From the Rabbi’s Desk
Rabbi Manes Kogan
920 Franklin Rd. SW Roanoke, VA 24016
Phone: (540) 343-0289
Shemot
The story of the Exodus of Egypt is a very famous one, and even more in these days with the success "The Prince of Egypt".
The Egyptians, according to the first chapter of the book of Exodus oppressed the children of Israel in four steps: first of all they "appointed taskmasters in order to afflict them with their burdens"; then they "embittered their lives with hard work, with mortar and with bricks, and with every labor of the field". As a third step, Pharaoh commanded the midwives to kill the sons of the children of Israel, and finally –when the midwives refused to do his will- he ordered his entire people to throw into the river every son that will be born.
Among all these steps, the least known is the one about the midwives. I guess that the main reason for that is that it doesn't appear in the movies about Moses. Why did Pharaoh call the midwives instead of going directly to his people? Who were these two midwives? Why did they disobey the most powerful man at that time?
As Nahum Sarna points out, "In issuing his decree to the midwives, the king obviously relied upon the ease with which the baby could be killed at the moment of delivery by means not easily detectable in those days".. Any dictator tries to keep his evil plans secret, because secrets can help the plan to succeed, and also because no dictator likes to be "the villain of the movie" even though he is really evil. The Wannsee Conference –for example- in which the Nazis decided to implement the "Final Solution" was kept as a major secret, even though Hitler was still the top of his power.
Who were really these two midwives, Shifrah and Puah ?
Nehama Leibowitz summarizes the issue: "Two contradictory views have been advanced, both championed in Jewish Bible commentary from the earliest times. Rashi, Ibn Ezra as well as Rashbam and Ramban echoing the Talmud maintained that the midwives were Jewish". According to this early tradition, the midwives "belonged to the noble galaxy of Hebrew heroines who risked their lives to save their people". On the other hand, a counter-tradition found as far back as Philo, and supported by the Septuagint, Josephus, Abravanel and Shadal, maintains that the midwives were Egyptians. According to the first tradition, "the phrase: hameialdot ha-ivriyot is to be understood as a noun phrase composed of the nominal meyaldot (midwives) and ha-ivriyot (Hebrew) as a modifier or descriptive of the noun meyaldot". According to the second tradition, the word "ivryiot" is the direct object of the word "meyaldot" and therefore they were Egyptians.
Nehamah Leibowitz, in order to clarify the question, brings the commentary ‘Imrei No'am' that is worthy to be quoted:
"Shifrah and Puah were originally Egyptians...Otherwise how could Pharaoh have ordered them to kill Jews? How could they in the first place have agreed? Surely every Jew is obliged to sacrifice his life rather than commit idolatry, incest or murder". According to the same commentary, "though Pharaoh offered them bribes, they refused to accept them".
For the main stream of Jewish commentators in the Middle Ages (RaSHI, Ibn Ezra, Ramban and Rashbam), and also for the Rabbis in the Talmud, it was very difficult to accept that non-Jewish people could fear God or could be nice toward the Jewish people. And I really don't blame them. Their own experience was full of expulsions, persecutions, torture and murder. Our people in the first century of the common era was massacred, and the same happened during the Middle Ages. I believe that it was this experience which shaped their point of view of the "Goi", the non -Jew. The "Goi" was the incarnation of the evil, and in this scheme, no Egyptian, Roman, Poland, Communist or German can fear God and can be a good person. Generalization helps us to organize reality and to simplify our experience, but can be unjust to the exceptions that justify the rule. Shifrah and Puah in the past, like Oscar Shindler in our days, show us that in each society, no matter how evil the majority is, we can find righteous people, people who fear God and are ready to resist temptation and risk their lives for the principles they believed.
Is not a coincidence that Philo, the authors of the Septuagint, Josephus, Abravanel and Shadal, who lived in more open and assimilated societies, were able to see the midwives as Egyptians. Their experience told them that is possible to find righteous gentiles and their commentary to the Torah, reflects their experience.
To conclude, according to Nehama Leibowitz, "if we accept that the midwives were Egyptian, another and very vital message becomes apparent. The Torah indicates how the individual can resist evil. He need not shirk his moral responsibility under cover of "superior orders". The text contrasts the brutal decrees of enslavement and massacre initiated by Pharaoh and supported by government and people with the godfearing "civil disobedience" of the midwives. Neither moral courage nor sheer wickedness are ethnically or nationally determined qualities. Moab and Ammon produced a Ruth and Naamah respectively, Egypt two righteous midwives".
Shabbat Shalom!