Parashas Shemos

In this week’s parashah, the Torah tells us that when Yocheved, the mother of 3-month old Moshe, could no longer hide her child from the officers enforcing Pharaoh’s edict to throw all Jewish boys into the river, she didn’t simply comply. Instead, she took a basket and coated it with tar and plaster. She then placed him inside. Additionally, rather than place Moshe into the water, she left the basket in the reeds at the banks of the river.

Chazal explain that while she put tar on the outside to protect against the water, she used plaster on the inside so that the righteous Moshe would not have to smell the unpleasant odor of the tar.

Oftentimes we meet a person in need – physically or emotionally – and it is beyond our capacity to fully help them.

The Torah’s sharing these details teaches us that we must still do whatever we can to ameliorate another’s distress. Yocheved didn’t have a way to save Moshe, but she could make her infant son’s stay in the basket less distasteful. And rather than place him in the water, she could leave him more securely on the shore.

Interestingly, as a midwife, Yocheved was known as Shifra, because mishaperes es havlad, she would beautify the newborn child.

The word mishaper also means to “improve.” Yocheved lived in a time of crisis. Many of the babies she delivered would soon be put to death. She couldn’t change all that. But her role, her avodah,  was to be mishaper, to do what she could to improve the lot of the mothers and their children.

May we be inspired by her example to do all that we can for others, and may we merit to see bi’yeshuasan shel Yisrael.

Gut Shabbos.