Parashat HaShavua - Shemot

 וַתִּפְתַּח וַתִּרְאֵהוּ אֶת-הַיֶּלֶד, וְהִנֵּה-נַעַר בֹּכֶה; וַתַּחְמֹל עָלָיו--וַתֹּאמֶר, מִיַּלְדֵי הָעִבְרִים זֶה.(שמות ב:ו)

She opened it and saw a child, crying, and she felt compassion for the child and said, “This must be one of the Hebrew babies.” (Exodus 2:6)

In discussing the book of Shemot, which we will begin to read this Shabbat, Aviva Zornberg has noted: “by contrast with the Genesis saga, the absence of women from the book of Exodus...is quite striking.”  The one breathtaking exception to this unfortunate state of affairs is this week’s parasha, which portrays a chain of female heroes who form a kind of underground railroad to shepherd Moshe safely to his destiny.  As we approach Dr. King’s birthday as well as our school’s celebration of its namesake, we will read a parasha that is populated by women who take risks for justice and can be credited with the first recorded acts of civil disobedience in Western history.  The midwives refuse to comply with Pharaoh’s dictum to kill the male Israelite babies, Pharaoh’s daughter decides to adopt the baby she finds in the reeds knowing full well that he is an Israelite child, and Moshe’s sister bravely speaks up to the princess, arranging for the child to be nursed by his mother.

What enables these women to have such moral clarity about the distinction between משפט (law) and צדק (justice)?    One of the key words in the opening chapters of Shemot is לראות, to see.  Pharaoh instructs the midwives what to do וּרְאִיתֶן עַל-הָאָבְנָיִם -- when they see the children being born.  (The irony is of course that when they see what truly matters, they make a very different choice).  Moshe’s mother makes her desperate attempt to save her child after seeing his essential goodness -- וַתֵּרֶא אֹתוֹ כִּי-טוֹב הוּא.   And Pharaoh’s daughter makes the choice to save the child upon seeing the child crying וַתִּרְאֵהוּ אֶת-הַיֶּלֶד וְהִנֵּה-נַעַר בֹּכֶה.   

Vision, the ability to see clearly, seems to be the critical first step in working towards justice.  When Carl Stern asked Rabbi Heschel what motivated his commitment to the Civil Rights Movement, he responded:  “I was very fortunate in having lived as a child and as a young boy in an environment where there were many people I could revere, people concerned with problems of inner life, of spirituality and integrity.  People who have shown great compassion and understanding for other people.”   Heschel’s memories of his childhood focus on the people in his life who looked beneath the surface, who saw clearly the suffering of other human beings.   In this way, they were like Pharoah’s daughter, who first sees the child crying, then feels compassion,then takes action.   It is vision, the women of Shemot teach us, that is the beginning of redemption.

Rabbi Anne Ebersman
Director of Jewish Programming N-5 and Director of Hesed (Community Engagement) and Tzedek (Social Responsibility)