Shifra and Puah

(15) למילדות העבריות; the ones who were Jewish.

Shiphrah, This is Yocheved, she is given this second name, because she makes better the birthing process.

Puah. This is Miriam. She is called Puah because she speaks and sings to the baby like a woman who makes the crying baby feel better...Puah meaning one who cries out.

(15) למילדת “to the midwife;” there is a disagreement in the Talmud regarding the identity of these two women. According to one opinion they were Yocheved and her daughter Miriam. According to the second opinion, they were mother-in- law Yocheved, and her daughter-in-law. Elisheva, wife of Aaron. (Talmud Sotah, folio 11) An alternate interpretation: this interpretation takes its cue from the fact that the Torah spelled the word מילדת in the singular mode instead of with the letter ו, seeing that there were two women. According to the spelling there was only a single midwife, Yocheved. Miriam was a teenager not capable yet of acting as a midwife, rather she acted as a bleater, to help the infant cry while still inside its mother’s womb encouraging it to emerge from the womb as fast as possible.

(13) And when the Israelite women conceived, they would return to their homes. When they were about to go into labor, the women would go out into the fields and give birth in the apple orchards, as it is written: "I woke you under the apple [tree]" (Song of Songs 8:5). And the Lord Blessed be He would send an angel from the heavens who cleaned them and made them beautiful, just as a new mother grooms her infant, as it is written: "And as for your birth, on the day you were born..." (Ezekiel 16:4), and He grants them two round cakes, one of oil and the other of honey, as it is written: "And He [God] suckled Him [ The Children of Israel] with honey from the rock..." (Deuteronomy 32:13). And as soon as the Egyptians would become aware of this, they sought to kill them. And a miracle happened, and the cihldren were swallowed up by the earth, and bulls would come and plow the ground above them, as it is written: "Upon my back the plowers plowed" (Psalms 129:3). And once the Egyptians would pass, the infants would rise up from the mud like grass from the field, as it is written: "I have made you grow like the plantlings in the field..." (Ezekiel 16:7) And when the babes grew, they would flock to their homes in great droves, as it says: "And you came in all your finest and dressiest," (Ezekiel 16:7) - do not read "finest and dressiest" but rather "flocked in droves." And when the Lord Blessed be He revealed Himself at the Sea of Reeds, they were the first to recognize Him instantly, as it says: "THIS is my God, and I will praise Him." (Exodus 15:2).

And the king of Egypt said to the Jewish midwives... Rav and Shmuel - one said it was a woman and her daughter and the other said that it was a mother and her daughter in law. The one who said woman and her daughter it is referring to Yocheved and Miriam the one who said woman and her daughter in law is referring to Yocheved and Elisheva. There is a baraita that supports this perspective because there is a baraita that says Shifra is Yocheved. And why is she called Shifra - because she beautified the newborn infant. Another reason, is that Bnei Yisrael were fruitful and multiplied in her time. Puah is Miriam and why is she called Puah because she cried and talked and cooed to the newborn infant in the manner of women who soother a crying infant. Another reason, Puah because she spoke with Ruach Hakodesh and she said in the future my mother will give birth to a son that will save the Jewish people.