Why did Shiphrah and Puah let the boys live?
Was it hard to do? How did they manage?
Some rabbinic commentators thought Shiphrah and Puah were Egyptian and some thought they were Jewish. (Some thought they were Yocheved and Miriam, who would later be Moses' mother and sister.) What difference would it make which they were?
Could you ever imagine yourself acting like Shiphrah and Puah?
(1) A certain man of the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. (2) The woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw how beautiful he was, she hid him for three months. (3) When she could hide him no longer, she got a wicker basket for him and caulked it with tar. She put the child into it and placed it among the reeds by the bank of the Nile. (4) And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would happen to him. (5) The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her slave girl to fetch it. (6) When she opened it, she saw that it was a child, a boy crying. She took pity on it and said, “This must be a Hebrew child.” (7) Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to nurse the child for you?” (8) And Pharaoh’s daughter answered, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. (9) And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will pay your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. (10) When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, who made him her son. She named him Moses, .... (11) Some time after that, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his kinsfolk and saw their labors. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his kinsmen. (12) He turned this way and that and, seeing no one about, he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. (13) When he went out the next day, he found two Hebrews fighting; so he said to the offender, “Why do you strike your fellow?” (14) He retorted, “Who made you chief and ruler over us? Do you mean to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?” Moses was frightened, and thought: Then the matter is known! (15) When Pharaoh learned of the matter, he sought to kill Moses; but Moses fled from Pharaoh. He arrived in the land of Midian, and sat down beside a well.
How do you think Moses' sister, Miriam, felt talking to Pharaoh's daughter?
In Egypt, was Moses an "insider" or an "outsider?"
Why do you think Moses killed the Egyptian?
Do you think he thought he could "get away with it?"
Again, the commentators disagree about Moses killing the Egyptian: Some think he was right to do it and some that he was wrong. What do you think?
Moses eventually came back to Egypt and was God's representative in ending the Jews' slavery. Do you think his youth in today's story prepared him for that job? How?
SHIFRAH, PUAH, YOCHEVED, PHARAOH'S DAUGHTER, MIRIAM, MOSES AND AMERICAN JEWS
We've learned about some of the many American Jews who fought for rights for Jews and for others:
Asser Levy, who fought for the first North American Jews' right to stay here, own property, and contribute to their community;
Rabbi David Einhorn, who fought against slavery;
Clara Lemlich, who fought for workers' (and others') rights;
Will Maslow, who fought for the rights of African Americans and Jews to live where they wanted and attend whatever college they were qualified for;
Michael Schwerner, who fought (and died) for the right of African Americans to vote and not be discriminated against;
Betty Friedan, who fought for women's rights to act and be treated as full, responsible human beings in every area of life;
Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, who fights for the rights of LGBTQ folks, as well as for our democratic rights as citizens.
Do you see any similarities between these modern fighters for rights and the Biblical characters from this Torah portion? In what they did, why they did it, how they might have felt, etc? Any differences?
There was a much, much higher proportion of Jews in the labor movement, the civil rights movement, and the feminist movement than the proportion of Jews in America. Do you have any guesses why that was?