While our Christian brothers and sisters will be celebrating Christmas, Jews around the world will read about the birth of Moses in Parsha Shemot, the first chapters of the book of Exodus. (This happens to be a rare co-incidence, usually the Torah portion is read in January.)
From Shifra and Puah, the midwives who refused to kill the Israelite boys on the birthstool, to the adoption of Moses by the Pharoah’s daughter, this Torah portion and the midrashim which surround it speak to the underlying spirit of In Shifra’s Arms.
Here are a few examples:
One midrash shares that before Moses’ birth, the Israelite men had begun to refuse to sleep with the women. In such despair about their circumstances (being enslaved by the Egyptians) and their future, they believed it was hopeless to bring forth new life. The midrash reports that the Israelite women heroically seduced their husbands- using mirrors to help them see themselves and become aroused. It was crucial to bring new life into the world, even when the world looks dark and hopeless, because in fact that is only a temporary condition. A larger Divine plan was at play- but this plan required bringing new children into the world, one of which would be Moses.
According to another Midrash, when Pharaoh told the midwives to kill all newborn Jewish male babies, he was speaking to the Hebrew midwives Yocheved and Miriam (who were given the names Puah and Shifra). The question arises, why would Pharaoh ask the Hebrew midwives to kill the babies? Why not ask Egyptian midwives to kill the little baby boys instead? The answer is Pharaoh told them: “What kind of life is it anyway to be in poverty and bondage?” Perhaps we can learn from this that the seduction of hopelessness is potentially a greater enemy than any external force.
The third and obvious example is Yocheved’s (Moses’s mother) choice to try to give her child to another woman (the Pharoah’s daughter) rather than allow him be killed. She then acted as a wet-nurse for her own son. Perhaps this is the first example of open adoption? Batya, the Pharoah’s daughter, is given extraordinary stature in the midrash and is one of the few people who was able to enter the World-to-Come without having to die.
In each of these stories, we see that the spirit of the Jewish people is to give birth even in dark circumstances, even when it requires difficult choices (allowing another to raise your child)… We must however offer support to one another to light up dark circumstances, so no one has to travel alone.
But how has our work actually been going? See the next post …
