The Book of Exodus starts with contrasting narratives of fear-mongering
and cruelty, and courageous acts of compassion. A new Pharaoh rises to
rule Egypt. He chooses to ignore that Yosef the Hebrew turned Egypt
into the world’s sole superpower. Instead, Pharaoh convenes the Wannsee
Conference of the day, to plot the annihilation of the Children of
Israel. Pharaoh’s indictment of Israel contains no accusations of
misconduct, only the fear that “they could multiply and join with our
enemies in case of war.” From there, enslavement and true ethnic
cleansing, the killing of baby boys at birth, ensues.
The first recorded acts of rebellion come from
resisting midwives refusing to kill newborns and then from Batya,
Pharaoh’s own daughter. Seeing Moshe in the Nile, the text tells us,
Batya immediately realizes that he is a Hebrew child and “has compassion
for him.” She not only saves Moshe but sends him back to his mother
among the Hebrews to be nursed. When he grows up and is brought to
Pharaoh’s palace, Batya names him Moshe because “I brought him out of
the water.” The very name Batya gives him connotes her continued
defiance of the Pharaonic policies.
The Midrash, enamored with Batya, tells us
that she went on to marry a Hebrew man named “Mered,” or “Revolt,” who
was in fact Caleb ben Yefuneh. Caleb was of course, along with Yehoshua, one of the dissenters from the ill-fated mission and
fear-based report of the 12 Spies. Both Batya and Mered are rebels, the
Midrash says. They had the courage to stand up to the prevailing
beliefs in their society, and therefore deserved each other.
Owing his life to an Egyptian rebel, Moshe
embodies his adoptive mother’s courage and compassion, on behalf of his
own people as well as strangers. Instead of living a comfortable
princely life, Moshe rebels and kills the Egyptian taskmaster savagely
beating a Hebrew slave. And as he runs away from Pharaoh’s wrath, alone
in a foreign land, Moshe’s first act is to come to the rescue of
Yitro’s daughters, harassed by hostile shepherds.
It is no coincidence that the Book of Exodus
opens with stories of cruelty and compassion. The Book will then move
on to a long narrative dominated by themes of power and conflict,
pitting Pharaoh, the commander in chief of the world’s most powerful
army, and the unleashed might of G-d coming to the rescue of the
oppressed. The powerful Egyptian armies wind up drowned in the Red Sea
as the Empire falls. The lessons are clear: Might is not enough. It
must have as its basis a foundation of compassion in order to endure and
prevail. One rebellious act of compassion has set in motion a great
historical movement of liberation, whereas policies devoid of humanity
triggered self-destruction — even for the mightiest in the world.
