Drash on Shemot 2025
Rabbi Moshe Givental
North Shore Temple Emanuel
The way we usually talk about the story of Exodus and Redemption centers on Moshe Rabbeinu, Moses our Teacher, as our central hero. However, it is the multitude of women around him, and their courageously hopeful choices which actually make freedom possible. Moses’s birth itself would not be possible without the courage of Shifra and Puah, the midwives, who not only dare to defy Pharoah’s decree to murder the Israelite children, but also make up a story to hide their courage from Pharoah. Moses would not have survived long without Yocheved’s (his mother’s) ability to hide him in his first days and weeks, nor without his mother’s cunning and deep insight about the daughter of Pharoah, and her sympathy for the Israelites. Without Batya (Pharoah’s daughter) and her extraordinary willingness to defy the all-powerful and evil decree of her own father (ie. you might think of her as a kind of Hitler’s daughter, working with the Jewish partisans) he would not have survived into adulthood. Nor would not have survived the desert without the love of his Midianite wife, Tziporah. Moreover, it was she who made it possible for him to return to Egypt safe and sound. It was Tziporah’s insight that the mysterious and supernatural attack on the family as they were about to enter back into Egypt could be thwarted by circumcising their son (Exodus 4:24-26). Even more radically, this is in distinction with modern Halakhah which says that it is the father’s responsibility to circumcise his sons. As the Israelites were on their way out of Egypt, wading their way through the life-giving but I also imagine, terrifying, split of the See of Reeds, it was Miriam who took up the timbrel and led the people in song. However, song, is rarely just song. Especially in this case, I think it was an expression of rebellious joy, creativity, and hope in the face of exhaustion, exasperation, and uncertainty. Song gave hope and direction, when all they could do is barely put one foot in front of another.
In all of these cases, and many others expounded throughout midrash, it is the courageous and hopeful choices of these women which actually make our freedom possible. This is not just a lesson about the power of our foremothers and women throughout history, it is a lesson about the power of choice in the face of horrific and seemingly impossible circumstances. Moreover, it is a lesson about the consequences of what we choose to focus on in those stories and how we tell them. This is central to the exodus and surviving any challenge. Afterall, the name of the Egyptian King is Pharoah – which our sages teach can mean Peh-Ra – “destructive speech”, and the word Haggadah itself, means “The Telling.” The way we use our speech, the way we tell the story of what happened and what is happening in this very moment, is vital to our surviving and thriving!
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