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)
