The Birth of Moshe
INTRODUCTION TO PARASHAT HASHAVUA
PARASHAT SHEMOT
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Dedicated in memory of
Joseph Y. Nadler, z”l, Yosef ben Yechezkel Tzvi
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The Birth
of Moshe
By Rav
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, Yaakov'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 she 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