As late as the 18th century, taxes in much of Europe were often paid in the form of labor, known as corvée. Ziony Zevit argues that this was the form of bondage Egypt imposed on the Israelites, as described in the opening chapter of the book of Exodus, read in synagogues tomorrow. He finds evidence, inter alia, in the statement that the Egyptians placed over the Israelites “taskmasters [literally officials of missim] to afflict them with their burdens.”

Throughout the ancient world, farmers working the lands would be taxed by representatives of central authorities (kings or deities) who were considered the actual owners. These taxes were rendered by delivering livestock, or agricultural produce, and/or through the performance of corvée labor, which could involve fieldwork, dredging canals, or work on construction projects. Hebrew mas (plural missim) is connected to this latter form of taxation. Mas refers to a unit of laborers drafted for corvée service and is a cognate of Akkadian massu.

With this in mind, Zevit proposes a novel reading of the verse that sets up the story of Egyptian bondage: “Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.”

The most common interpretations of the phrase are that the king did not have a personal relationship with Joseph, that he was not aware of what Joseph did [for his predecessor during the famine], or that he did not feel especially grateful for it. Yet, I suggest that the phrase is not about a state of knowledge. It is rather about not recognizing, i.e., honoring, Joseph’s blanket support of his brothers and their descendants as [described] toward the end of Genesis. This special recognition included the right to provisions from official food storage facilities, which Joseph first offers his family upon their reconciliation.

Israel will likely respond directly against Iran after yesterday’s attack, and has made known that it will calibrate its retaliation based not on the extent of the damage, but on the scale of the attack. The specifics are anyone’s guess, but Edward Luttwak has a suggestion, put forth in an article published just hours before the missile barrage: cut off Tehran’s ability to send money and arms to Shiite Arab militias.

In practice, most of this cash comes from a single source: oil. . . . In other words, the flow of dollars that sustains Israel’s enemies, and which has caused so much trouble to Western interests from the Syrian desert to the Red Sea, emanates almost entirely from the oil loaded onto tankers at the export terminal on Khark Island, a speck of land about 25 kilometers off Iran’s southern coast. Benjamin Netanyahu warned in his recent speech to the UN General Assembly that Israel’s “long arm” can reach them too. Indeed, Khark’s location in the Persian Gulf is relatively close. At 1,516 kilometers from Israel’s main airbase, it’s far closer than the Houthis’ main oil import terminal at Hodeida in Yemen—a place that was destroyed by Israeli jets in July, and attacked again [on Sunday].