Passover, the Jewish festival of freedom, and the strength of women
Article published on April 15, 2022 on Perfil
Throughout history, women have been marginalized and excluded, degraded and mistreated. The Hebrew Exodus from pharaonic slavery to freedom would not have been possible without their key participation.
Throughout history, women have been marginalized and excluded, degraded and mistreated. The Hebrew Exodus from pharaonic slavery to freedom, symbolizing the struggle against oppression of all minorities, would not have been possible without the key participation of women.
This is what the Talmud declares: “By virtue of the virtuous women that were in that generation, Israel was redeemed from Egypt” (Talmud Babyl, Sotah 11b). Who were those women? What did they do? What can we learn from them?
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Exegetes comment that men were demoralized by slavery and Pharaonic oppression. After arduous days of forced labor, they returned home weak and tired. Their wives gave them encouragement, strength, and energy. They showed them that it was still worth living and fighting for a better future.
The women who appear in the story of the Exodus from Egypt, according to the Biblical text, are Shifrah and Puah, Yocheved, Miriam and Batya. All of these women have one thing in common: they defied pharaonic oppression, hoping for future redemption.
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Shifrah and Puah were two midwives dedicated to helping Hebrew women give birth, contradicting Pharaoh’s tyrannical order to kill all newborn Hebrew children. Some commentators maintain that they were Egyptian; others affirm that they were Hebrew. That is not essential. The important thing is that the Biblical text testifies that they feared God because of their exemplary conduct and their moral nobility.
Yocheved was Moses’s mother. The Talmud relates that her husband Amram had decided to distance himself from his wife to avoid bringing children into the world. According to his reasoning, it would be cruel for a son to have to suffer pharaonic genocide. However, Yocheved convinced her husband that such conduct was inappropriate: after all, Pharaoh had condemned only the male children to certain death, while he, by deciding to distance himself from his wife, was also implicitly condemning the females. Amram understood the wisdom of her wife and rejoined her. The fruit of that reunion would be Moses himself, the leader of the Hebrew people at the time of redemption.
Miriam was Moses’ older sister. In her adulthood, she was a leader and a prophet among the women of Israel. In her childhood, when Moses was deposited by her mother in the Nile River, in the hope that he would somehow be saved from Pharaoh’s terrible genocidal decree, Miriam tenderly accompanied her younger brother the maximum possible time. She followed the little boy with her eyes and chased him from afar.
Finally, Batya was Pharaoh’ daughter. She found the basket with Moses inside it floating on the Nile River. She was caring about him: she educated, nurtured and sheltered him under his wing, like a child of her own. Batya’s motherly love was essential to the education of Israel’s future redeemer.
Passover and freedom of expression
The story of the spiritual and emotional strength of the women in the Exodus from Egypt teaches us that women give energy and enthusiasm with their positive attitude to every family, community and nation and inspire everyone to overcome all the challenges of life.
Source: www.perfil.com
