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From: "Yeshivat Har Etzion's
Israel Koschitzky Virtual Beit Midrash"
To: yhe-intparsha@vbm-torah.org
Subject: INTPARSHA61 -13: Parashat Shemot
YESHIVAT
HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH (VBM)
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INTRODUCTION
TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
Parashat Shemot - The
Birth of Moshe
By
Rabbi Michael Hattin
Introduction
Last week, we concluded the Book of Bereishit, which is
primarily concerned with the story of individuals and their
life-long quest to achieve trust in God. The
Book of
Shemot, in contrast, describes the founding of a nation.
Settled in the verdant Delta under Yosef's watchful eye,
Yaacov's descendents promptly establish themselves as a
privileged and prosperous class. Growing in numbers, they
begin to fill the region of Goshen and to expand beyond its
borders. The native backlash, as harsh as it is inevitable,
is not long in coming, for the new Pharaoh who arises after
Yosef's death is quick to initiate
a policy of
disenfranchisement, dehumanization and demonization of the
Hebrew masses.
Able to easily tap into a well-established
Egyptian
tradition of xenophobia, Pharaoh at first acts quietly to
subdue the growing numbers and power of
the budding
Israelite tribe. Adopting insidious methods that would
render any tyrant proud, Pharaoh introduces his policies of
exclusion and oppression incrementally. Thus, the Hebrews
are first pressed into national service, which is only later
followed by more rigorous and severe forms of forced labor.
But alarmed by continuing reports of their
unnatural
increase in spite of his new policies, Pharaoh decides to
curb their numbers by introducing a series of more ominous
and drastic decrees. The midwives are officially informed
that they must surreptitiously slay all male newborns at the
moment of birth. They refuse to comply, however,
thus
performing one of humanity's earliest recorded acts of civil
disobedience. Although failing in his attempt to win over
the righteous midwives to his racist cause,
Pharaoh
nevertheless decides that his policies have finally laid the
groundwork for the public introduction of the most drastic
"solution" of all: "Pharaoh commanded his
whole nation
saying: 'Cast all male newborns into the Nile, but allow the
females to live!'" (Shemot 1:22).
The Child's Anonymous Birth
Against that backdrop of disillusion and despair,
"a man from the house of Levi took the daughter of Levi as his wife. The woman conceived
and gave birth. Seeing that the child was good, she hid him for three months. When she was no longer able to hide him,
she prepared a box ('teiva') of reeds and covered it with a coat of clay and pitch. She put the child in it,
and placed it in the rushes by the banks of
the Nile" (Shemot 2:1-3).
This account of an anonymous Levite couple, as pathetic as it is brief, is the Torah's introduction to the birth of
Moshe.
Commenting on the
narrative's uncharacteristic vagueness concerning the identity of the protagonists, the
Ramban (13th century, Spain) explains:
"The Torah does not mention the name of the man or
of the woman that he took as his wife, for this would have necessitated a listing of their respective genealogies. But for now, the text wishes to focus on the birth of the deliverer, and later it will return to describe his family roots..."
His Mother's Plan to Save Him
Concerning the child's unusual
'goodness' that motivated his mother's desperate plan, the Ramban observes:
"Surely all mothers love their children whether
they are beautiful or not.
Under those tragic circumstances, wouldn't any mother have attempted
to conceal her child to the best
of her abilities? Rather, the child's so-called 'goodness' is a way
of saying that the mother felt something
extraordinary about the situation, as if she knew that
somehow he would be saved. And so she pondered the
matter and formulated a scheme for his rescue" (Commentary to 2:1-4).
In other words, the Ramban detects in
the various
lexical cues of omission and economy, an underlying theme:
although seemingly a birth like all the others, this child
is in fact exceptional, for God has chosen him as
the
instrument for the liberation of his people from bondage.
His mother, who reluctantly releases him down the river so
that he might survive, is only dimly aware of his future
mission, the child not at all. But in the midst of the most
unkind and grim circumstances imaginable, in which a mother
must falteringly surrender the innocent object of
her
maternal love and the precious symbol of a brighter future,
God patiently but obscurely lays the groundwork for the
redemption of His people Israel.
The Box of Reeds or 'Teiva' - Parallels to Noach's Ark
This motif is reinforced by the mother's unwitting use
of the 'box' or 'teiva' as the vehicle for the child's
salvation. As we considered last year (see Parashat Noach,
1999), the Torah utilizes this unusual term to describe a
waterproof craft in only two contexts. The first is the Ark
of Noach within which huddle the remnants of humanity and of
all other life, as the flood waters inexorably rise to
eventually obliterate the earth and its inhabitants. The
second instance is in our Parasha, where the 'teiva' is the
basket of reeds into which the mother tenderly places her
young son.
In biblical Hebrew, an 'oniya' (see Bereishit
49:13,
Devarim 28:68, Yona 1:3, etc.), or rarely a 'sephina' (Yona
1:5) is the term used to describe a sea-going vessel, but
never, barring our context and the one other, a 'teiva.'
What is the structural difference between a 'teiva' and the
vessels described by these other terms? R. Avraham Ibn Ezra
(Spain, 11th century), commenting on Noach's ark, remarks
that the noun "teiva rather than sephina, indicates a craft
that does not have the form of an oniya, and has no oars or
rudder" (Bereishit 6:14). How unusual that the
Divine
Engineer offers such very specific directions to Noach about
the construction of that ark ("Make an ark of 'gofer' wood,
divide it into cells, and cover it inside and out with
pitch. This is how you shall fashion it: three hundred
cubits in length, fifty in width, thirty in height shall it
be. Make for it a skylight, slope its roof to the measure
of a cubit, place the doorway on its side, and make it of
three levels..." - Bereishit 6:14-16) but
neglects to
mention the provision of oars or a rudder, or for that
matter sails!
God's Compassionate Providence
The significance of this glaring omission
is quite
obvious. The lack of oars or a rudder effectively render
the ark incapable of being steered. The rising floodwaters
will bear the craft, but Noach will have no say in what
direction the craft will go or where it will land. Only
God's merciful providence will ensure that
the ark
successfully weathers the torrential floodwaters and lands
intact on safe shores. God is the guiding power who drives
the ark through the churning deep and steers it clear of
mishap.
In a similar vein, when the mother places her
infant
son into his teiva and releases him to the unknown, she is
not simply saving his life by aiding his escape down river.
Her seemingly hopeless gesture,
after all other
possibilities of concealing Moshe have been exhausted,
actually represents an act of great faith. By constructing
this craft for him and allowing it to pathetically float
away from her maternal embrace, she is in fact entrusting
the life of her child to the Merciful God. It is He who
will care for Moshe and lovingly guide him downstream into
the unexpectedly sympathetic arms of Pharaoh's daughter!
Pharaoh's Daughter
"Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile
to bathe, attended by her maidens. She saw the box
among the rushes and sent her maidservant to fetch
it. She opened it and saw the crying infant. Having compassion upon him, she remarked: 'he is a
Hebrew child!'" (Shemot 2:5-6).
How unusual that of all the people
who may have
discovered the newborn, it is none other than a Princess of
Egypt who finds him. Surely the child's
sister, who
protectively hovered at a distance (2:4), held her breath
fearfully, as the Tyrant's own daughter pried off the lid of
the box. But gazing into the blameless face of the crying
infant, her eyes met his and filled with mist, for knows the
cruel fate that otherwise awaits him. Looking across the
abyss that aggressors are wont to quarry between themselves
and the helpless victims whom they have
slated for
elimination, Pharaoh's daughter solemnly resolves
to
preserve the child as her own son.
How ironic indeed that it is Pharaoh's daughter
who
saves the child from certain death, and then raises him
within the protective halls of her own father's palace. How
mightily did Pharaoh attempt to eradicate hope and longing
from the broken Hebrew heart! How menacingly did he wield
the authority of his state to crush them in servitude and
destroy any possibility of their freedom! How brutally did
he implement his nefarious scheme to break their numbers and
their resolve! How incongruous it is, therefore, that the
cruel Pharaoh tenderly raises the future liberator as his
very own grandchild. Like the other details, this one too
emphatically proclaims that a superficial reading of events
ostensibly indicating God's abject absence is in
fact
erroneous, for He is constantly aware, concerned,
and
involved. If it is His will that the people of Israel be
saved, then even the fierce Pharaoh himself, the exclusive
author of their misfortunes, will be divinely recruited to
propel forward the process of their redemption.
The Midrashic Reading
This striking insight was first
affirmed by the
Midrash, commenting on the critical moment when Pharaoh's
daughter first notices the box of reeds in the rushes.
"Pharaoh's daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, attended
by her maidens. She saw the box among the rushes and sent
her maidservant to fetch it." By employing
a slight
interpretive flourish, the Midrash reads the text not as
"she sent her maidservant (AMata) to fetch it," but rather
as "she stretched out her forearm (AMMata) to fetch it."
Commenting further, the Midrash suggests that 'her forearm
was extended by many cubits,' in order to allow her to grasp
the reed box that she spied from afar (see Tractate Sota
12b).
The literal reading that
the Midrash offers,
implausible at best, is secondary to its more profound
implication. The confluence of events that results
in
Pharaoh's own daughter retrieving the doomed infant from
certain death, so that he might instead mature under her
father's aegis to eventually free the slaves, is
so
extraordinary as to be almost inconceivable. It is the
thematic equivalent of the Princess's arm being miraculously
outstretched to take hold of the distant 'teiva.' Both
readings, however, are assertions of the same remarkable
truth:
"I have surely seen the affliction of My people
that are in Egypt...and I will save them..." (Shemot 3:7-8).
The Naming of the Child
Arriving at the scene of the
rescue but without
divulging her identity, the infant's sister offers to obtain
a Hebrew woman to nurse him. Unbeknownst to
Pharaoh's
daughter, the girl summons the infant's true mother, who is
then hired to nurse him!
"The child grew, and the woman
presented him to Pharaoh's daughter who took him as her son. She called his name 'Moshe,' for she said: 'I have drawn him from the water' (MiShitiHu)" (Shemot 2:10).
The probable root 'MaShaH' that constitutes the basis
of the name means to 'draw out,' and by extension 'to remove
from danger.' The child's unusual name is
therefore
indicative of his unusual origins. Pharaoh's daughter drew
him out of the water of the Nile and thus saved his life,
and her compassionate act is forever commemorated by his
name.
Significantly, though, the stated reason for the name
Moshe, namely that he 'was drawn,' speaks of the infant's
passivity. He was drawn out of the water by others and was
not at all the author of his own salvation. This being the
case, his name should have more properly been MaShui, for
this is the passive form of the root. 'Moshe,' in contrast,
is the active form of the root and means not 'to be drawn,'
but rather 'to draw.' The Seforno (16th century, Italy)
perceptively observes:
"his name means 'to draw others out
of distress.' Pharaoh's daughter remarked: 'I have given him
this name to indicate that he will in turn rescue
others, for I saved him from
the waters. Surely his deliverance was accomplished through the agency of
a Higher Power, in order that he might one day
rescue others'" (commentary to 2:10).
In other words, Seforno suggests that Moshe's very name
highlights the sense of mission to which even Pharaoh's
daughter is apparently sensitive.
Conclusion
This week we studied a number of particulars associated
with Moshe's birth, rescue, and early development.
We
traced his propitious birth to the as-of-yet anonymous
parents, saw his mother's valiant attempts to preserve him
from the evil decree, and marveled at how he was eventually
rescued by Pharaoh's daughter. Finally, we considered the
significance of his name. Taken together, all of these
disparate elements were discovered to proclaim the same
fundamental theme of national deliverance being a function
of Divine intervention, as unlikely as the circumstances at
the time seem to indicate. The early part of this Parasha
is therefore about God's selection of Moshe for a special
role. The remainder of the Parasha concerns the corollary
to that principle: that God's will must be animated by human
action in order to be realized. God may have chosen Moshe;
he, in turn, must choose God, by freely accepting
the
destiny that is emphatically declared by his special birth
and unique name.
Shabbat Shalom
YESHIVAT HAR ETZION
ISRAEL KOSCHITZKY VIRTUAL BEIT MIDRASH
ALON SHEVUT, GUSH ETZION 90433
Copyright (c) 1999 Yeshivat Har Etzion
All Rights Reserved
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