The Myth of the Exodus

People in Shabbat class have been asking me about Richard Elliott Friedman's article in Reform Judaism Magazine contending that the Levites lived in and left Egypt. The article bears the unfortunate title "The Exodus is Not Fiction." Friedman proves no such thing, and his proffered information is not new. He contends, and he certainly could be correct, that the Bible's levitical names reflect an Egyptian origin, and that the tribal history of the Levites was adopted as the collective history of Am Yisrael. I do not disagree. But that's far from verifying the historical Exodus.
The Exodus narrative holds that the entire people escaped Egyptian servitude as a direct result of divine intervention through miracles and God's servant sent as Redeemer. The people not only flee slavery to Pharaoh, but voluntarily accept servitude to God at God's own mountain: Sinai. That is the Exodus myth. To contend that the core of that myth had historical origins with a single tribe is like saying discovering a 5,000 year old garden in Iraq proves the Garden of Eden. It may hint at the Garden of Eden, but it's no proof. To say that the myth of Hebrew origins in slavery had an historic core is nothing new and no surprise, but it proves nothing about the true meaning of the Exodus. That we will have to leave to the sphere of faith.