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torah

Shemot

Shemot, formally begins the second book of the Chumash (the Pentateuch), known in English, as the Book of Exodus. The Midrash, the legendary interpretation of the Bible, records that Pharaoh that a Hebrew male child will soon be born in Egypt who will redeem the Israelites from slavery and destroy Egypt. The Egyptian also inform Pharaoh that the Hebrew savior’s downfall will be through water.

Determined to save Egypt, Pharaoh decrees, Exodus 1:22: כָּל הַבֵּן הַיִּלּוֹד, הַיְאֹרָה תַּשְׁלִיכֻהוּ, “Every male child who is born, shall be cast into the river!” Notice the brutal wording of the decree! Typical of virulent anti-Semites, the paranoid Pharaoh, decrees that “every male child”–even Egyptian male children, shall be cast into the river. Pharaoh is willing to sacrifice even the Egyptian children, as long as he rids Egypt of the Jewish children.

In order to save the infant Moses, his mother, Yochevet, places him in a reed basket in the river as his sister stands by to see what will be the child’s fate. Pharaoh’s daughter, (the Midrash tells us that her name is Bithya , who is bathing in the river, finds the child, and rescues him. Seeking a nursemaid for the child, she unwittingly delivers him to the child’s sister, Miriam, who gives him to his mother, Yocheved, to care for him until he is weaned.

Who is this child Moses, and how does he merit to become the savior of Israel? For insight into these questions, we might approach Steven Spielberg, and question him regarding his creative rendition of the “Prince of Egypt.” I suspect, however, that we would do far better by consulting our traditional Jewish sources.

The Midrash says that when Moses was about two years old, he was sitting on his adoptive mother, Bithya’s lap, next to Pharaoh, his adoptive grandfather. Attracted by Pharaoh’s glimmering crown, the infant Moses reaches up, removes the crown from Pharaoh’s head, and places it on his own head. The Midrash says, that one of Pharaoh’s court advisors, Bilaam (the same Bilaam who eventually tries unsuccessfully to curse the Jews), cries out that the child’s actions prove that he is determined to destroy the Egyptian monarchy and that the child must be put to death. Bilaam suggests that the Egyptian wise men be consulted to render judgment. Says the Midrash, the angel, Gabriel, disguised as an Egyptian soothsayer, (other versions maintain that it was Jethro), suggests that the child be tested by putting both a beautiful shiny onyx stone and a hot coal in front of the child. If the child chooses the onyx stone, it will indicate for certain that the child wishes to usurp the royal throne.

While the child naturally is attracted to the glimmering stone, the angel Gabriel redirects the child’s hand to the coal, singeing Moses’ fingers. The child instinctively places the coal to his mouth, burning his lips, which accounts for Moses becoming a stutterer and slow of speech.

The Torah informs us that when Moses eventually flees from Egypt to Midian, he becomes a shepherd of Jethro’s flocks. The Midrash relates that God sees how lovingly Moses tends to the sheep, especially one little sheep who runs away to fetch water. The Al-mighty consequently chooses the kindhearted Moses to be the shepherd of His flock, Israel.

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