Shiphrah and Puah

Shiphrah (Hebrew: שִׁפְרָה‎ šiᵽrâ) and Puah (Hebrew: פּוּעָה‎) were two midwives who briefly prevented a genocide[1] of children by the Egyptians, according to Exodus 1:15–21. According to the Exodus narrative, they were commanded by the King of Egypt, or Pharaoh, to kill all male Hebrew babies, but they refused to do so. When challenged by the Pharaoh, they explained that Hebrew women's labour was short-lived because they were 'lively'[2] or 'vigorous',[3] and therefore the babies had been born (and protected) before the midwives arrived. God "dealt well with the midwives" and "made them houses".[4]

For the Puah Institute, see Puah Institute.
Pharaoh and the Midwives, James Tissot c. 1900

Interpretations

The Talmud [Sotah 11b] identifies Shiphrah with Jochebed, the mother of Moses, and Puah with Miriam, Moses' sister, making the two midwives mother and daughter respectively.[5]

"The midwives feared God"

The Torah has no word for religion. The closest related concept found in the Torah is what it calls "the fear of God" (Exod. 1:16). The midwives apparently believed that God's moral demands outweighed Pharaoh's legal demands.[6] For this reason, author Francine Klagsbrun said that the midwives' refusal to follow the Pharaoh's genocidal instructions "may be the first known incident of civil disobedience in history."[7] Theologian Jonathan Magonet agrees, calling them "the earliest, and in some ways the most powerful, examples, of resistance to an evil regime".[8]

The "fear of God" theme is reversed a few verses later when Pharaoh commands the Egyptian people to carry out the genocide (Exod. 1:22). The Egyptians apparently feared Pharaoh more than they feared God, and therefore, participated in the crime. Rabbi Joseph Telushkin compared the Shiphrah and Puah's defection with the rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust, many of whom had been religious. Those who aided the Nazis, on the other hand, feared the Nazis' power more than they feared (or even believed in) God's judgment.[9]

"Made Houses"

Commentators have interpreted Exodus 1:20–21 in various ways.[10] Some scholars argue that the two halves of each verse are parallel, so that it is the Israelites ('who multiplied and grew greatly') for whom God 'made houses'. This fits with the reference in Exodus 1:1 to the children of Israel coming down to Egypt, each with his "house". However, Magonet notes[8] that the more common view is that the houses are for the midwives - "houses" here being understood as 'dynasties'. Rabbinic thought has understood these as the houses of kehunah (priesthood), leviyah (assistants to the priests), and royalty – the latter interpreted as coming from Miriam.[11]

Names

The name Shiphrah is found in a list of slaves in Egypt during the reign of Sobekhotep III. This list is on Brooklyn 35.1446, a papyrus scroll kept in the Brooklyn Museum. The name is written šp-ra and means "to be fair" or "beautiful". The name may be related to or even the same as the Aramaic Sapphira and (up to slight morphological adaptations) as Shiphrah, the name of the Hebrew midwife. The name of the second midwife, Puah, is a Canaanite name which means "lass" or "little girl".[12]

Original text of Exodus Chapter 1

References
  1. Limmer, Seth M.; Pesner, Jonah Dov (2019). Moral Resistance and Spiritual Authority: Our Jewish Obligation to Social Justice. CCAR Press. ISBN 9780881233193. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
  2. Exod. 1:19 NKJV
  3. Exod. 1: 19 NIV
  4. "Exodus 1 / Hebrew - English Bible / Mechon-Mamre". www.mechon-mamre.org. Retrieved 14 November 2017.
  5. See for example Judah Loew ben Bezalel's Gur Aryeh: Sifrei Chachamim ('Books of the Wise').
  6. Kushner, Harold, ed. of the d'rash commentary. "Exodus." Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary. New York: The Jewish Publication Society, 2001.
  7. Voices of Wisdom, ISBN 0-394-40159-X
  8. Magonet, Jonathan (1992) Bible Lives (London: SCM), 8.
  9. Telushkin, Joseph. A Code of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1 - You Shall Be Holy. New York: Bell Tower, 2006. p. 488.
  10. Magonet, Jonathan (1992) Bible Lives (London: SCM), 7–8.
  11. See for example Talmud Tractate Sotah 11b; and Exodus Rabbah 1:17.
  12. Albright, W. F. (1954). "Northwest-Semitic Names in a List of Egyptian Slaves from the Eighteenth Century B. C.". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 74 (4): 223, 229. doi:10.2307/595513. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 595513.
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