We Are One!

The Pharoh of Egypt decreed that all male newborn babies be thrown in the Nile to drown. The Torah then relates that Amram and Yocheved, a couple from the Tribe of Levi, had a son, who would eventually become known as Moshe. They recognized immediately that their baby was special because the whole house was filled with rays of spiritual light. For three months they were able to hide him from the Egyptian authorities and after that, his sister Miriam, placed him in a waterproof basket and set him afloat in the Nile, while she stood at the riverbank watching what would happen to him.

At that time, Basya, the daughter of Pharoh, went to bathe in the Nile, and noticing the basket floating in the water, she retrieved it. When she opened it she saw an infant boy who was crying like a young lad. She had compassion on the child and declared, “This is a Jewish child.”

The Torah when describing what she saw in the basket, seems to allude to her seeing something besides the baby. Our Sages explain that Basya also saw the holy presence of G-d. She declared that he was a Jewish child because she noticed that he was circumcised.

When Basya declared that he was a Jewish child, she used the plural form saying, “He is from the children of the Hebrews.” What was she alluding to?

Rabbi Tzvi Yechezkel Michalson o.b.m. explained this through an event that occurred in the Palace of Queen Maria Theresa in Prague in the 1700’s. The queen was no friend of the Jews and decreed difficult and painful laws against them. The Jewish Community sent Reb Zalman Krob, an articulate and respectful person, to represent them and appear before the Queen to ask her to rescind her harsh decrees.

When Reb Zalman appeared before the Queen, he couldn’t contain his feelings and began to bellow in a heart wrenching voice. The queen was taken aback and asked, “Why are you yelling? I was under the impression that the words of the wise are always presented in a pleasant manner.”

Reb Zalman composed himself and responded, “I am not just a solitary person standing before you. Rather, I am a representative of all my brethren who reside in your kingdom and who are in deep pain because of your decrees. All their pain is emanating through my voice!”

So too, when Basya opened the basket she heard Moshe’s cries and they sounded like that of someone older. At first she thought it was peculiar. Then she realized that this is only possible if the child was Jewish, because only they have such deep feelings for each other. He wasn’t only crying about his own predicament; within his grown voice she heard the voices of all the Jewish children that Pharoh had decreed that they be put to death. Moshe our leader, from infancy and on, felt for and defended his brethren.

The Chizkuni has a fascinating approach: The cry of the voice of the young lad was not referring to Moshe. It was actually his two year old brother Aaron who was also at the edge of the Nile. When Basya heard a toddler cry over the fate of his infant brother, she implicitly knew that the baby was Jewish because such inborn concern and passion is distinct to the Jews.

Our Sages tell us that this occurrence happened at a pivotal crossroad in Basya’s life. She went to bathe in the Nile to ritually immerse herself in its waters to rid herself from the idolatry of her father the Pharoh, and she clandestinely embraced the Monotheistic belief of the Jews.

My father Rabbi Boruch Saks often quotes the Netziv, Rabbi Naftali Tzvi Yehuda Berlin o.b.m. who points out that after the Jews were bitterly enslaved by the Egyptians, the Torah tells us that G-d listened to their voices and dispatched Moshe to lead them out of slavery. ‘Their voices,’ says the Netziv was a groan directed to G-d for help, without even an expression of words. When the Jews directed their cries to G-d, even without articulating their needs, G-d responded immediately.

I recently read a story published by Rabbi Gamliel Rabinowitz of Jerusalem. A colleague of his was a passenger in a cab in Israel when the driver made an illegal u turn and was pulled over by a cop. The officer told the driver, for such a violation he was going to suspend his license. Since the cabbie’s livelihood was dependent on this, he began yelling angrily at the officer. But it was to no avail and the officer was unyielding. When the driver returned to the car, the rabbi passenger suggested that he return to the officer and present his case in a pleasant way. He did so and he returned with no results. When the officer took his license and looked at it, he noticed that the cabbie’s address was right next door to a good friend of his. He asked the cabbie if he knew this neighbor, to which he responded that he did, and in fact, they were very good friends. At that point the officer’s demeanor changed completely. He told the cabbie, he was going to let him off with a warning – because he would not be able to face a common friend of theirs if he had suspended his license.

When they got back on their way, the rabbi passenger pointed out to the driver, “Don’t you see how when you thought you had no other recourse, because you had a good friend he assisted you in a way that you would have never dreamt!”

When we make a personal cry, or we cry for others, or others cry for us be it through a friend or a brother, we are exceptionally unique for we are all one joined and caring unit!