Parashat Shemot 5783
Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites
Parashat Shemot, the first portion in the book of Exodus, turns from the story of our patriarchs and their families to the story of the nation. This story begins with hardship and suffering. Pharaoh, the Egyptian king, worries about the growth of the Jewish nation in Egypt and decides to enslave them. He forces the Hebrews, as the Jews were called then, to build the cities of Pithom and Raamses. But the Hebrews continue to multiply and Pharaoh decides on a very cruel solution. He issues the command to throw into the Nile all male babies born to Hebrew women.
One of the babies at risk of murder was Moses, the son of Yocheved and Amram. The fate of Moses, who would grow up to become the leader who took the nation out of Egypt, was supposed to be like that of all other male Hebrews born at that time. His mother, Yocheved, hid him for three months. But when she could no longer do so, in despair, she placed him in a tiny basket and put it among the reeds on the edge of the Nile hoping that whoever finds the baby won’t realize he was a Hebrew baby and his life would be saved.
And who was it who found the baby? No less than Pharaoh’s daughter. The Egyptian princess had gone down to the river with her maidservants and suddenly came upon the little basket floating in the water. She adopted the baby and raised him, despite