Faces on Faith: Six women heroes of Exodus
In synagogues around the word, the weekly Torah readings are now dealing with slavery and redemption in the Book of Exodus. Moses is the human hero of the story, but were it not for the heroic actions of six women, Moses’ never would have gotten as far to Pharaoh’s throne room to demand, “Let my people go!” Let us give these women their due:
– Shiphrah and Puah
Shiphrah and Puah were humble midwives. Pharaoh ordered them to kill every baby boy that emerged from his mother’s womb. The most powerful man on earth – one worshipped as a god — gave them a direct order! The midwives, though, answered to a higher authority than Pharaoh. Their bravery rings across the millennia as an answer to those Nazis’ who claimed they had no choice but to kill Jews. They were only following orders. Shiphrah and Puah teach us we always have a choice. (Exodus 1:15-21)
– Yocheved
Yocheved, Moses’ mother, hid her baby in defiance of Pharaoh’s decree that all Hebrew baby boys be thrown in the Nile. When she could hide him no longer, she placed him in a wicker basket and floated him among the reeds of the Nile. What courage that took, but her gamble paid off! (Exodus 2:1-3) In a memorable Midrashic passage (Shir Ha-Shirim Rabbah 1:3) Rabbi Judah Ha-Nasi hails her as the “Mother of 600,000 because by saving Moses she saved the 600,000 men who left Egypt (Exodus 12:37)
– Miriam
Miriam, Moses’ sister watched the basket from afar. When Pharaoh’s daughter drew it out of the water, Miriam runs to her and suggests the baby’s own mother as its nurse. In so doing she saved her brother’s life. (Exodus 2:4-9)
– Pharaoh’s Daughter
Pharaoh’s daughter defied her father’s decree that Hebrew babies be thrown in the Nile and saved Moses. For this she received the privilege of giving Moses’ his name, and our Sages gave her the name Bit-yah, which means “daughter of the Lord.” (Va-yikra Rabbah 1:3; B, Megillah 13A). (Exodus 2:5-10)
– Zipporah
The final female hero of Exodus is Zipporah, Moses’ wife. She circumcised their son Eleazar when apparently Moses had neglected to do so. (Exodus 4:24-26). Interpreters teach that God would have killed Moses had Zipporah not intervened and circumcised their son!
The heroism of these six women is a ringing response to the claim that women play insignificant roles in the Bible. On the contrary, these and many other heroic biblical women provide wonderful role models for women and men alike to admire and emulate.
Rabbi Stephen Lewis Fuchs is with the Bat Yam Temple of the Islands.