Parashat Shemot

January 7, 2026

Geri Bloch, Former High School English Teacher

I do not wish to make you nervous, but Pesach is twelve weeks away! You’re going to tell me that we haven’t yet celebrated Tu b’Shevat or Purim, and here I am exclaiming that we are twelve weeks from Passover! So why are we reading Shemot so “early” in the year? 

The Exodus from Egypt is the seminal story of the Jewish people; it is the chronicle of how God takes the enslaved Israelites and turns them into a holy nation. “I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: You shall have no other Gods beside me” (Exod. 20:2-3). This line will be repeated throughout the rest of the Torah; indeed, the words “zachor” and “shamor” from the Aseret Hadibrot (Ten Commandments) remind us that we must honor Shabbat and refrain from doing certain activities on Shabbat because of what Our Creator has done for us: God took us out of slavery. The Book of Genesis gives us the “backstory,” the families, the trials and tribulations of our forefathers and mothers. “But a pharaoh arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph,” or who did not want to know about Joseph, and hundreds of years of slavery ensued.

So, here we are: Parashat Shemot, the parashah of names. The opening to the Book of Exodus seems somewhat misleading, for though it lists “the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob,” this parashah frames the seminal story of the future Jewish nation through the actions of some of the women responsible for the preservation of Moshe’s life.
According to the Torah, “the more they were oppressed, the more they increased and spread out, so that the [Egyptians] came to dread the Israelites” (Exod. 1:12). Pharaoh speaks to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphra and Puah, and tells them that if an Israelite woman has a male child, they are to kill him. They are to let the female infants live. However, these midwives fear God and ignore Pharaoh’s command. The midwives tell Pharaoh that the Israelite women give birth too quickly: “ . . .the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women: they are vigorous. Before the midwife can come to them, they have given birth” (Exod. 1:19). Biblical scholar, Ilona Rashkow, writes in Jewish Bible Quarterly, (2024): “Their [Shiphra and Puah’s] defiance of tyranny is perhaps the Bible’s first recorded act of civil disobedience in defense of a moral imperative.” Pharaoh tells all of the Egyptians to cast male infants into the Nile, which is why Moshe is found in a basket in that river. Pharaoh’s daughter, “Bat Paroh,” finds the baby, and Moshe’s sister, Miriam, who has watched the basket from a distance, asks “Bat Paro” if she should find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child. Moshe is then nursed by his own mother until he is old enough to be raised in Pharaoh’s house.

These few psukkim (verses) are really quite revolutionary. We have five women who have actually allowed Moshe, the one who will reluctantly lead the Israelites through the wilderness, to live. Yocheved, Moshe’s mother; Miriam, Moshe’s sister; Shiphra and Puah, the midwives; and “Bat Paroh” are women of strength who have stood up to the leader of the land, knowing that the child they have saved is an Israelite!

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks z”l discusses how difficult a situation “Bat Paroh” finds herself in: She knows this is a Hebrew child. She is surrounded by maids and her slave-girl, yet she stays the course. This is quite shocking. According to Sotah, 12b: “Once her maidens saw that the daughter of Pharaoh was intending to save Moses, they said to her: ‘Our mistress, the custom of the world is that when a king of flesh and blood decrees a decree, even if all the world does not fulfill it, at least his children and members of his household fulfill it, and yet you are violating the decree of your father.’”

Then, you have Miriam speaking to “Bat Paroh,” a daughter of the king, asking whether she would like a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. A slave speaking to a princess without an introduction, without any formality? How extraordinary! Yocheved, Moshe’s mother, will be able to nurture her own son until he is old enough to live in the palace. And we must not forget that it is “Bat Paroh” who gives this baby his name: Moshe, for as she says, “I drew him out of the water.” Rabbi Sacks continues to demonstrate how unusual this situation is. He uses a midrash in Shemot Raba 1-26 that reveals how “this is the reward for those who do kindness. Although Moses had many names, the only one by which he is known in the whole Torah is the one given to him by the daughter of Pharaoh. Even the Holy One, blessed be He, did not call him by any other name.”

Scholars have questioned whether Shiphra and Puah were Israelites or Egyptians. After reading numerous sources, I remain uncertain, but does it truly matter? You have these two women standing up to a tyrant and ultimately being rewarded for their courage. They feared God more than they feared Pharaoh. Yocheved and Miriam, likewise, had strong spines; Moshe was not a newborn when he was hidden among the reeds in that famous bitumen and pitch-caulked wicker basket. Miriam becomes a fearless warrior for her infant brother when she speaks directly to “Bat Paroh.” We know about this princess’s moral stance. It seems as if in this instance, Pharaoh has been “out-womanned.” Five women have taken on an empire. 

Parashat Shemot mentions “the sons of Israel,” but it is the daughters of Israel who save our greatest prophet, Moshe, from an early death. In twelve weeks, we will understand the truth behind the words, “I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage: You shall have no other Gods beside me,” and remember the women, Shiphra, Puah, Yocheved, Miriam, and “Bat Paroh,” behind the man, Moshe.

Shabbat Shalom.