Two Midwives Who Defied Male Authority to Save the Lives of Hebrew Children

Waking up early, prophesying that the sun will be dawning, silk scarves shining like sunlit skies, light bulbs glaring bright white like a burning white dwarf star, burning with the desire to learn more: Puah and Shiphrah, 2 Hebrew Midwives, defied Pharoah, defied a male king, and told him that the Hebrew babies were born before they could get there to birth them. The Hebrew first born babies were saved this way, even though Pharoah decreed all first born Hebrew baby boys to be killed. Their lives were saved by 2 Hebrew women who defied male authority. And Moses was for the little guy, he slew an Egyptian taskmaster who was beating on a Hebrew slave. My name is Batyah, Batyah drew Moses out of the river Nile in a basket and raised Moses with the help of Hebrew nannies. Moses was raised in a non-Jewish household, but he became the greatest of all the Prophets.

Rising to see a new sun, rising to understand humankind and its impact on world order, is the world getting worse or is it getting better? Is the world improving--according to Torah--and who are the ones who are really improving it and how, and who are the true mentors to follow? Separation from evil causes softness and an inability to fight off oppression due to not having the experiences to become a better warrior--Moses was able to fight off a taskmaster, the Hebrew midwives were able to fight off the Pharoah's evil decree. Fighting for one's rights and the rights of others, and fighting to climb Jacob's ladder are all fights that put one in a better place--closer to "The Pearly Gates." Doing Mitzvot is doing acts of loving-kindness, like the fighting for oneself and/or for another. Fighting can be with fists, or guns as the IDF fights, or in a divorce court, or as Moses fought to save the life of a slave, or in modern day using a computer keyboard, or using a paintbrush as a social justice tool as the greatest artists fought, or through speeches as the Rabbis fight, or by insisting on a change--on a choice to be chosen to be won like a battle, a difference in one's life, getting what is one's right to receive, what is one's entitlement.

Fighting for Rights is the Right thing, the Right thing to do is to follow Torah: To be defiant against authority, including male authority, when it saves your life or the lives of others as Moses saved the Hebrew slave. To be defiant is to be healthy, to get one's juices to flow like droplets of springtime waters, sweet showers, not to be consumed by tidal waves. Health is being able to think and to write and to cause action. To be able to act, to think, to choose, to fight. HASHEM believed in equal rights for the Hebrew slaves to achieve freedom and dignity as we were once the "little guys"--we were once strangers in the Land of Egypt, and we were once slaves there too.

New dawns every day, new learning, singular sweet drops of dew, drop by drop off icicles, wetness, thinking and achieving, having a name: Sarah, Rivkah, Rachel, Leah, and Batyah. Joining together with one's sisters, sweet singing together in harmony with one's sisters, thinking and comprehending, gaining strength everyday, more sisters, more strength, more achievement: more gains on the Battlefield, in the Courts, in the Shuls, in the World.