Q&A: Visiting Egypt
Visiting Egypt
Question
Hello, honorable Rabbi,
In the portion of Shoftim it says:
15 “You shall surely set over yourself a king whom the Lord your God shall choose; from among your brothers shall you set a king over yourself; you may not place over yourself a foreign man who is not your brother.
16 Only he shall not accumulate many horses for himself, and he shall not bring the people back to Egypt in order to accumulate horses, for the Lord has said to you: You shall never again return on this way.”
Based on this, the Sages prohibited any person from going back to live in Egypt.
In the verse it is written explicitly about a king. In my humble opinion, all the commands that follow also refer to the king and not to every person.
Is it really forbidden for us to go back and live in Egypt because of the Sages?
Is a person who wants to visit Egypt for pleasure allowed to do so?
Answer
The web is full of overviews. Use them:
https://he.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%90%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%A8_%D7%94%D7%97%D7%96%D7%A8%D7%94_%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%A6%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D
https://www.etzion.org.il/he/halakha/studies-halakha/laws-state-and-society/%D7%91%D7%A2%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%9C%D7%90-%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%A4%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%9C%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%91-%D7%91%D7%93%D7%A8%D7%9A-%D7%94%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%A2%D7%95%D7%93