Edited by B. Silberstein
This week’s Parasha, Shemot, describes the enslavement of Bnei Yisrael (the Children of Israel) at the hands of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Pharaoh imposed harsh labor upon them in order to weaken them and halt their phenomenal growth and expansion.
A Nation Threatened At Birth
But he did not stop there. He sought to permanently cripple them by decreeing death upon all Jewish males who would be born. It was at this very moment that the future leader of the Jewish nation entered the world.
The parents of Moshe took every measure possible to save their son. When it was no longer feasible to conceal him in their home, they placed him into a sealed basket and set it among the reeds at the riverbank. This was clearly a long shot, but they hoped that someone would discover the child and take pity on him.
Events unfolded far better than they could have imagined. No less a figure than Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh, came to bathe in the Nile. She opened the wicker basket and saw a crying infant. Her compassion was aroused, and she declared, “This is one of the Hebrew children" (Shemot 2:6).
By doing so, she acknowledged that this child had been marked for death by the decree of her own father. Yet, she possessed a mind and a moral sense of her own, and was determined to save the doomed child and adopt him as her son.
Miriam, Moshe’s sister, grasped what was transpiring and boldly offered to procure a wet nurse for the child from among the Jewish women. She then brought her mother, Yocheved, to Batya, who instructed her to take the child and nurse him, for which she would be compensated.
Providence had arranged that the child’s life would be spared, that he would be nursed by his own mother, and that he would ultimately be raised in the palace of the king by Pharaoh’s own daughter. “Many are the thoughts in the heart of man; but the plan of Hashem, that will prevail" (Mishlei 19:21).
Moshe was eventually weaned, and his mother brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became a son to her. “And she called his name Moshe, and she said, ‘For I drew him from the water’" (Shemot 2:10).
Why was this particular fact so significant that it became the basis of his name?
Two Acts That Reveal the Man
The Torah provides remarkably little biographical background concerning history’s greatest prophet, the one who led the Jews out of Egypt and brought the Torah down to them from Mount Sinai. Only two incidents that occurred prior to Moshe’s encounter with Hashem at the Burning Bush are recorded.
In the first, Moshe went out to observe the “burdens" of his brethren. He wished to see for himself and gain a direct understanding of the oppression into which they had fallen. He came upon the scene of a fellow Jew being beaten by an Egyptian taskmaster. Upon witnessing this injustice, Moshe did not hesitate. He sprang into action, slew the Egyptian, and buried him in the sand.
This deed placed Moshe in grave danger. It initially appeared that no one had witnessed the killing except the very victim whose life he had saved. Yet it did not take long before word of Moshe’s act reached Pharaoh.
But if there were no witnesses, how could the Jew whom Moshe later rebuked for striking his fellow Jew say, “Who appointed you as a dignitary, a ruler, and a judge over us? Do you propose to murder me as you murdered the Egyptian?" (Shemot 2:14). How did Moshe’s deed become known?
When Truth Cannot Be Contained
HaRav Yisrael Chait suggested that it was the victim Moshe had rescued who let the matter slip. Not out of malice or betrayal, but because he simply could not contain himself. When something extraordinarily significant happens to a person, there is an almost irresistible urge to share it with someone else. But what happens when the information is so dangerous that it must remain absolutely concealed?
In such an untenable situation, a person may confide in just one individual whom he fully trusts, imploring him not to repeat it. Yet that confidant now bears the same burden and may, in turn, confide in just one other person. Before long, the information becomes common knowledge.
This, HaRav Chait suggests, is how Datan and Aviram, the two contentious Jews whom Moshe rebuked, came to know of Moshe’s courageous act. It did not take long for this lethal information to reach Pharaoh, forcing Moshe to flee for his life.
Moshe eventually arrived in the land of Midian, where the second biographical incident occurred. The seven daughters of Yitro, who were tending their father’s sheep, were accosted by a group of shepherds, who drove them away and stole the water they had drawn.
True to form, Moshe did not stand idly by. He immediately intervened, driving off the violent shepherds. This episode was even more dangerous than the previous one, for here Moshe faced a group rather than a single oppressor. Yet he did not hesitate. He was undeterred by the danger and rushed to the aid of innocent victims suffering at the hands of lawless men. From where did this defining trait originate?
A Name That Defines a Mission
Rav Ovadya Sforno offers a striking interpretation of the name Batya gave her adopted son. He explains that she named him Moshe to signify “one who escapes and who rescues others from their distress" (Sforno, Shemot 2:10). She had saved him from the waters, and this rescue was meant to shape him into a person who would, in turn, save others.
According to Rav Ovadya Sforno, Moshe’s name conveyed a lifelong mission: to oppose injustice and to fight on behalf of the helpless. This conduct reflects the “ways of Hashem" Himself, who is praised as the One who “rescues the poor person from one stronger than him; the poor and destitute from one who robs him" (Tehilim 35:10).
The Torah therefore issues severe warnings against the mistreatment of the widow and the orphan:
“If you [dare to] cause him pain; for if he cries out to Me, I shall surely hear his outcry. And My wrath shall flare, and I shall slay you by the sword; and your wives shall be widows and your children orphans" (Shemot 22:22-23).
The Ramban explains that one who brazenly exploits society’s weakest members does so because he assumes they have no protector and that he himself has no one to fear. This attitude constitutes a denial of Hashem and an embrace of the notion that “might makes right." Such conduct therefore calls forth severe Divine retribution.
Moshe was emulating the ways of Hashem when he courageously rushed to defend victims of oppression. This trait was deeply ingrained in his nature and reinforced by the circumstances of his birth and rescue. His adopted mother taught him this lesson and embedded it within his very name. This is why the Torah records the reason she called him Moshe.
We should choose the names of our children with great care. A name that embodies lofty ideals can exert a profound influence on the moral development of our offspring.
May Hashem assist us in this great endeavor.
Shabbat Shalom.