Women of the Exodus

Truly, the women of the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) are given the shortest of shrift. “Wife of…” “Daughter of…” “Mother of…” Few have names, and few are honored in any but the subtlest of ways.

Jews everywhere are, in the annual Torah reading cycle, at the start of retelling the story of the Israelite enslavement in Egypt and eventual exodus. I’m reminded of the amazing, courageous women in the story, and want to share them with you, and their goals and actions that made them both partners with God and heroes of in bringing an oppressed people from freedom from slavery. 

The story begins with the midwives Puah and Shifra. For without them and those like them, the story never happens at all. We don’t know for certain whether the two women were Israelites or Egyptians. We only know they were midwives who refused Pharaoh’s order to kill each male baby born to an Israelite family. We know they assisted with the births of both Egyptian and Hebrew babies, but not whether they, themselves, were Israelites. They, and any others like them, made a dangerous decision to refuse to “follow orders,” doing the right and just thing, rather than the expedient, safe, thing. 

The preeminent Torah commentator Rashi 1040-1105 explained that the name Shifra originates in the Hebrew root m’shaperet, “to beautify” or “to swaddle or cleanse, perhaps to “make things better.” Puah’s name may signify a gentle, soothing way of speech. Both were courageous and, perhaps, saved an entire people.

Then Moses is born, and his mother Yocheved, defying Pharoah’s orders to hand him over and be murdered; instead hides him, until she can no longer can. Miriam, then, as you all know, places Moses in a basket and sends him down the River Nile, where he is found by Pharaoh’s daughter, known as Batya. Batya knew Moses was likely an Israelite baby, yet she took him in and raised him as her own anyway. But her action, quietly defiant, saved Moses for his yet-to-come (co-) starring role in saving the Israelites from slavery. Her name can be translated as “bat yah,” no less than a “Daughter of God,” and in a profound way God’s partner in the redemption of the Israelites from their Egyptian slavery. 

Last, but certainly not least, is Tziporah, Moses’s wife, who saved Moses from God’s wrath while they were encamped on the route to Egypt before the Exodus. 

Miriam, Yocheved, Shifra, Puah, Batya, Tziporah: five women who embody the idea of smart, courageous women, who knew their value and acted upon it when called to do so! As we begin this new chapter in the lives of our ancestors, may we all remember that true bravery in the face of oppression is often subtle, sometimes quiet, very dangerous, and always necessary.