Our written accounts are very much later so difficult to tease out, here.
I am inclined to accept Rashi inasmuch as sometimes a five is just a number. The Jews writing Torah - i.e. not Moses - lived at a time when much of Israel were living as guests not only in Babylonia but also in, er, Egypt. We have much record of them from Elephantine, sadly of a quotidian nature not much dealing with their own historical memory. But it's good enough to tell us that they were there.
Anyway although I'd not put much credit into the Exodus account as it exists in canon, Newhouse's article isn't about that. It muses upon a Judaism as collaborates with Pharaoh in our own day - and in the days of the Persians.
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