Passover Babies

(15) The king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, (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. ... (22) Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

[T]he understanding of our sages, ...is that those midwives were from Israel, but the understanding of ... Don Isaac Abrabanel is that they were Egyptian, ...and my dear student, R. Yaakov Chay Pardo, ... adds that since they were from another people it made more sense to say they did this out of fear and not of love, because if they were Jewish what need would there be to remind us that they feared God, since all humans love the children of their own people.

(1) A certain member of the house of Levi went and married a woman of Levi. (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 bitumen and pitch. 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 befall him. (5) The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe in the Nile, while her maidens walked along the Nile. She spied 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 suckle 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.

"...a Hebrew nurse to suckle the baby for you": For many Hebrew women were lactating since many of them had children that had been put to death, explained my late father. An alternative explanation is that she [the nursing woman] would love and care for the baby more, since both he [the baby] and she [the nursing woman] were Hebrews, explained Rosenmueller.

(13) ... Who were the midwives? ...Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman says: ... Yokheved [Moses' mother] and Miriam [Moses' sister].

Miriam was no more than five years old, ...She was called Pu'ah, because she was impudent [hofia panim] toward her father. Amram [Moses' father] was the head of the Sanhedrin at that time. Once Pharaoh issued his decree and said: “Every son that is born you shall cast him into the Nile” (Exodus 1:22), Amram said: ‘Isn’t Israel begetting children for naught?’ Immediately, he separated from Yokheved [Amram's wife] and abstained from sexual relations.

He divorced his wife when she was three months pregnant. So Israel arose and divorced their wives. His daughter said to him: ‘Your decree is harsher than Pharaoh’s, as Pharaoh decreed only against the males, and you, against the males and the females. Pharaoh is wicked and it is uncertain whether his decree will be fulfilled or whether it will not be fulfilled. However, you are righteous and so your decree will be fulfilled.’ He arose and remarried his wife. All Israel arose and remarried their wives. That is Pu’a, who was impudent toward her father.

(4) As for your birth, when you were born your umbilical cord was not cut, and you were not bathed in water to smooth you;. you were not rubbed with salt, nor were you swaddled. (5) No one pitied you enough to do any one of these things for you out of compassion for you; on the day you were born, you were left lying, rejected, in the open field. (6) When I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you: “In your blood, live!" Yea, I said to you: “In your blood, live!" (7) I let you grow like the plants of the field; and you continued to grow up until you became a woman... (9) I bathed you in water, and washed the blood off you, and anointed you with oil.

(1) Now Moses, tending the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, drove the flock into the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

§ The Sages taught in a baraita that Rabbi Yosei HaGelili taught: At the time that the Jewish people ascended from the sea they resolved to sing a song of gratitude to God. And how did they recite this song? If a baby was lying on his mother’s lap or an infant was nursing from his mother’s breasts, once they saw the Divine Presence, the baby straightened his neck and the infant dropped the breast from his mouth, and they recited: “This is my God and I will glorify Him” (Exodus 15:2). As it is stated: “Out of the mouths of babies and sucklings You have founded strength” (Psalms 8:3).

“In full assemblies, bless God, the Lord, you that are from the source of Israel” (Psalms 68:27), indicating that even children that are in the “source,” i.e., their mother’s womb, blessed God when they gathered at the sea. The Gemara asks: But the fetuses could not see, so how could they have honestly said: “This is my God and I will glorify him”? Rabbi Tanḥum says: Their mother’s stomach was transformed for them like luminous crystal [aspaklarya], and they saw through it.