Moses - A New Beginning

B. Talmud - Sotah 12a

...And when she saw him that he was good. It has been taught: R. Meir says: His name was Tob [good]; R. Judah says: His name was Tobiah [God is good]. . .At the time when Moses was born, the whole house was filled with light — it is written here, And when she saw him that he was good, and elsewhere it is written: And God saw the light that it was good.

WHAT IS "GOOD" ABOUT MOSES?

Rabbi Amy Schinerman, 2006:

Yocheved observes Moshe's beauty and hides him from otherwise certain death. Ibn Ezra comments that "beautiful" should be understood as "good," but since it describes a baby, it can refer only to physical attributes. Nachmanides and Rashbam point out that every mother both thinks her child is incomparably beautiful and would hide her child under such circumstances. For Nachmanides, however, Torah includes these details to inform us that Yocheved recognizes in Moshe an unprecedented beauty that will inspire God to perform a miracle on his behalf.

From Voices of Torah: A Treasury of Rabbinic Gleanings on the Weekly Portions, Holidays and Special Shabbatot, CCAR Press, 2011.

A Creation Myth AND A Universal Myth

Throughout the world, myths abound about royal children raised incognito in lowly conditions - often banished from the palace by an evil sorcerer, stepparent, or pretender to the throne - only to reemerge in adulthood to reclaim their rightful place. In Western literature, for example, we have the stories of Perseus, Oedipus, Hamlet, and Snow White. But in the story of Moses, we find a mirror image of this universal tale: Moses is born a slave, spends his childhood in the royal palace, and then reclaims his humble origins. And in contrast to the classic villain who exiles the young hero from his father's palace, here we have a guardian angel who takes the young foundling in, gives him a royal Egyptian name, arranges for him to be nursed within his own community (by his own mother, no less), and then takes him back into the royal house.

- Dr. Ellen Frankel, The Five Books of Miriam

Heroes in ancient traditions often have auspicious births. The Bible's typical special birth story involves a child born to a barren mother (Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, Samuel). However, given the emphasis on fertility in the Exodus account, a barren woman motif would be jarring, if not dissonant, so an alternate special birth theme was chosen: the young hero's abandonment and narrow escape from death. Similar stories were told about Sargon of Akkad (a king who established an empire in southern Mesopotamia) and Romulus and Remus (the founders of Rome). In both the Legend of Sargon and the Moses story, the child is born in secret, abandoned by his natural parents, set in a reed basket, and pulled out of the water by a rescuer. A distinctive feature of Exodus 2 is that the rescuers of the future hero are women.

- From The Torah: A Women's Commentary

ON ADOPTION

by Lisa Hostein

(from The Torah: A Women's Commentary)

My new son did not come from the fruit of my womb,

but he lives in the deepest recesses of my heart.

Another woman gave birth to him,

but with his adoption, his life is in my hands.

He represents pure potential to grow and to blossom,

to learn and to teach, to lead and to follow,

to love and to be loved.

He is a new life and a new beginning,

a promise of what can be.