EXOD15 [This verse] relates: "But the midwives feared God… and saved the male children alive." See what chesed was performed here! The midwives could have discharged their moral duty both to God and to Pharaoh by resigning from their positions. They were concerned, however, that the replacement might, out of fear, carry out Pharoah's designs. Hence they acted charitably towards the daughters of Israel and endangered their own lives for the sake of those women. Furthermore they would provide food and water for the poor women in confinement (See Rashi). Moses (Ibid. 2:11) "Went out to his brothers and looked on their burdens." He took their distress to heart, shared in it, and was anxious for them (Rashi ibid.). This is in accordance with the virtue of chesed which obliges one to take account of the sufferings of others, to see whether it is not possible to help them to some extent. "He (Moses) smote the Egyptian" to save the life of the victim (v. 12). Subsequently (v. 17) "Moses stood up and helped the daughters of Jethro," and they related (v. 19): "Moreover he drew water for us and watered the flock." Later, "the officers of the children of Israel were beaten" (Ibid. 5:14). What chesed lies here! The officers did not want to drive their workers unmercifully and so took the beatings themselves (See Rashi). Moses took the remains of Joseph with him ( ibid.13:19), and thus God repaid Joseph for the kindness he had extended in burying his father Jacob (Sotah 9b). Commenting on the verse (Ibid 15:2): "This is my God and I will glorify Him," Abba Shaul has declared (Sabbath 133b), "Imitate Hashem. As He is gracious and merciful, so be you gracious and merciful." (Veanvehu is here expounded as ani vehu, "I and He." Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, Jethro (ibid.18:7). Here, and in the following verses, the duty of welcoming guests, which is chesed, is exemplified.

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EXOD17 The midwives risked their lives by defying Pharaoh's order to kill the male babies. They saved thousands of Jewish children from death, not merely by passively allowing them to live, but by actively supplying them with food (See Rashi on this verse). How great it was their heroism! "Whoever saves one life it is if he has saved an entire world" Sanhedrin 37a. All the more so the midwives to save so many lives. But when the Torah praises them, what words does it use? "But the midwives feared God, and they did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them." The Torah emphasizes that their main virtue was their awareness of God. All virtues depend on this attribute, for it is the main achievement in life. Moreover, the only means by which two women could acquire such bravery to defy the orders of the king of Egypt is by their having fear of a greater King--Almighty God. Ohr Yohail, vol. 2. Shmos.

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EXOD16 See [[EXOD12]] Exodus 1:16 kill SACKS 79-80

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EXOD19 The Omnipotence of God created in the heart of the Jew a sense of reverence for the life around him and a holy awe for its mysteries. The pages of Holy Writ reflect such longings and sensations. [Gen XX.II; this verse; Ex iii.6; Ps. ii. II; viii; cxi. 5; Prov. i.7; ix. 10; xv. 33; xvi.6.] When this attribute was combined with divine omniscience, the folly of sin was and made all the more glaring. Since His knowledge is limitless, penetrating the innermost recesses of the heart, how can erring man hope to escape detection? The Midrash provides the answer. [Gen. R. xxiv. I.] "It can be compared with an architect who is appointed a collector of taxes. Is it not the height of futility for the evader taxes to conceal his wealth in some hidden crypt and underground cave? Did not the architect himself construct the secret hiding places? Similarly foolish are the devices of the sinners who do evil in secret places. From whom do they seek to conceal their actions? "Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say: 'Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?'" [Is. xxix. 15].

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EXOD18 That this is the only explanation the Bible offers for their behavior suggests that it was this fear that prompted them to act as they did. Pharaoh then commanded the Egyptian people, who presumably did not fear God but did fear him, to participate in his campaign: "Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, 'Every son born that is born you shall throw into the Nile'" Exodus 1:22. That fear of God can liberate people from fear of others explains why a disproportionate percentage of political dissenters in totalitarian societies such as Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union were God-fearers. Such people presumably feared their country's rulers (they did not want to die), but they believed that obedience to God's will was more important than anything, including life. On the other hand, people who do not believe in or fear God are far less likely to risk their lives, the most valuable possession may have, to defy a country's ruler, no matter how immoral his edicts.

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EXOD20 Although the cause is noble, the proper action to take--often the consequences of the action of civil disobedience, both in modern times and certainly in earlier times--is incarceration, if not a worse punishment. That is the price one pays for this form of protest. And what makes civil disobedience so noble is that people are attempting to act within the law to protest a government policy or law. The acceptance of punishment without resisting adds to the moral legitimacy of the act. The attitude to the consequence can be seen in the commentaries to the first instance of disobedience in the Torah. The midwives did not kill the babies, and when asked by Pharaoh why they disobeyed him, they offered the excuse that Jewish mothers are different and that they did not need midwives In order to give birth. It is not clear from the text whether Pharaoh believed this poor excuse. What happened as a result of this protest? Pharaoh ordered all Jewish male infants to be killed by being thrown into the Nile. Therefore, their protest had no tangible results since ultimately Jewish babies were being killed anyway. We can learn from this two lessons. First, that civil disobedience does not necessarily achieve the desired results. Yet, that does not signify that people should not attempt to protest anyway, as the Torah obviously lauds the midwives' actions has something noble and correct, not wasted. Second, we also can learn that even when one is sure that nothing will be accomplished, it is important to ensure that the immorality does not take place through your hand, if you know it to be wrong (do you listen to the teacher to student?).

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EXOD21 Long before Jewish law was even formally established, we can see many examples in the Jewish Bible that emphasize that lying is permitted in order to save one’s life. … Two of the Bible’s heroines, Shifra and Puah, risked their lives by defying Pharaoh after he told them to kill all the male Jewish babies, which they refused to do. When Pharaoh questioned them, they could not possibly tell him the truth about having saved the babies (and continue to live), so they lied to him saying that the Jewish others gave birth to their babies before they arrived at the scene.

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EXOD23 See [[EXOD12]] Exodus 1:16 kill SACKS 79-80

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EXOD22 Did God disapprove of the midwives' lies? Definitely not. The next verse informs us that "God dealt well with the midwives… And He established households for them" Exodus 1:20-21. Like Samuel I Samuel 16:1-3, Shifra and Puah had reason to fear that if they told Pharaoh the truth, he would execute them. These episodes yield important and still relevant lessons, among them being that we do not owe the truth to persecutors, and we do not have to accept martyrdom when it can be avoided.

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EXOD24 The story of the midwives that belongs to a larger vision implicit throughout the Torah and Tanakh as a whole: that right is sovereign over might, and that even God Himself can be called to account in the name of justice, as He expressly mandates Abraham to do. Sovereignty ultimately belongs to God, so any human act or order the transgresses the will of God is by that fact alone ultra vires. These revolutionary ideas are intrinsic to the biblical vision of politics and the use of power. In the end, though, it was the courage of two remarkable women that created the precedent later taken up by the American writer Thoreau in his classic essay Civil Disobedience (1849) that in turn inspired to Gandhi and Martin Luther King in the 20th Century. Their story also ends with a lovely touch. The text says: "So God was kind to the midwives and the people increased and became even more numerous. And because the midwives feared God, He gave them houses [this and following verse]." Luzzato interprets this last phrase to mean that He gave them families of their own. Often, he writes, midwives are women who are unable to have children. In this case, God blessed Shifra and Puah by giving them children, as He had done for Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel. This too is a not unimportant point. The closest Greek literature comes to the idea of civil disobedience is the story of Antigone who insisted on giving her brother Polynices a burial despite the fact that King Creon had refused to permit it, regarding him as a traitor to Thebes. Sophocles' Antigone is a tragedy: the heroine must die because of her loyalty to her brother and disobedience to the king. The Hebrew Bible, however, it is not a tragedy. In fact, biblical Hebrew has no word meaning "tragedy" in the Greek sense. Good is rewarded, not punished, because the universe, God's work of art, is a world in which moral behavior is blessed and evil, briefly in the ascendant, is ultimately defeated. Shifra and Puah are two of the great heroines of world literature, the first to teach humanity the moral limits of power.

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