Illustration Credit: Elad Lifshitz, Dov Abramson Studio
What's going on here? מַה זֶה?
Who were the midwives?
The Torah doesn’t usually name minor characters. So it’s surprising that the Torah tells us the names of the two midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh: Shifrah and Puah.
Who were these midwives? They are called הַמְיַלְּדוֹת הָעִבְרִיּוֹת (hamyal’dot ha-ivriyot, Hebrew midwives) (Shemot 1:15). There are two ways to understand this phrase:
- They were Egyptians who served as midwives for the Hebrews (another name for Benei Yisrael/Israelites).
- They were midwives who were Hebrews = Israelites.
If Shifrah and Puah were Egyptians, then it’s extra remarkable that they disobeyed Pharaoh to save the Israelite babies.
If they were Israelites themselves, could they even have been characters we know from elsewhere? There are two common suggestions (Sotah 11b):
- Shifrah was really Yokheved (Moshe’s mother)
- Puah was really Miriam (Moshe’s sister) or Elisheva (Aharon’s wife).
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