(16) saying, “When you deliver the Hebrew women, look at the birthstool: if it is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.” (17) The midwives, fearing God, did not do as the king of Egypt had told them; they let the boys live.
The Talmud itself tells us that even if a person is told to either kill another person or be killed, that person should give up their lives,and that giving up of life, as sacred as life is, is a sanctification of G-d’s name. There is no excuse to follow orders to take another life, even if one’s own life is at stake.
The midwives knew this instinctively. They were not Jewish. They didn’t obey God's commands. But they knew instinctively that what they were being commanded to do was so very wrong. Their conscience did not allow them to act in such a way.
פּוּעָה, שֶׁהוֹפִיעָה פָּנִים כְּנֶגֶד אָבִיהָ, שֶׁהָיָה עַמְרָם רֹאשׁ סַנְהֶדְּרִין בְּאוֹתָהּ שָׁעָה, כֵּיוָן שֶׁגָּזַר פַּרְעֹה וְאָמַר (שמות א, כב): כָּל הַבֵּן הַיִּלּוֹד, אָמַר עַמְרָם וְלָרִיק יִשְׂרָאֵל מוֹלִידִים, מִיָּד הוֹצִיא אֶת יוֹכֶבֶד וּפֵרַשׁ עַצְמוֹ מִתַּשְׁמִישׁ הַמִּטָּה, וְגֵרַשׁ אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ כְּשֶׁהִיא מְעֻבֶּרֶת מִשְׁלשָׁה חֳדָשִׁים, עָמְדוּ כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְגֵרְשׁוּ אֶת נְשׁוֹתֵיהֶן. אָמְרָה לוֹ בִּתּוֹ גְּזֵרָתְךָ קָשָׁה מִשֶּׁל פַּרְעֹה, שֶׁפַּרְעֹה לֹא גָזַר אֶלָּא עַל הַזְּכָרִים, וְאַתָּה עַל הַזְּכָרִים וּנְקֵבוֹת. פַּרְעֹה רָשָׁע הוּא וּגְזֵרָתוֹ סָפֵק מִתְקַיֶּמֶת סָפֵק אֵינָהּ מִתְקַיֶּמֶת, אֲבָל אַתָּה צַדִּיק וּגְזֵרָתְךָ מִתְקַיֶּמֶת. עָמַד הוּא וְהֶחֱזִיר אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ, עָמְדוּ כָּל יִשְׂרָאֵל וְהֶחֱזִירוּ נְשׁוֹתֵיהֶם. הֱוֵי פּוּעָה, שֶׁהוֹפִיעָה פָּנִים כְּנֶגֶד אָבִיהָ.
There are some who say that Miriam was named Puah, because she expressed her face against her father. When Pharaoh made a decree and said " every male born should be thrown into the river",
Amram said: It is for nothing that the Jews have children. Immediately he left her, and did not have any relations with her, and divorced her when she was pregnant for 3 months(presumably he was not aware of her pregnancy). All the Jewish people then divorced their wives
His daughter said to him: Your decree is harsher than Pharaohs'. Pharaoh only made a decree on the boys, whilst you have made a decree on both the boys and the girls.
Pharaoh is wicked and it is doubtful whether his decree will work out. However, you are righteous and your decrees. Immediately he remarried his wife, and all the Jewish men followed and remarried their wives.
(א) ותפתח ותראהו את הילד, כפילת הכנוי עם הפעל מורה שני דברים, א] שראתה את עצמותו ופנימותו, ב] שראתה את הילד בחיצוניותו, כי הראיה תהיה בשני ענינים, א] ראית החומר שהוא יפה תואר ובריא וחזק, ב] ראית הצורה שראתה בשכלה כי יש בו צורה נשגבה אלהית, ועז"א חז"ל שראתה שכינה עמו. ותחמול עליו, והתבאר אצלי בכ"מ כי יש הבדל בין פעל חמל ובין חוסה ורחמים, שהחמלה תהיה מצד טיב הדבר בעצמותו שאינו רוצה להשחית דבר יקר וטוב, משא"כ חוסה ורחמים הם התפעליות נפשיים יוצאות מרוך לבב לראות בצרת הנדכא שזה גדר הרחמים, או מתועלות שישיג מן הדבר שזה גדר החוסה, ושניהם לא היו פה, רק שהתעוררה שלא יושחת דבר יקר כזה, וכאשר היה חשש שהוא אסופי אמרה מילדי העברים זה שהוא בן כשר נעזב מאבותיו מפני גזרת מלך:
She saw two elements of the child:
- She saw his essence, and
- His external appearance.
She saw the physical form of the child as being beautiful and healthy and strong, as well as seeing the form that she could see within her intellect that he has within him the shape of Godliness within him. This is what our sages mean when they say that they saw the divine presence with him.
She pitied him: It is clear to me that there is a difference between the the words of CHAMAL, CHUSAH and RACHAMIM. CHEMLA (the word for pity used here) is about pitying something for itself, that one would not want to destroy something beautiful, while the other languages of pity (CHUS/RACHAMIM) refer to pity which is emotional when one sees something degraded and wants to take care of it [like an injured bird (ed.)], or pity over something that she could gain from keeping something [e.g. a rare stamp which is overlooked which a person can later sell for a fortune (ed.)]. Her desire to help Moses was purely not to destroy something precious. She suspected he was an evacuee and therefore said that he was from the children of the Hebrews - a good boy who has been forsaken by his parents because of the decree of the king.
Moses was called Yered, because he brought (YARAD) the Torah down to the Jewish people, or because he brought the divine presence into this world...
Avi G'dor: Rav Huna says Moses was the father of the one who provided boundries for the Jewish people.
Moses was called Chever, because he removed punishments from coming from the world.
Avi Socho: Moses was the father of prophets who drew the holy presence of God.
Yekutiel:Because he made the children of Israel yearn towards their father in heaven....
These are the sons of Bitya the daughter Pharaoh.
Rabbi Yehoshua explained in the name of Rabbi Levi: The Almighty said to Bitya: Moses was not your child, yet you called him your son, so too you are not my daughter, and I will call you my daughter...
Moses had all these names, but G-d called him Moses because it came from the daughter of Pharaoh.
The sages added that she was one of the few who were so righteous that they entered paradise in their lifetime.
(1) ויהי לנחש AND IT BECAME A SERPENT — This was an indication to him, that he had slandered the Israelites by saying (v. 1) “But, behold they will not believe me etc.”, and that he had made the serpent’s occupation (slander) his own (cf. Genesis 3:5) (Exodus Rabbah 3:12).
They are believers, as it is written: “And the people believed once they heard that God had remembered the children of Israel, and that He saw their affliction, and they bowed and they prostrated” (Exodus 4:31). The children of believers, as it says with regard to Abraham our Patriarch: “And he believed in God, and He counted it for him as righteousness” (Genesis 15:6). Ultimately, you will not believe, as it is stated: “And God said to Moses and to Aaron: Because you did not believe in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Numbers 20:12). From where do we know that Moses was afflicted in his body? As it is written: “And God said to him further: Bring your hand to your bosom, and he brought his hand to his bosom and he took it out and behold, his hand was leprous like snow” (Exodus 4:6).