ACTS OF COURAGE
Ahmed al-Ahmed, the Muslim hero of Bondi Beach whose quick and courageous action helped prevent a far greater tragedy, continues his recovery. Last Sunday, he was given a hero’s welcome at the Ashes Test – though it did little to improve England’s fortunes – and on Tuesday he visited the grave of the Lubavitcher Rebbe in New York to offer prayers for humanity. It was a gesture that resonated deeply with many Jews, reminding us of the profound bonds of shared sanctity.
His heroism belongs to a long tradition of individuals from the wider world who had the courage to confront evil. We can trace the roots of this tradition to this week’s parasha.
Pharaoh has a problem. The Jewish population is growing too fast for his liking. His strategy is that all Hebrew baby boys be killed at birth. He commandeers Shifra and Pu’ah, the Hebrew midwives (HaMeyaldot Ha’Ivriot) to carry out his plan. Rashi, basing himself on the Midrash, identifies these midwives as Yocheved and Miriam, the mother and sister of Moses. Other sources disagree.
The phrase “Hebrew midwives” could mean midwives who were Hebrews, or midwives to the Hebrews. The historian Josephus understood them to be Egyptian women, a view shared by Abarbanel (15th c.) and Shadal (19th c.). As Shadal asks pointedly: could Pharaoh realistically have expected Hebrew women to murder their own people’s children? If they were indeed Egyptians, their defiance represents a pure moral courage – a refusal by Pharaoh’s own subjects to carry out his cruel mission.
Astonishingly, Pharaoh’s own daughter defies her father and adopts Moses, fully aware that he is a Hebrew child.
The theme of moral courage continues later in the parasha. Moses has to escape from Egypt and chooses Midian as a safe haven. Why there?
The Leviyat Ḥen (18th c.) explains that Moses was looking for Jethro, the ruler of Midian. The Talmud (Sotah 11a) tells us Pharaoh consulted his three advisors, Bilaam, Job, and Jethro, on his “migrants problem.” Bilaam devised the genocidal plan; Job remained silent; but Jethro alone protested and fled Egypt, unwilling to be associated with persecution. Moses knew that in Jethro’s house, he would find a man of conscience who would protect him.
Although the Hebrews endured terrible suffering in Egypt, the Torah is careful to emphasize that not all gentiles behaved this way. There were those who displayed a “righteousness among the nations” long before the term was coined. The midwives, the Egyptian princess, and the priest of Midian – beacons of light in dark times – profoundly shaped the course of our history.
Throughout the generations, down to our own times in the person of Ahmed al-Ahmed, such Ḥassidei Umot HaOlam (Righteous Among the Nations) have continued to appear. They remind us that moral courage is not the province of any one faith, but a blessing to all humanity.