Saying Thanks to Mom at Passover

When you sit down to your Passover meal this year, remember the Jewish women who got you there. Moses is not the sole hero of the Passover story. Every Jewish woman deserves a big “thank you” at Passover, and not just for all the hard work that goes into preparing for the holiday.

According to the Talmud (Sotah 11b) it was due to the merit of Jewish women that the Israelites were redeemed from Egypt. The Talmud tells us that Israelite women continued to conceive despite the Egyptian repression and potential murder of their firstborn child. According to this same narrative, when the Israelite women were ready to give birth, they would go out into the fields to avoid detection and God would send an angle to assist the birthing and feed the child.

We must not forget the Hebrew midwives, Shifra and Puah, who defied Pharoah’s decree to kill all male Israelite babies because they “feared God.” We must not forget Yocheved, Moses’ mother, who hid Moses and placed her family at risk to protect her son, the eventual liberator of her people. We must not forget Miriam, who as a young girl helped bring her baby brother Moses to safety in Pharaoh’s home, and who led the Israelites in recognizing the miracle of G-d’s redemption at the Sea of Reeds. Without all these remarkable women, the Exodus would not have occurred.

We should also remember that these women freedom-fighters were not the last of their kind. Jewish women have always been at the forefront of demanding freedom throughout the generations. Just as we should remember Miriam, we should also remember the efforts and pay tribute to women such as Henrietta Szold, who offered freedom from disease to Jews and Arabs living in the Land of Israel, Barbara Myerhoff, who liberated the voices of the Jewish elderly through her writings, Golda Meir, who helped the State of Israel remain the only democratic state in the Middle East, Gertrude Elion, who offered a cancer-free life to thousands of leukemia-stricken children.

When you are sitting at your Seder table, remember these women, and may others that have had a profound impact on America, Judaism, and the world. If you would like to add their voices to your Passover celebration, you can learn more at the Jewish Women’s Archive. Their database of magnificent women can be accessed online at www.jwa.org. Perhaps their stories, both biblical and contemporary, can help you to find a renewed interest both at your Passover table and in your Jewish living.