Sicha, Shabbos Parshas Shemos 5746
A. What’s Wrong with the Simple Explanation?
Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, calls the Jewish midwives, Shifrah and Puah, and orders them to kill the newborn Jewish males. The midwives do not obey, and later tell Pharaoh that the Jewish women give birth by themselves, unassisted. As a reward for this, G-d gives them “houses”. Rashi explains that Shifrah and Puah are Yocheved and Miriam, and “houses” refers to the priestly, Levite and royal dynasties (Source 1).
The Rebbe asks: Why doesn’t Rashi explain that the midwives were indeed called Shifrah and Puah, and G-d’s reward was that he built them “houses” – large families? We have an example from the conclusion of our Torah portion where the word “house” is clearly used to mean “family” (Source 2).
B. Why Were Midwives Needed?
When Rashi explains a verse in a Midrashic manner, it is because there is some difficulty in understanding the verse in the simple way. When reading this verse, two simple questions arise: (a) how were only two midwives enough for the entire Jewish nation? And (b) conversely, according to what the midwives told Pharaoh, that the Jewish women give birth alone, why were midwives needed at all?
These questions demonstrate that we were not talking about ordinary midwives, and the explanation of the Midrash makes this clear, as will be explained later.
C. Spiritual Leaders
The Jewish women at that point in time did indeed give birth alone at homeץ The role of the midwives was to provide moral support – to calm and reassure the mother giving birth, that in case of an emergency they would be there. But even for just the above role, two midwives would not suffice for an entire nation. Therefore, it must be that they were righteous women and very well-known, whose mere existence reassured and strengthened the women in this special mission – to give birth to more Jewish children. And these two women were Yocheved and Miriam.
D. Measure For Measure
This question, however, still remains, why does Rashi interpret the word “houses” as referring to the priestly, Levite and royal dynasties?
In a reality where every woman gives birth to six at one time, the fact that a woman has a large family does not constitute a special reward. They all had it. That is why Rashi needed to use the interpretation of the midrash, that the reward is special dynasties (Source 3).
In another talk, the Rebbe explains in greater depth that the principle of the reward was measure for measure (Source 3). Through their actions, they not only assisted the birth of a large number of children, they built the future of the Jewish nation. That is why they received a reward of not only many children, but also the dynasties of the priests, Levites and kings of the entire Jewish nation (Source 4).
