Archive for ‘Aharon | Aaron’

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January 24, 2012

Pharaoh Pleads with Moshe, part I

by Digital Maggid

Inmitn di nach, di nach fun makes-bkhoyres, hot zikh der kenig oyfgevekt funem kol fun di geshrayen vos hobn aroysgebrekhn fun yedn mitsrayishn hoyz. In the middle of the night, the night of the plague of the first-born, the king was awakened by the screaming voices that broke out from every Egyptian household. His servants told him about the death that prevailed in the houses of Egypt. Pharaoh gathered his servants and said to them: “Every time when Gd has afflicted us, I’ve called Moshe and Aharon and asked them to pray for us and the plague has ceased. But last time Moshe was in my palace, I got very angry with him and drove him out and forbade his entrance into my palace. Therefore, if I want the plague to stop, I must go looking for him myself and beg his mercy so that he might pray to his Gd and the death-curse might be lifted from us.”

Pharaoh and his servants left immediately with all the Egyptian ministers and together they set out to look for Moshe and Aharon. The king and his ministers, who had never been to the houses of the Jews, did not know where Moshe and Aharon lived. Jewish children, who saw the king and his frightened servants, made fun of the king and wouldn’t say where Moshe lived. They purposely fooled them so that might run from house to house looking for Moshe.  The king poured out his wrath on his ministers and servants and ordered many of them to be killed, claiming that had not allowed him to free the Jews from the land of Egypt, therefore he was in danger of being killed.

Meanwhile, Moshe and Aharon were celebrating the holiday of Pesach (Passover). They had eaten the lamb they had shekhted (ritually slaughtered), they had drunk wine, they had sat with purpose and praised Gd.

In the middle of the celebratory feast, Moshe heard Pharaoh calling to him with supplications. Moshe asked through the window: “Is this how a king behaves? Leaving his palace in the middle of the night looking for people?” The king answered: “I come to you so that you will plead with your Gd to be merciful to me and my people, for we will all be dead soon.” Moshe said to the king: “I can’t leave my house on this guarded night.” Pharaoh asked to speak with Moshe and he approached the window and from there, Pharaoh’s daughter said that she had come with her father to look for Moshe: “Don’t you remember the great kindness I did for you when you were a baby in a basket on the river? I saved your life and raised in my own home and now you bring such trouble on my father?” Moshe replied: “Ten plagues has Gd brought upon the Egyptians and not one of them has affected you, because Gd remembers the kindess that you have shown me.” Pharaoh’s daughter said: “I have, indeed, not been effected until now. But it does me woe, seeing as my people and my brothers suffer.” Moshe said to her: “I have clearly warned your father before every plague that he would receive a severe punishment if he did not listen and obey what the Gd of the Jews said. Your father did not listen to me, he did not obey me. Therefore, the whole nation has been punished.”

Pharaoh, who heard his daughter speaking with Moshe and knew that Moshe was right, said to him: “All that you have said has come to pass. This time you’ve said that the first-born of Egypt shall die, and now I see that almost all the Egyptian people are dying.” Moshe answered him: “Only one possibility remains for you, if you would save your people from death. Go out into the streets of the city and shout with a loud voice to all the Jews and them to leave this land immediately — they and their wives and their sons and their daughters together with all of their possessions.”

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January 22, 2012

Locusts – Arbeh

by Digital Maggid

The Plague of Locusts

Before the plague of locusts, the eighth plague that Gd brought upon the Egyptians, Moshe and Aharon were not detained for long in Pharaoh’s palace. The king had called them on account of his frightened servants who said to the king: “How long will we suffer on account of the Jews? Send them to the place they want to go. Let them serve their Gd, for in the end we will die and in the end the whole country will be annihilated if you don’t do their will.”

When Moshe and Aharon came to him, Pharaoh said: “I agree that you should leave Egypt to make sacrifices to your Gd, just tell me who all is leaving.” Moshe answered: “We’re all going. Old and young, women and children, and also we are taking our sheep and cattle.”

“Why are you taking the children too?” Pharaoh asked. “They obviously don’t make sacrifices. If the children are going too, does that mean you won’t be returning to Egypt? The men are allowed to go, but if they leave their wives and children in Egypt, then I will know that they will return.”

Moshe and Aharon did not agree to Pharaoh’s words. The king was angry and his advisor, the wicked Bil’am, said that the brothers should be driven out of the palace. The king, who saw that his honor would be tarnished by their not having listened to him even though he did concede to permit the men to leave,  did as Bil’am advised and drove Moshe and Aharon out of the palace in shame.

In the plague of locusts, Gd showed the Egyptians “measure for measure.” Pharaoh had ordered the Jews to plant vineyards and orchards and to sow their grain in Egyptian fields. Therefore, all different species of locusts came and ate up all that the Jews had sown and planted with their hard, crushing labor.

Hashem Yisboroch (Gd) said: “The Egyptians wanted to annihilate the Jews who are ‘Gd’s army’ so they shall suffer from locusts, which are like a great army that annihilates everything.”

The locusts covered the entire country of Egypt and ate up what little remained after the plague of hail that destroyed the fields and the gardens. The many bugs in the plague of locusts also bit the people and touched their eyes, making them blind. There was a great famine in Egypt after the plague of locusts, because there was nothing left in the fields, nothing worth eating.

After seven days the locusts amazingly disappeared. Even the bugs that the Egyptians had caught and put in jars to eat suddenly vanished, so that the Egyptians derived no benefit from the plague.

During the plague of locusts, the Jews saw the difference between Hashem Yisboroch (Gd) and a flesh-and-blood king. A flesh-and-blood king who goes out to a battle has to have a lot of money and food and drink for his solidiers who go with him to distant places to wage war, as opposed to Hashem-Yisboroch (Gd) who took locusts for his soldiers, creepy-crawlies that devoured and needed no food or drink. With an order from Gd they came to the place where he said they should go and they did his will.

Soldiers of a flesh-and-blood king can succeed when they fight on level ground, but on hills and walls they do not succeed in climbing and waging war. The locusts, Gd’s army, were up on the hills, they climbed on high walls, they entered houses through windows and they easily reached every place, to carry out the will of the Creator.

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January 20, 2012

The Ten Plagues

by Digital Maggid

Hashem brought ten plagues upon Pharaoh and his people. He knew that of the plagues, from the first to last of them, it would be the last plague, the plague of the first-born, that would have Pharaoh immediately letting the Jews leave his country. Yet because Hashem wanted to punish the Egyptian people with much punishment and show the people of the world his power and his might, he did not bring the plague of the first-born to begin with, but started out with lighter plagues and from time to time pressed them so that they suffered more and more until they submitted fully and sent the Jews out of their land.

The ten plagues that came upon the Egyptians were like a serious war that is waged between a powerful king and his people who have disobeyed him. This is comparable to a flesh-and-blood king who has an uprising leveled against him. First, he sends his army to surround the state and stop up the water wells. After that he frightens the rebels with shofar (horn) blasts and the shooting of arrows at them. If they don’t give up, the king comes at the head of a great and powerful army and kills  their animals, pours scalding matter on them, throws heavy stones at them, fights with them with a powerful army, detains and jails them until he orders the capture of the main rebels and kills them.

The moral of this is: Hashem Yisboroch (Gd), the great king, set out to humble the Egyptians, the people who did not listen to his orders. In the beginning Gd transformed the waters in Egypt to blood. In the plague of the frogs, he made them hear powerful and frightening voices.   The plague of lice was like stabbing arrows. The plague of wild animals and the plague of pestilence killed off the animals of Egypt. The plague of boils burned them like kerosene. The plague of locusts was like soldiers who obliterated the fields and gardens. The plague of darkness was like captives being locked up in jail. And finally the plague of the first-born, which had the most significant impact of all.  Pharaoh, who was a first-born, was afraid that he would be killed and therefore quickly sought out Moshe and Aharon and begged them to leave his land along with all the Jews.

 

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January 19, 2012

Signs and Wonders for Pharaoh

by Digital Maggid

In order to show Moshe and Aharon that in his land there were greater sages than they, the king, Pharaoh, sent for the magician Bil’am and all the magicians of Egypt. Bil’am, who had heard that Moshe and Aharon had entered the Pharaoh’s palace and that the ferocious beasts had not attacked them, thought that the brothers were magicians too, and he said to Pharaoh, let’s call on them to prove their powers of magic.

Moshe and Aharon came into the Pharaoh’s palace holding their wonderful staffs. Also this time, they entered the palace accompanied by Gd’s angel and none of the guards who saw them standing by the entrance of the palace succeeded in detaining them.

Moshe and Aharon stood before the king, before his important noblemen, and before Bil’am, the greatest of magicians, and they cried out loud and strong: “When a friend comes as the guest of his fellow, he generally merits a being treated well. The people of our nation, the Israelites, came here many years ago as good friends. Your ancestors treated them beautifully. As opposed to you, who works them at crushing labor, and you make slaves out of wealthy and honored men. Therefore, our Gd has sworn to bring upon you trouble and plagues like he has never before brought upon any nation of the world. You, who calls yourself “crocodile” and “almighty,” you should know that you will be humiliated and beaten to the ground.”

The king was not frightened by the words of Moshe and Aharon and said to them: “So that I might believe you, give me a sign that Gd has sent you.” Aharon threw his staff on the ground and it transformed into a snake.

The king laughed and said mockingly: “You think that such a sign will frighten me? Does such a sign demonstrate the power of your Gd? Even Egyptian school children can do that for me, making a staff become a snake!”

The king immediately ordered his magicians to do what Aharon had done, and they threw their staffs which they were holding, and all of them became snakes.

When Moshe saw this he said to the king: “I have seen what your learned ones have done. I mock you not, nor do I mock them. But I say to you that what men can do cannot be compared to what Gd can do.” Aharon’s staff, which was lying on the ground in the form of a snake, immediately sprang up and gobbled up the snakes that the magicians had made with their magic. Bil’am the magician said to Moshe: “Your snake has indeed gobbled up our snakes, but that’s nothing special because it is usual for snakes and crocodiles to eat one another. Let us see if you are able to transform the snake you made back into a staff, and we will transform the snakes into staffs also, and then we will see if your staff is able to gobble up our staffs. Moshe agreed. Aharon’s snake became an ordinary staff and the snakes of the magicians also became staffs. Gd did a miracle and Aharon’s staff gobbled up all the staffs and remained in its previous form without any change. Seeing this wonder, the king got frightened and feared that the staff might gobble him up along with the throne he sat on. But the evil Bil’am did not give up and was not afraid. He promised the king that he would protect him from the Gd of the Jews and make sure that he would not have to free the Jews or let them leave Egypt.

 

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January 18, 2012

Moshe Brings the Jews’ Complaints before Gd

by Digital Maggid

Moshe, who saw how much the Jews were suffering, said to Gd: “Since the time I first came to the Jews and brought the news of the redemption, not only haven’t I helped them, but on the contrary, their days have become difficult and terrible. I know and believe that in the future, they will rejoice, but meanwhile, many of them are dying under the stones and the walls that they are forced to build.”

Moshe’s words were not pleasing in the eyes of Gd and he said to Moshe: “Avrom, Yitzik and Yakev, your holy fathers, did not question my actions even when they did not see their logic.” Avrom Avinu (Abraham our Father) had to buy a plot in order to bury his wife Sarah, and he did not argue with Hashem (Gd) that the entire land was promised to him, that it was his, and why must he pay money for a little tiny plot? When the shepherds of the king of Gerar stopped up the wells that Yitzik Avinu (Isaac our Father) had dug, neither did he say to Gd  that in the land that belonged entirely to him according to Gd’s pledge, he had not even one well to drink from. Likewise, Yakev Avinu (Jacob our Father), when he had no place to pitch his tent until he bought a small plot, did not even mention to the Creator the pledge he had promised to him in Haran that the whole land on which he lay was his forever, and why should he have to buy a plot on which to pitch a tent for himself and his family?.

Contrary to them, Moshe Rabeinu (Moses our Teacher), who was worthy of a revelation through the burning bush, immediately started with questions: What is the name of Hashem Yisboroch (Gd)? Why were the Jews worthy of leaving Egypt? How would they exist in the desolate wilderness? And finally, when he agreed to announce the news to the Israelites about their pending liberation, he comes to Gd with complaints and says that the Jews’ situation is worse than it was before he came to them. Nevertheless, Hashem Yisboroch did not get annoyed with him and again promised to take the Jews out of Egypt with a mighty hand, bring them to the wilderness, give them the Holy Torah and do miracles and wonders for them on the merit of their holy fathers to whom he promised that their children would be like the sands of the sea.

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January 17, 2012

The Selflessness of the Jewish Police

by Digital Maggid

Thereafter, when Moshe and Aharon left the Pharaoh’s palace, the king remained in the palace, infuriated and worried. He called his servants and ordered them to toughen the work of the Jews by not providing them with the straw to make the bricks. They themselves needed to find the straw on their own power, the king ordered, and after that, to make the bricks and then to build houses and palaces with them.

From that time on, the lives of the Jews in Egypt became more difficult and bitter. They suffered greatly from having to find straw. The Egyptian farmers would severely beat and injure them when they encountered them looking for straw. The unfortunate Jews spent the greater part of the day and they did not have enough time left for making bricks and for building. The Egyptian supervisors counted the number of bricks that the Jews succeeded in making and when the required number was not met, they were severely beaten. So that the Jews would not have even an hour’s rest, and so that they could not think about the pending redemption, Pharaoh ordered the nullification of the rest days on which they’d had Shabbos (the Sabbath).

The responsibility for carrying out the hard work was placed on the Jewish police. They had to report the Egyptian supervisors which of the Jews tried to rest a little and which did not keep up with their quotas. Those police officers who were Jewish sympathizers and knew what a cruel punishment would be given to a Jew whose name was reported to the supervisor decided to keep quiet and not say anything about the weaker Jews who rested a bit and were not capable of doing the crushing labor. Therefore the police were severely punished for every brick they were short, and for every wall that wasn’t finished on time they were beaten with great cruelty. On the merit of police officers’ selflessness, for receiving blows in their brothers’ stead, they merited to become the elders and leaders of the people and that the holy spirit might rest upon them.

The Jewish police, who were suffering greatly, went to pharaoh to ask him to ease their work. With broken hearts and lamenting they asked the king: “Why does the king oppress the Israelites so? What have our people done that they must work such crushing labor? In the beginning, we had to make bricks. Now we also have to gather straw. From where are we to gather so much straw? The work is so hard we can’t do it. We beg you to remember, our lord the king, that we have a mighty Gd, and if you don’t show mercy on us, on the people of our Gd, you will be severely punished, your kingdom will be taken away from you and given to another.”

The words of the police infuriated the king, and not only didn’t he listen them but increased the work of the Jews. The police were driven out of the palace and ordered to work and to furnish a greater number of bricks every day.

Because he had dealt with them cruelly, Pharaoh was punished with ten plagues that Hashem Yisboroch (Gd) brought upon him. The Egyptian people were also punished with the plagues because they too had oppressed the Jews by mocking them and driving them out of their fields in disgrace  and beat them severely as they looked for straw.

Moshe our teacher saw the great troubles that were coming upon his people and from the time that he preached to them of the redemption he had great sadness. So that he could be with his people the whole time to help and empower them, he sent his wife and their children back to Midian so that he could devote himself completely to the Israelites.

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January 17, 2012

Moshe and Aharon Stand before the Pharaoh, part II

by Digital Maggid

Hashem Yisboroch (Gd) heard the apostatical words of Pharaoh and said: “Because the king of Egypt has spoke such audacious words against me, there will come a day when he will call out to his people: ‘Gd is righteous and I am wicked!’ and on that day the king will beg Moshe to leave his land together with the Israelites.”

Every time that Hashem wanted to appear to his prophets and speak to them, he would do so in a pure place where there was avoda-zorah (idol worship), but in the case of the evil Pharaoh who would not acknowledge the existence of Gd and that the Oybershter (Gd) is all-capable, Hashem told the angels that he was going down to speak to Moshe in Egypt even though the land was impure and full of idol-worship, so that Pharaoh and his servants could see the greatness of Moshe and the greatness of the Gd of Moshe, Hashem Yisboroch.

To what can the Jews in Egypt be compared? To a precious thing left with a guardian. When the owner comes to retrieve the item, the guardian doesn’t want to give it back. The owner gets angry and punishes him and overpowers him and takes his possession back. Likewise did Hashem do — he gave his people, Israel, over into the hands of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. When the years of slavery ended, he wanted Pharaoh to liberate the Jews from his land. And when Pharaoh didn’t want to, he got severely punished and Jews fled Egypt with a mighty hand.

The end.

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January 16, 2012

Moshe and Aharon Stand before the Pharaoh, part I

by Digital Maggid

Pharaoh sat on his glorious royal throne and around him were 70 wise men who spoke 70 languages. A great fear fell upon the wise men of the king as they saw Moshe and Aharon, who had the appearance of angels. They had grown as tall as cedar trees, their eyes shone like stars and their faces were as bright as the sun. Moshe held his wonderful staff in his hand, on which was engraved the name of Gd and from which flickered a flaming fire. The magnificent appearance frightened the noblemen and everything they held in their hands fell to the ground and they bent down and bowed to Moshe and Aharon.

The king was very angry about the honor that the noblemen showed to the two men who had entered the palace with chutzpah and without permission. He asked Moshe and Aharon with great excitement: “Who are you and who sent you?”

The brothers replied: “Gd of the Jews sent us to you, and he wants you to liberate the Jews to go out into the midbar (wilderness) so that they can make sacrifices to their Gd, because for many years they have been in your land and have not served their Gd.” Pharaoh answered them: “I do not agree to this desire and I will not send the Israelites from my land.”

Moshe and Aharon said to him: “Send them for your own good and do the will of our Gd before he gets angry brings troubles and suffering on your people.”

Pharaoh was angry and said: “Who is Gd that I should obey him? I know him not, nor have I ever heard his name. It is enough that he has not sent me a gift for my birthday, but now he comes to me with demands and orders. I will not listen to him. When he has begged me for a couple of days to free a portion of my slaves I will do so, but for a numerous people that works day and night for me, I will never free them to leave my land.”

The king saw that the two brothers were not frightened by his words, but on the contrary, they opposed him immediately with bright faces, the king became frightened and told them that he was going to his library to look up the name of their Gd, because there in the library there was written the names of the gods of all the nations. The king descended his throne and looked in all the books for the name of the Gd of Israel amongst the names of the wooden and stone gods of the nations. Moshe said to Pharaoh: “I knew that you would not find the name of our Gd in your books because he is not like the other gods. He is the Gd of Truth and the King of the World, and it would not be to his glory for him to be mentioned with the gods of nothingness and foolishness.”

Pharaoh asked the brothers: “What does your Gd look like? is he young or old? how many countries does he rule? with whom has he waged war? whom has he conquered and how many lands has he taken over?

The brothers answered: “The power of our Gd fills the whole world. His voice is heard from one corner of the world to the next. With his voice he can smash mountains and break cliffs. His throne is in heaven and his footstool is the earth. Heaven and earth were created by him with the word of his mouth. He lets the rain fall and he nourishes the earth. He brings death and gives life and there is nothing higher than him.”

Hearing this, Pharaoh became angry and shouted at them: “You are liars! I am the lord of the world. I created the Nile and there is none greater than me!”

 

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January 15, 2012

Moshe and Aharon in Pharaoh’s Palace

by Digital Maggid

Moshe, Aharon and the elders of Israel went to Pharaoh’s palace. As they approached the palace the elders became frightened of the many guards around the palace. They remembered the harsh punishment the Jews had received when they tried to disobey the king’s orders, they were very fearful and did not want to enter the palace with the brothers. Because of their turning away from this mission, the elders would be punished at Mt. Sinai when Hashem Yisboroch gave the Torah to the Israelites. The elders did not ascend Mt. Sinai but stood like everyone else at the foot of the mountain.

The day that Moshe and Aharon went in to see Pharaoh was Pharaoh’s birthday. The kings of many lands came to see him that day and brought many expensive gifts to bless and give honor to the king on his important day.

The palace guards told the king about two brothers who wanted to enter the palace. The king, who thought that they had also come in honor of his birthday, asked his servant if those who had come had brought gifts. The servant replied that they had come empty-handed.  The king became angry and prohibited their entrance into the palace. The brothers paid no attention to the king’s orders and approached the palace gates without permission. A big wall surrounded the king’s palace, and there were 400 gates in the wall and at every gate there were wild animals: Bears, lions and tigers, who devoured whoever dared to approach the gates without the king’s permission.

As Moshe and Aharon approached the gate in the wall a miracle happened: the wild animals did not attack them, they bent down and licked their feet. Pharaoh’s servants were dumbfounded and astonished by what they saw. Never before had wild and vicious animals licked people’s feet like dogs that rejoice when their master returns. They were petrified with fear and could not move.

Moshe and Aharon entered the palace without obstacle. When the king saw them, he knew that a great miracle had happened to the two men who stood before him. His great anger he poured out on his servants, the guards. The claims of the guards that the two had entered the palace by means of a miracle did not help. The king did not believe them and ordered them to be killed.

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January 15, 2012

Cruel Advice & Midwives’ Reward

by Digital Maggid

Bil’am’s Cruel Advice

The king sent for his two advisors, Yitro (Jethro) and Iov (Job), to give him advice on what to do with the Israelites, in order that they not bring ruin on the land of Egypt.

The first to speak to the king was Yitro, the priest of Midian. He spoke thusly: “If the king will hear my advice, he should release the Jews and not oppress them, for I know that they have a great and powerful god who has chosen them from all peoples and whoever does harm and troubles his people will be punished to the end. Have you not heard, my lord the king, about the injury and illness of the Egyptian king many years ago when he took Sarah, Abraham’s wife? And Abimelech, the king of Gerar, was punished because he took Sarah. And on the slaves of Abimelech who stopped up the wells of Yitsik (Isaac), Abraham’s son, Gd brought a famine, a severe shortage affected the fruits of the field. And not only that, but when they begged Yitsik to forgive them and they begged him for mercy, Yitsik prayed to Gd for them and the fields once again gave their fruit. Also for Yakev (Jacob), Yitsik’s son, the Gd of the Jews did miracles and wonders. He saved him from  his brother Esav (Esau) and from his uncle Laban, who wanted to kill him. My lord the king,  please remember that your father’s father honored Yosef, Yakev’s son, and made him great. He was more intelligent and clever than all the Egyptian nobels and saved the residents of Egypt from famine. Don’t forget that your elders were the ones who invited the Jews into our land and gave them the land of Goshen to dwell in. Therefore, my advice is: Don’t do any harm to the Jews. And if you wish them not to be here in this country then send them back to Canaan where they came from.”

Yitro’s advice was not pleasing in the eyes of Pharaoh. He got angry with Yitro and drove him back to Midian in shame.

Then came the second one who spoke to the king and said: “I know not what to do with this people, you are the king, and all the residents of Egypt are in your hands. Do with them what you will.”

The king called Bil’am and said to him: “Now we will hear what you have to say!” Bil’am said to Pharaoh: “It’ll be very hard to annihilate this special people. From every encounter and misfortune they are saved with the help of their Gd. If you want to destroy them by fire, you won’t be able to because their father Abraham was saved from fire when he was thrown into the burning lime oven; You won’t be able to go after them with a sword — their father Yitsik was saved from the sword when he went to the Akeidah (the binding of Isaac); if you want to decrease their numbers by crushing labor, that won’t work either – Yakev worked hard for Laban for many years and became rich had many children. Therefore, my lord the king, there’s only one advice I can give: the king should give an order that every child that is born to the Jews be thrown into the water.” This advice was pleasing in Pharaoh’s eyes, and he thought: “The Gd of the Jews will not punish the Egyptians with water, for he already promised Noach (Noah) that never again would there be a flood upon the earth.”

But Pharaoh was mistaken in this notion. Gd really did swear that there would not be a flood, but he could drown them in the sea. And he did just that — he drowned them in the Sea of Reeds.

When the Egyptians were drowned it was the realization of the adage: “In dem tog vos zey hobn gekokht zenen zey  aleyn gekokht gevorn” (on the day that they cooked, they themselves were cooked). They drowned the Jewish children in the water and therefore, they were drowned in the Reed Sea. In the manner in which they despised the Jews, Gd despised them.

The Reward for the Midwives’ Self-sacrifice (part i)

In order to annihilate the Jews according to Bil’am’s advice, the king ordered the Jewish midwives, Yocheved and her daughter Miryam, to be called in, and he said to them: “From today on, when you help a Jewish woman to birth a child, you must pay attention. If the child is a girl, you can leave her with her mother, and if the child is a boy, you are obligated to kill him.”

Deep in his heart the king feared the Gd of the Jews, so he wanted to cast upon the midwives the execution of the death-sentence, so that they would be punished  and he would go free. The king did not order the Jewish girls to be killed. He thought: “The Egyptians can marry them and they won’t know that they are Jews.”

The midwives were shaken when they heard the king’s words and they tried to refuse  to carry out the cruel order. But the king wouldn’t let them go before confiding: “If you do not carry out my orders to the letter, I will burn you and your houses.

Miryam, Yocheved’s daughter, was at that time a young girl. When she heard the king’s words she went up to him without fear and said: “Woe to you, cruel king! For ordering the killing of young children who have not sinned, may Gd judge you according to your evil acts and annihilate you from the earth!”

The king was furious with the fresh girl and wanted to punish her. But Yocheved  quickly went to him and begged him to have mercy on her child who had no evil intention when she uttered such pointed words to the king. The king forgave her and sent her out of the palace, along with her mother. From then on the Jews called Miryam “Puah” from the word “L’hopi’a” (to appear), because she appeared before the king and spoke to him with courage. And Yocheved was called “Shifra” from the word “L’shaper” (to beautify), because beautified the words of the her daughter and them, saved Miryam from a terrible punishment.

The midwives left the king’s house with great concern and said to each other: “Our father Abraham was a hospitable person and he strove to do good by every passerby, but we, not only do we have no possibility of doing as he did, but now we must kill little children?! We won’t do it.  It would be better for us to die than to do such a frightening thing as the king has ordered.”

The midwives decided not to listen to the king’s order. They strengthened themselves in faith and helped all the laboring women they could. From that day the midwives exerted themselves in their work more than ever. Shifra bathed every child with great love and Puah rocked them and sang to them so that they would not cry and the Egyptians would realize that a Jewish child had been born in the house.  They also brought food for the women in labor and cared for the poor women and did good by them and the children they had birthed. When it happened that children were born with defects or illnesses, the midwives prayed to Gd to cure the children. Hashem (Gd) listened to their prayers and fulfilled their request. The Jewish midwives’ reward was great: Yocheved merited to have two sons who were tsadiks — Moshe (Moses) Rabbeinu (our teacher), who redeemed the Jews from Egypt, and Ahrn (Aaron) from whom arose the kohanim (priests) and the Levites who served Gd in the Holy Temple.

(to be continued)

 

Posted in Aggodos | Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Agodes, Aharon | Aaron, Moshe | Moses, Shemos, Yocheved | Leave a Comment »

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