More on the Torahs teaching of how the Jewish people flourished the more they were oppressed:
http://mobile.askmoses.com/article/189,2098367/Exodus-Chapter-1.htmlThe First Phase of Enslavement
8 At this time, a new king, who did not know Joseph, arose over Egypt. According to one opinion, this was in fact a new king; others say that this was the same king, but that he acted as if he had never heard of Joseph. 9 He said to his people, “Look: the people, the Israelites, are becoming more numerous and stronger than us. 10 Let us deal cleverly with them and their God—who is clearly involved in their unnatural fertility—lest they increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies, fight us, and go up out of the land, or, even worse, take over the country and force us to go up out of the land.” In fact, the Israelites posed no real threat to the Egyptians. The Israelites knew that Pharaoh (or his predecessor) had promoted Joseph from slave to viceroy and graciously settled them in the best part of Egypt, saving them from starvation. They were indebted to Pharaoh and the Egyptians, and therefore entertained no thought of taking over the country.7 Rather, Pharaoh wanted to persecute the Jews for the simple sake of doing so. He hated what the Jews represented, and he was concerned that Jewish monotheism might prevail over Egyptian paganism. So, in addition to plotting how to decrease the Jews’ physical numbers and diminish their power, he devised a plan to sink them into Egyptian culture and make them forget their heritage. He consulted with his advisors, the chief three of whom were Balaam, Jether (who would later be known as Jethro),8 and Job. Balaam devised a progressive plan of increasing oppression designed to weaken the Jews’ birthrate. Jethro advised against this plan; Job was undecided.9 Pharaoh accepted Balaam’s strategy. Jethro, seeing that he had fallen from the king’s favor, fled to Midian.10 Pharaoh gathered together all the Jews and addressed them: “Please help me today with this work.” He picked up a pail and a rake and began to make bricks. Most of those who saw Pharaoh doing this came forward to help him. Moreover, Pharaoh hung a mold for bricks around his neck. If a Jew declined to work, saying that he was too delicate, Pharoah’s officers said, “Are you then more delicate than Pharaoh?” In this way they talked everyone into participating.11 Nonetheless, the tribe of Levi refused to work, claiming dispensation due to their elite status as the people’s sages. Pharaoh and the Egyptians knew that Jacob had accorded his son Levi special status by exempting him from carrying his coffin,12 so they accepted the Levites’ claim. Thus, the tribe of Levi remained exempt from slavery. Nonetheless, just as the Levites devoted their lives to Torah study in order to preserve the traditions for the rest of the people, the rest of the people fulfilled the Levites’ obligation to fulfill God’s prophecy to Abraham that his descendants would have to be slaves.13 Therefore, the Levites reaped the rewards of Egyptian slavery together with their brethren, even though they did not actively participate in it.14 When night fell, the officers asked the Jews to count how many bricks they had made. After they did so, Pharaoh said, “Good! Make e this many bricks every day!”15 11 They appointed draft officers over them in order to afflict them with the chores they imposed on them, and thus the Jews built up the existing cities of Pitom and Raamses, making them fit to serve as storage cities for Pharaoh. The capital city of Pitom had been named after a rock formation on the shores of the Sea of Reeds, which the Egyptians had named Pitom and marked the boundary of Egypt.16 12 B
ut the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more God blessed the Israelites so they increased and spread, and the Egyptians were frustrated over the increase of the Israelites. This first phase of conscripted labor lasted about thirty years, from some time after the year 2332 until 2362.
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