Jewish Customs from ... Egypt?

According to Stephen Gabriel Rosenberg writing in the Jerusalem Post, the Jewish people have taken a number of customs from the Ancient Egyptians. One practice that might be familiar with most readers of this blog is that of wearing tefillin (phylacteries).

Compare the statue of Osiris (above) to this picture of a Yemeni Jew (below).



Rosenberg offers the following analysis:

The children of Israel during their sojourn in Egypt must have been familiar with such depictions, and with the concept of the ruling classes of the country wearing headgear symbolic of their physical and cultic functions. Whether we see these local customs in a positive or negative light, they were representative of the country from which the Israelites were being evacuated. Indeed, a reminder of such customs was to be one purpose of the tefillin, which were to be a "remembrance between your eyes... that with a strong hand the Lord brought you out of Egypt" (Exodus 13:9).

I'm certainly not qualified to judge the merits of this claim, but it certainly seems plausible. The remainder of the article points to other similarities. Whatever the case, I like his conclusion:

The intimate elationship of the Tabernacle and other items of our sacred artifacts to Egyptian models may, on the surface, be anathema to our Orthodox brethren. But it should not be so. On the contrary, it is evidence that our people did come out from an Egyptian culture, and so refutes Bible scholars who seek to discount the story of the Exodus.

And now my connection to Egypt has received further confirmation. I knew that it was more than a feeling...