Bar-Ilan University
Pesach 5773/March 25-April 1, 2013
Parashat Hashavua Study Center
Lectures on the weekly Torah reading by the faculty of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, Israel. A
project of the Faculty of Jewish Studies, Paul and Helene Shulman Basic Jewish Studies Center, and
the Office of the Campus Rabbi. Published on the Internet under the sponsorship of Bar-Ilan
University's International Center for Jewish Identity. Prepared for Internet Publication by the
Computer Center Staff at Bar-Ilan University.
753
The Women on the Banks of the Nile*
By Miriam Gillis-Carlebach**
A saying of the Sages draws a connection between women and Redemption: "Rabbi Akiva
said: The Israelites left Egypt by virtue of righteous women" (Yalkut Shimoni, Psalms, par.
993). Women are even mentioned as having the power to bring about all redemption: "The
redemption of any generation happens only by virtue of the righteous women of the times"
(Midrash Zuta, Ruth [Buber ed.], ch. 4). The story of the Israelites in Egypt begins with the
mention of several women. Who were the Israelite and Egyptian women in the saga that
took place on the banks of the Nile?
Of the Israelite women, two are mentioned by name: Shifrah and Puah (Ex. 1:15); but the
woman who gave birth to Moses is referred to as a "daughter of Levi" (Ex. 2:1), and the one
who stood on guard, watching her little brother, is referred to as "his sister" (Ex. 2:4),
without calling them by name. We only learn in chapter 6 that Moses' mother was called
Yocheved (verse 20) and in chapter 15 that Aaron's sister was called Miriam (verse 20). Not
until the book of Numbers, in Parashat Pinchas, are we given all the details together: "The
Dedicated to the memory of my mother Hannah-Elisheva Carlebach (née ‫ )פרויס‬and my three
younger sisters, Ruth, Naomi and Sarah, who perished in the Bikernieki forest near Riga on the 8th of
Nisan, 1942. May their memory be blessed.
**
Professor Gillis-Carlebach is Head of the Carlebach Institute in the Department of Jewish History.
*
name of Amram's wife was Yocheved daughter of Levi…She bore to Amram Aaron and
Moses and their sister Miriam" (26:59).
Nor are the Egyptian women mentioned by name: Bityah1 is presented to us as "the
daughter of Pharaoh," and with her, her maidens (Ex. 2:5). Who was her "slave girl," the one
who rescued Moses from the Nile?2
All the women we have mentioned circumvented the edict of annihilation that had been
issued by Pharaoh, King of Egypt, each in her own way and according to her station, her
abilities and her creative womanly sense.
Why were specifically Shifrah and Puah mentioned by name3 and rewarded for their deeds
by the Holy One, blessed be He: "And G-d dealt well with the midwives…and He established
households for them" (Ex. 1:20-21)?4 The reason, we believe, is that they did not hesitate to
take on the omnipotent Pharaoh, King of Egypt, face to face, and despite the mortal danger
hanging over them they gave Pharaoh a bold, well-reasoned, "objective" professional
opinion regarding the independent nature of the birth process among the Israelite women.
Moreover, they drew comparisons between the Israelite women and the Egyptian women,
praising the strength of the former and disparaging the weakness of the latter in childbirth.5
Thus they saved from cruel and certain death hundreds (or perhaps even thousands) of male
newborns. These two midwives refused to have a hand in murdering day-old children of
their own people. It may very well be that on this account they were mentioned by name
and were granted far-reaching beneficence by G-d. But the other three women, the main
characters of the story—Yocheved, Miriam and Pharaoh's daughter—all put themselves out
for the sake of "one child, a specific son," a sort of case study, saving a single life in danger.6
It is interesting to note Pharaoh's reaction: he assumed that instead of just the two Hebrew
midwives he could enlist his entire people, or at least the males among them, for this job of
murder. "Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, 'Every boy that is born you shall
1
Bityah: "These were the sons of Bityah daughter of Pharaoh" (I Chron. 1:18).
The "slave girl" may have been one of her maidens; see below.
3
According to Exodus Rabbah (Vilna ed., 1.13), they were the same as Yocheved and Miriam, but
according to the plain sense of the text one could take them to have been professional midwives. Is it
plausible that Pharaoh should have called on Miriam, only five years old at the time, to serve as a
professional midwife? According to the same source, Yocheved even argued against Pharaoh, who
was angry at Miriam, saying, "She is only a child and does not know anything."
4
Rashi, loc. cit., interprets this as referring to "families of the priesthood, Levites, and
royalty…priesthood and Levites from Yocheved, and royalty from Miriam."
5
"Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the
midwife can come to them, they have given birth" (Ex. 1:19).
6
According to Scripture, at the time they did not yet know of the great future for which Moses was
destined.
2
throw into the Nile" (Ex. 1:22). In other words, a plan for anonymous mass murder of Jewish
babies for which no one would ever have to be accountable. However, it appears that the
Egyptians' support of this campaign was not overwhelming, perhaps because the process of
murder appeared too complicated to the average Egyptian. They had to find the women
who were about to give birth and establish whether the newborn was male or female. In
any event, we read nothing of the Nile spawning male babes. Quite the contrary, the
Israelites who lived among the Egyptians spawned and multiplied so much so that the
Egyptians came to dread them (see Ex. 1:12).
How many sons were born in Egypt between the time of the edict to throw all male
newborns into the Nile and the time Moses was born and found? The Torah gives no hint of
a number, neither a precise figure nor an estimate. According to our literary (not numerical)
assessment, surely a considerable number of male children must have been born, for after
several years the Israelites left Egypt in vast numbers. True, there was no census of the
population, but Scripture says the exodus from Egypt numbered "about six hundred
thousand men on foot, aside from children" (Ex. 12:37). Most, if not all, of them must have
been born during the years the edict was in force.
The question arises as to Yocheved's special merit. She consented to bring (another) child
into the world, aside from her daughter Miriam and her son Aaron, born three years before
Moses, before Pharaoh's decree (according to Ex. 7:7). According to the Midrash (Sotah 12a;
Exodus Rabbah 1.25), the key figure was Miriam. It was she who convinced her father to
think better of his decision to abstain from relations with his wife Yocheved, adding that
precisely at such a time emphasis ought to be placed on the family according to its true
significance: having children.7 Indeed, Yocheved made a public display of being pregnant so
that other young couples would be encouraged to bring more children into the world as the
order of the day. Courage was needed for such a demonstrative step—letting the world see
that at such a time she was pregnant. She took no small risk, and most likely her brave step
encouraged many other women to get pregnant and give birth to sons and daughters (loc.
cit.).
Where did all these babes disappear to, the Nile? Not very plausible, for who would go
bathe in the Nile if it was full of masses of drowned babes?8 Perhaps Pharaoh's daughter
7
Rabbi Judah bar Zevina said: He followed his daughter's advice (Sotah 12a; Exodus Rabbah 1.19).
According to legend, the babies were saved and nurtured supernaturally; see the passage cited from
the legend.
8
went down to the Nile, accompanied by her maidens, only on the pretext of bathing, but in
truth actually to investigate and see what was going on with her father's cruel edict.
Apparently there was not even a single Hebrew babe in the deep water of the Nile. So
where were the babies and young children hiding? According to legend, they received help
from Heaven (Eliyahu Rabbah [Ish Shalom ed.], ch. 8):
At that moment the Holy One, blessed be He, said to the ministering angels,
"For this very hour I created you. Go down and see my beloved children, the
offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who are throwing them into the
river." They went down in a panic and stood in the water up to their knees
and received the Israelite children, and placed them against the rocks. Then
the Holy One, blessed be He, made breasts come out of the rocks and the
infants suckled, as it is written, "He fed him [same Hebrew root as to suckle]
honey from the crag" (Deut. 32:13).
What about Yocheved? After giving birth to a son she ostensibly complied with Pharaoh's
decree – except that she refined it. Firstly, she made the child vigorous by hiding him in her
home for three months. Secondly, she did not throw her son into the water of the Nile, 9
rather she placed him at the edge of the Nile, among the reeds—not for all to see, but in a
basket that had been prepared according to all the rules of health necessary for an infant—
visible yet not visible, as if to fool anyone looking for it.
Pharaoh's daughter went down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens took care to remain
along the Nile (Ex. 2:5). Perhaps she thought to find at least one baby boy whom she could
save, and then she discovered the basket. Obviously she did not think she would find a
treasure of silver and gold in this basket when she ordered her maidens to bring it to her.
Her maidens, it seems, were in no hurry to comply with her order/request and fish the
basket out of the water, and therefore she sent her slave-girl (Heb. amah] alone.10 Upon
opening the basket she discovered a baby in it.
It appears that as long as the basket remained closed the infant did not cry. Perhaps
because of the darkness in the basket or perhaps because of the gentle rocking by the waves
at the edge of the river; perhaps he was simply sleeping, or did not have enough air to cry
9
Pharaoh had commanded to "throw into the Nile" every boy that is born (Ex. 1:22).
Amah (also = forearm)—some explain that the forearm of Pharaoh's daughter became extended so
that she could take the basket out of the water, since her maidens were in no rush to obey her
command (Sotah 12b).
10
out. But when the basket was opened it seems he was startled, or maybe he sensed the
sudden danger of being discovered, and then he began to cry.
What did Pharaoh's daughter do? She immediately understood that this was a child of the
Hebrews and began thinking how she could save him from her irate father. She especially
began to wonder whether she should share her secret with her maidens who had warned
her, saying (according to Sotah 12b and Exodus Rabbah 1.23):
Mistress, it is the custom of the world that when a king makes a decree,
though everybody else does not obey it, at least his children and the
members of his household obey it; but you transgress your father's decree!
So Pharaoh's daughter sent her slave girl, as it is written: "She…sent her slave girl [Heb.
amah] to fetch it" (Ex. 2:5). It seems to me that this slave girl must have been one of her
maidens who had been persuaded to cooperate with her. This slave girl figuratively became
an extension of her arm [Heb. amah can also mean "forearm"], carrying out the clandestine
rescue operation of Pharaoh's daughter. Immediately at that moment, before any further
argument could erupt between her and her maidens who were loyal to Pharaoh, Miriam
appeared on the scene with a practical proposal, thus solving the problem for Pharaoh's
daughter in a simple and natural way. Miriam did not speak in high and mighty terms of
mercy or deliverance, or of fateful decrees; rather, she advised Pharaoh's daughter as to the
immediate needs of the infant: a nursemaid.
Everything was proceeding according to plan: the basket had been prepared and placed
among the reeds and Miriam had been stationed on guard to watch over the developments,
perhaps because of foreseeing that the infant would be picked up by somebody.
Now we return to our question: what motivated the women who were involved in saving
this baby's life? To answer, let us go back to the figures of Shifrah and Puah and their status
in the story of the Nile: they acted out of humanistic and nationalistic motives, saving tens
of thousands of Hebrew newborns from certain death, whereas Yocheved and Miriam saved
as single Jewish soul—Moses, the son and brother. In other words, their motives were
primarily family-related, an illustration of the principle that saving one life is like saving an
entire world.11
11
Yocheved with her motherly instincts and Miriam with her gift of prophetic inspiration, along with
the light that filled the house with his birth, attested to Moses' special destiny. Nevertheless, at the
time his situation was not unique in society, rather it was like that of any son born to an Israelite
family.
Pharaoh's daughter, however, had a two-fold motive: mercy for the helpless child in danger
of death, i.e., a humanistic/moral motive on one hand, and a motive of rebellious fighting
against her cruel father, a course chosen independently and courageously, on the other.
The entire narrative is replete with acts of enormous courage, carefully thought out
stratagem, and much womanly wile.
Translated by Rachel Rowen