At this time of year most women feel as though they are the slaves that came out of Egypt with the never ending Pesach cleaning, cooking and family catering.
We barely get a chance to appreciate the fact that Pesach is one of the most life changing moments in our Jewish history.
And, according to our sages:“In the merit of the righteous women we were redeemed….”
So who were these righteous women and what did they do?
The first girl who showed her female foresight was Miriam, Moshe’s elder sister. When Pharaoh decreed death to all Jewish newborn boys, Amram, the religious leader in Egypt, divorced his wife Yocheved as he did not want to bring children into the world just to see them killed or enslaved.
The rest of the husbands followed his example. It was Miriam who convinced her father that his decree was worse than Pharaoh’s. Pharaoh had only condemned the boys to death whereas her father’s actions meant that there would be no Jewish girls either and therefore no possible future for the Jewish people. Amram accepted the wise words of his 6 year old daughter and remarried his wife, as did all the other men, and a year later Moshe was born.
So how come Moshe and many other Jewish baby boys slipped through the net and escaped death?
That was the question that Pharaoh asked the two Jewish midwives Shifrah and Puah. But they had their answer ready. They explained that the Jewish women were too fit and gave birth very quickly and they usually missed the births and the newborns had disappeared by the time they arrived.
Did they expect Pharaoh to believe them? We don’t know but it’s clear that these two brave women had no intention of carrying out Pharaoh’s murderous decree.
But how long can you keep a baby a secret from the authorities who regularly sent soldiers around the Jewish homes seeking out infant boys? Babies have a tendency to cry without warning and Yocheved knew that if her son was discovered by the soldiers they would kill him instantly so she prepared a waterproof basket and placed him in it on the Nile and prayed that someone would discover him and take care of him.
From the water’s edge, Miriam kept her eye on Moshe in his basket to see what would happen.
We don’t know whether she was terrified or happy when the person who came to the Nile to bathe not far from her baby brother was none other than ‘Bat Pharaoh’, Pharaoh’s daughter.
She realized that the baby was obviously a Jewish child put in the water to save him and she also knew that her father might put her to death if he discovered what she had done, but her immediate reaction was to reach out to the baby to save him. We are told that she was already in the process of converting to Judaism, being intelligent and sensitive enough to understand that her father’s actions towards the Jewish people were wrong.
At Miriam’s suggestion, Moshe was returned to Yocheved to be nursed until he was weaned and then taken to the palace to be brought up. Under Batya’s guidance, Moshe identified with the Jewish people’s suffering, readying himself to be their future leader.
The next woman who saved Moshe’s life was his wife Zipporah. Moshe had aroused G’d’s anger by not performing a brit milah on his son. On his way back to Egypt to redeem the Jewish people, he was almost killed but Zipporah astutely realized why this was happening and quickly took a sharp stone and performed a brit milah on their son, thereby saving Moshe from the death decree.
And it wasn’t only the famous women mentioned by name who were considered righteous.
Pharaoh decreed that the men not return home after work at night but spend the night in the fields, thus putting an end to all marital life among the Israelites. But the women, realizing that this would signal the end of the Jewish people, summoned up all their positivity and optimism, dressed themselves up, put on make up, cooked some food and went out to the fields to visit their husbands.
G-d showed his approval and appreciation of their actions when the Mishkan was being built. Bezalel was told to use the mirrors the women donated to make the copper washstand in recognition of the women’s use of these mirrors to ensure the continuity of the Jewish people.
So while Moshe is the central character in our redemption from slavery, the courageous and creative women of that generation are all recognized for their crucial role.
