In the merit of the righteous women that were in that generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt. (TB Sotah 11b) Seder discussion

 In our tradition, women’s contributions are mostly overlooked. For Shabbat Hagadol. Not surprisingly, the following Gemara was never taught to me. “בִּשְׂכַר נָשִׁים צִדְקָנִיּוֹת שֶׁהָיוּ בְּאוֹתוֹ הַדּוֹר נִגְאֲלוּ יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרַיִם

In the merit of the righteous women that were in that generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt. (TB Sotah 11b)”

 For my class on Shabbat Hagadol I mined the Haggadah for both implicit and explicit references to women. This source sheet can be a valued addition to your Seder discussions.

I.                קַדֵשׁ-Kadesh

a.      The Maharal said the 4 cups or kosot (a word that takes the feminine form) of wine represents the memory of the four matriarchs-Sarah Rebecca Leah and Rachel… The 4 cups then are a salute to the founding mothers of Judaism. As the Maharal points out, Sarah influence many people in the surrounding culture to convert and become part of the Jewish people; Rebecca because she left her idols behind her; Rachel was the mother of Joseph, who kept his faith in God even during all the years of his imprisonment; and Leah was the first woman to praise God and was the mother of Judah, who became the head of what would become the Jewish people. (The Jewish Journey Haggadah, page 16)

 

b.     One contemporary addition to the Seder table is kos Miriam, Miriam’s cup, which is filled with water. This cup is to remind us of Moses’s sister was a central figure in the Passover story. Miriam saves her brother’s life by placing him in a basket to float in the Nile and watching over him until he is rescued by Pharaoh’s daughter. After the Jewish people crossed the Sea of Reeds, she leads the women with their tambourines in song. We are taught that God gave to Miriam a well of water that sustained the Jewish people throughout their sojourn in the desert and had curative powers. When Miriam died, we are told, the well dried up and with it is spiritual cures leading Moses to hit a rock for water. (The Jewish Journey Haggadah, page 17)

 

II.              אַרְבָעָה בָנִים-The four children “one [who is] wise, one [who is] wicked, or rebellious, or cynical, one who is innocent and one who doesn't know to ask.”

a.      A Night to Remember Haggadah sheets attached

 

b.     וְשֶאֵינוֹ יוֹדֵעַ לִשְאוֹל  אַתְ פְתַח לוֹ, שֶנֶאֱמַר, וְהִגַדְתָ לְבִנְךָ בַיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָה ה' לִי בְצֵאתִי מִמִצְרָיִם. -And [regarding] the one who doesn't know to ask, you will open [the conversation] for him. As it is stated (Exodus 13:8), "And you will speak to your son on that day saying, for the sake of this, did the Lord do [this] for me in my going out of Egypt."

 

The rabbis ask, why is at, the feminine form of “you,” used in the answer to this question? They answer that it implies that the particular obligation to open up and educate children rests primarily with women.

 

III.            מַגִּיד-Telling the story

a.      Rav Avira taught: In the merit of the righteous women that were in that generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt. He tells of their righteous actions: At the time when these women would go to the river to draw water, the Holy One, Blessed be He, would materialize for them small fish that would enter into their pitchers, and they would therefore draw pitchers that were half filled with water and half filled with fish. And they would then come and place two pots on the fire, one pot of hot water for washing their husbands and one pot of fish with which to feed them.

 

And they would then take what they prepared to their husbands, to the field, and would bathe their husbands and anoint them with oil and feed them the fish and give them to drink and bond with them in sexual intercourse between the sheepfolds, i.e., between the borders and fences of the fields, as it is stated: “When you lie among the sheepfolds, the wings of the dove are covered with silver, and her pinions with the shimmer of gold” (Psalms 68:14), which is interpreted to mean that as a reward for “when you lie among the sheepfolds,” the Jewish people merited to receive the plunder of Egypt, as it is stated in the continuation of the verse, as a reference to the Jewish people: “The wings of the dove are covered with silver, and her pinions with the shimmer of gold” (Psalms 68:14).

 

And when these women would become pregnant, they would come back to their homes, and when the time for them to give birth would arrive they would go and give birth in the field under the apple tree, as it is stated: “Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother was in travail with you; there was she in travail and brought you forth” (Song of Songs 8:5).

 

§ The verse states: “And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah” (Exodus 1:15). Rav and Shmuel disagree as to the proper interpretation of this verse. One says that these midwives were a woman and her daughter, and one says that they were a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law. According to the one who says that they were a woman and her daughter, the women were Jochebed, the mother of Moses and Aaron, and her daughter, Miriam. And according to the one who says that they were a daughter-in-law and her mother-in-law, the verse is referring to Jochebed and her daughter-in-law Elisheba, the wife of Aaron…

                       

The verse concludes: “But they kept the male children alive” (Exodus 1:17). A Sage teaches: It is not only that they did not kill the children as Pharaoh had commanded them, but that they would even provide for them water and food, as the phrase “But they kept the male children alive” indicates.

 

b.     The two Hebrew midwives were Jochebed, the mother of Moses, and Miriam, his sister. When they appeared before Pharaoh, Miriam exclaimed: “Woe be to this man when God visits retribution upon him for his evil deeds.” The king would have killed her for these audacious words, had not Jochebed allayed his wrath by saying: “Why do you pay heed to her words? She is but a child and knows not what she speaks.” Yet, although Miriam was but five years old at the time, she nevertheless accompanied her mother, and helped her with her offices to the Hebrew woman, giving food to the newborn babes while Jochebed washed and bathed them….

 

The king used all sorts of devices to render the midwives amenable to his wishes. He approached them with amorous proposals, which they both repelled, and then he threatened them with death by fire. But they said within themselves: “Our father Abraham opened an inn, they he might feed the wayfarers, though they were heathen, and we should neglect the children, nay, kill them? No, we shall have a care to keep them alive.” Thus they fail to execute what Pharaoh had commanded. Instead of murdering the babes, they supplied all their needs. If a mother they had given birth to a child lack food and drink, the midwives went to well-to-do women, and took up a collection, that the infant might not suffer want. They did still more for the little ones. They made supplications to God, praying: “You know that we are not fulfilling the words of Pharaoh, but it is our aim to fulfill Your words. O it be may be Your will, our Lord, to let child come into the world safe and sound, lest we fall under the suspicion that we try to slay it, and maimed it in the attempt.” The Lord hearken to their prayer, and no child born under the ministrations of Shiphrah and Puah, or Jochebed and Miriam, as the midwives are also called, came into the world lame or blind or afflicted with any other blemish. (The one volume edition of Legends of the Jews collected by Louis Ginzberg, page 281-282)

 

c.      When Amram separated from his wife account of the edict published against the male children of the Hebrews, in his example was followed by all the Israelites, his daughter Miriam said to him: “Father your decree is worse than Pharaoh’s decree. The Egyptians came to destroy only the male children, but yours includes the girls as well. Pharaoh deprives his victims of life in this world, but you prevent children from being born, and thus you deprive them of the future life, too. He resolves destruction, but who knows whether the intention of the wicked can persist? You are a righteous man, and the enactment of the righteous are executed by God, hence your decree will be upheld.  (The one volume edition of Legends of the Jews collected by Louis Ginzberg, page 286)

 

 

d.     When she (Pharaoh’s daughter) saw the little ark floating among the flags on the surface of the water, she supposed it to contain one of the little children exposed at her father’s order... She stretched forth her arm, and although the ark was swimming at a distance of 60 ells, she succeeded in grasping it, because her arm was lengthened miraculously...

 

… God called the son of Amram the name conferred upon him by Pharaoh’s daughter. He said to the princess: “Moses was not your child, yet you did treat him as such. For this I will call you my daughter, though you are not my daughter,” and therefore the Princess, the daughter of Pharaoh, bears the name of Bityah, “the daughter of God.” She married Caleb later on, he was a suitable husband for her. As she stood up against her father’s wicked counsel, so Caleb stood up against the counsel of his fellow messengers sent to spy out the land of Canaan. Rescuing Moses and for her other pious deeds she was permitted to enter paradise alive. (The one volume edition of Legends of the Jews collected by Louis Ginzberg, page 290-292)

 

 

e.      The text describes Jacobs sojourn in Egypt and settling of his sons, the resulting enslavement and finally redemption of the Jewish people. When the Jewish people left Egypt, they want to fulfill the promise that Joseph’s bones be taken to Israel for burial. How did they know where to locate the bones? According to the midrash (Pirkei de Rabi Eliezer), it was Serach bat Asher, granddaughter of Jacob, who told Moshe where to find the bones of Joseph that the Egyptians had buried at sea.

 

How was she still alive? The midrash tells us Serach have been the one who told her grandfather Jacob the news, through song, that Joseph was still alive. By slowly breaking him this news, she was responsible for restoring Jacob’s ‘life’ and thus receive from him a blessing for long life. Like Elijah, Serach is viewed as returning to aid the Jewish people at different times, not having died but rather ascended to heaven while still alive! (The Jewish Journey Haggadah, page 85)

 

IV.            Miriam’s songs

a.      Miriam’s song for crossing the Sea of Reeds

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZdSEsZ8bMo

 

b.     Miriam’s song

Miriam’s song for Miriam the prophet, strength and song in her hand

Miriam dance with us in order to increase the song of the world.

Miriam dance with us in order to repair the world.

Soon she will bring us to the waters of redemption.

 

Miriam ha-n'vi'ah oz v'zimrah b'yadah.

Miriam tirkod itanu l'hagdil zimrat olam.

Miriam tirkod itanu l'taken et ha-olam.

Bimheyrah v'yameynu hi t'vi'einu el mey ha-y'shuah.

 

מִרְיָם הַנְּבִיאָה עֹז וְזִמְרָה בְּיָדָהּ

מִרְיָם תִּרְקֹד אִתָּנוּ לְהַגְדִּיל זִמְרַת עוֹלָם

מִרְיָם תִּרְקֹד אִתָּנוּ לְתַקֵּן אֶת-הָעוֹלָם:

בִּמְהֵרָה בְיָמֵינוּ הִיא תְּבִיאֵנוּ

אֶל מֵי הַיְשׁוּעָה

Miriam’s song to be sung after  Kos Eliyahu, Elijah’s cup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYuAGMB1HdY\

 

V.              מָרוֹר –Maror

Charoset, made from a mixture of nuts, fruits, and wine, is designed to invoke the mortar paste that our forefathers and foremothers used the keep the bricks together.

 

In the Talmud (Pesachim 116a), we find a reference explain why we are required to eat charoset. Rabbi Elazar ben Zadok says: Charoset is a religious requirement. Why is it a religious requirement (though it is not mentioned in the Torah)? Rabbi Levi said: in memory of the apple tree under which the Jewish women in Egypt gave birth to their children so they would not be seen by the Egyptians. (The Jewish Journey Haggadah, page 126)

 

 

 

Who have been the important and influential women in your lives?