Audio Summaries of the daily Chumash portions In loving memory of Ousher Zelig ben Myer HaLevi Z”LTo sponsor an episode please visit: https://itistaught.com/support-this-project/To get the daily chumash summaries in your email click here https://substack.com/profile/182692001-sarede-rachel-switzer?utm_source=profile-page.Subscribe on SpotifySubscribe on Apple PodcastsPlease consider leaving a review on the platform of your choice! For comments and inquiries, email itistaught@gmail.comMoshe Is BornPharaoh summons the midwives and asks them why they let the babies live in spite of Pharaoh's orders.The midwives answer that the Israelite women are like beasts of the field in the way that they deliver. They are so fast that they call any neighbor over to help them and don't need a professional midwife.Side note, the Israelites are compared to beasts in other places as well, for example when Yaakov blessed his children, he compared Yehuda to a lion cub, Binyamin to a wolf, Yosef's firstborn to an ox and Naftali to a gazelle. And since all of the tribes were included in all of the other tribes' blessings, even those who weren't compared to beasts overtly, were included in this comparison.The Israelites grow in number and become very strong as a result of the midwives keeping the babies alive. In merit of the midwives' righteousness, they are rewarded with their progeny becoming priests and levites (Aaron and Moshe respectively through Yocheved) and kingship (with King David coming through Miriam).Pharaoh's astrologers predict that the savior of the jews was to be born on a certain day. They did not know whether this savior would be of Israelite or Egyptian descent, however they foresaw that his downfall would be with water. So Pharaoh decrees that all baby boys (whether Israelite or Egyptian) should be thrown into the water at birth, yet the daughters shall live. While the astrologers' vision had some accuracy to it regarding Moshe's downfall being with water, they failed to foresee that this would be much later in the desert in the incident of him striking the rock.Yocheved (one of the midwives)'s husband Amram had split from her due to Pharaoh's decree regarding the babies. Their daughter Miriam (the other midwife), convinced her father to get back together with her mother with the rationale that while Pharaoh made a decree against keeping baby boys alive, by splitting with Yocheved, Amaram was preventing the possibility of female babies to be born as well. Amram concedes and he and Yocheved remarry. Although Yocheved is now 130 years old (she had been born "between the walls" of Egypt when the family originally traveled there), her youthfulness was restored to her.Yocheved conceives and gives birth to a son. When he is born, the entire house fills with light. When Yocheved and Amram got back together, the Egyptians assumed that she would give birth after 9 months and would come check on her at that time. Instead, Moshe was premature, born right at the beginning of the 7th month term, i.e. at the start of the 6th month. Thus Yocheved was successfully able to hide Moshe for 3 months.After that time, Yocheved takes a reed basket, smears it with plaster on the inside and tar on the outside, places Moshe inside of it and hides him amongst the reeds at the riverbank.Side note, unlike Noah's ark which had tar smeared on both the inside and outside to prevent against the turbulent water of the flood, Yocheved only puts tar on the outside to protect Moshe from the unpleasant smell of tar. Also, the river was not nearly as turbulent as the flood of Noah so the basket didn't need as much protection.Miriam watched from a distance to see what would happen to him.And so it happened that Pharaoh's daughter is bathing in the Nile and she sees the basket. She reaches out for it and her arm miraculously lengthens so she can reach it. Her handmaidens opposed her rescue of the child and they will die as a consequence of such opposition.Pharaoh's daughter opens the basket and sees Moshe and the Divine radiance (Shchina) with him. Moshe is crying but his voice sounds more like an adolescent than a baby. She exclaims, "this is one of the Hebrew boys!"Pharaoh's daughter tries to get many Egyptian wet nurses to nurse Moshe but to no avail. Since Moshe is destined to speak with the Divine Presence, his mouth was not fit to drink the milk of the Egyptian women which had the taste of non-kosher food lingering in it. Miriam approaches Pharaoh's daughter and asks if she should bring a Hebrew woman to nurse the baby. Pharaoh's daughter agrees, and Miriam quickly (she moves fast like a young girl) rushes to bring Yocheved.Pharaoh's daughter gives Moshe to Yocheved and tells her to take him and nurse him and she will pay her in exchange. Pharaoh's daughter unwittingly expressed prophetically that Moshe was Yocheved's son in telling her to "take him" as he was rightfully hers.The child grows up and Yocheved brings him to Pharaoh's ...
