SHEMOT_EXODUS I:1-VI:1

Shemot means names, a nomenclature that emphasizes the importance the Tora attaches to the name of the person or place because it usually reveals some fundamental characteristic. For example, the first man is designated as Adam because he comes from the earth, which in Hebrew is adama. Shemot is the first significant word in the text that begins with the phrase Ve’ele Shemot…

However, in the account of Moshe’s birth, the Tora narrates that a man from the tribe of Levi took a woman from the same tribe and describes how they hid their newborn son for 3 months without mentioning the names of these three characters. Perhaps the intention was to put the magnifying glass on the events, namely that the parents went so far as to place their baby in a basket to navigate the river and find a different destination. 

Apparently, the risk posed by the river waters was preferable to the death sentence ordered by the pharaoh against the male newborns. It is unknown what name the parents gave to this baby because the name Moshe was given to him by Pharaoh’s daughter, whose name is also not mentioned. Several exegetes suppose that the name Moshe is of Egyptian origin because if the Hebrew language had been used, his name should have been Mashui, which means “taken” from the waters. Perhaps the name Moshe does not refer to his rescue from the waters but to his future trajectory, which will be to extract the Hebrew people from Egyptian slavery.

Moshe’s fate was a consequence of the rules the Egyptians imposed to curb the growth of the Hebrew population because they feared that, at the time of an enemy incursion from abroad, the Hebrews would become allies of the invaders. In this sense, Pharaoh enslaved the Hebrews, thinking that forced labor would also slow down procreation since men would be kidnapped most of the time on the grounds where pharaonic constructions were erected. 

Nevertheless, the Hebrews continued to multiply exponentially. According to the Midrash, multiple births were very common. If the only goal had been to slow down Hebrew population growth, eliminating women would have been more efficient. But in the minds of the people of the time, including that of the pharaoh, men represented strength, the members of an army that could join potential invaders.

With the continuous increase in the number of Hebrews, Pharaoh demanded that midwives who cared for Hebrew women kill newborn males immediately after childbirth. But the Tora relates that midwives disobeyed the instruction and thus became the pioneers in flouting a royal command. They claimed that Hebrew women gave birth on their own because they were powerful. Actually, they lied, a fact that deserves to be evaluated: is lying permissible when the survival of the collective is in danger? In any case, their courage was rewarded because, according to the biblical text, they had offspring that would be part of the future leadership of the people. 

Pharaoh did not rest in his attempt to slow the growth of the Hebrews; Moreover, he had been warned by his astrologers that the “savior” of the Hebrews was about to be born. Because of the contempt of midwives or their complicity with the pregnant women, Pharaoh ordered that males be thrown into the river immediately after birth. Moshe’s parents were able to hide the newborn because, according to an ancient tradition, the baby had been born a few months before the gestation period was completed. Unable to hide the baby’s birth anymore, the parents placed the newborn in a basket on the waters of the Nile River.

The biblical account demonstrates the interaction between God and man. The Hebrew people perceived that Etsba Elohim, the “finger of God,” was present in the events. Still, at the same time, we will read a Divine instruction when the danger of the Egyptian hordes that persecuted them after the exodus is warned. God instructs Daber el Benei Yisrael Yeyisa’u, “tell the people to go on the journey.” The people could not rely solely on miraculous events, they had to take the initiative, and they had to go and walk, a fact that comes to light in Moshe’s outstanding leadership.