#yocheved

(5 minute read)

Pesach will soon be here and with it the exhortation to relive the events of the exodus at our family Seder. I was raised by a strong mother to look for the hidden stories of women in the Torah and to celebrate them. When we think of of women associated with Shemot (Exodus) we tend to think of Miriam, sister of Moshe (Moses). One of the Tanakh's 7 prophetesses, she plays a key part. But what of her mother without whom neither Miriam nor Moshe would have existed?

Being a mother to 4 children myself, tales like that of Yocheved call out to me. How could they not? Here is a young woman faced with making awful and fateful choices. Egypt, concerned that their slaves did not become powerful and fight back, decided to curtail that population in a cruel and devastating way. Jews were very fecund. How do you halt that? By killing baby males and leaving only females (where have I heard that one before?).

Imagine yourself as Yocheved. You are joyfully pregnant. Having a bump is so wonderful. This is what I'm made for. This is how I serve Hashem. Within you, you carry new life and new hope. There's a royal decree out though that all new baby boys should be drowned at birth. Just boys, not girls. When you're pregnant, you need to be positive and happy, choosing names for your new baby: One for if she's a girl, another for if he's a boy. Only now you are worried if he's a boy, because he's going to die and be cruelly murdered, in front of you. You do what any mother would do; you make plans, feverishly thinking things out. You have a mother's intuition that this is your new baby son and you are going to fight to protect him, hide him. Except you know you can't for long.

You have to give birth in secret. How do you hide a crying little baby? Hush little baby, suck, drink and let me think. Just how long can I carry on hiding you? They're drowning poor little babies in the river right now. What chance do I have? Maybe, just maybe, if I take him down to the river in his basket, people will think I'm about to drown him and leave us be. What if I line the basket so it won't sink? He will float away, I will have to say goodbye to my precious little son then go home and cry; weeping; tearing my clothes; tearing my hair, harming myself. What use is my body, my maternal feelings if I can't dare to get pregnant ever again?

How do you face saying goodbye to the tiny little boy you've just given birth to: saying goodbye to your nine months together. Hearing him cry as he floats away down the Nile?

Your little daughter Miriam watches, hiding in the reeds by the riverside. She's the one who sees him saved from being eaten or drowning; caught in the rushes by the royal palace. She sees what happens as a royal princess, coming down to bathe, hears the baby's cries and takes him to cradle in her arms. She's young and suddenly feels that rush of maternal feelings she has never felt in her life before. He's crying and hungry. He wants milk. She feels those wails as tingling in her own breasts but she has no milk to give. It makes her sad. She so want's to keep him. Much nicer than the dolls she played with as a child: so beautiful, so perfect; those darling eyes. Now here's a little girl, running up to look. "I'm his sister, I know a lady who's just lost her baby who could nurse him for you".

Now imagine being called to the Royal Palace and finding you're being offered a poorly paid job to nurse your own baby for some rich lady who now has him because she hasn't yet had a child herself. She wants something nice to do but she needs your help. She hold him out for you to take. He latches on so easily, sucks greedily as you give him the best gift of life you can. The sacred bond between you and your little boy is restored, even if you can't be acknowledged as his Mum. You gaze down in loving contentment, just happy that he is alive. You watch as his little lips seal around your nipple as he sucks, drawing you into his mouth; greedily at first then slowly as his thirst subsides. You watch the beatific look on his little face as he drifts off into contentment and peaceful sleep.

He will be safe now. He has a mother and a wet nurse. He'll grow up a royal baby; pampered and given the best food when he is weaned. Then sadly you'll lose him to this grand lady and maybe never see him again because you're just a lowly woman and he will be a Prince.

What you don't know and can't see, is what this royal prince of Egypt will become. He'll grow, mature, have crises and doubts but in the end, this is the little baby who will lead your people out from Egypt to better things, leaving a bereft and devastated country behind; plagued by problems, quite literally. This is the baby who will take your people from this narrow place to freedom.

When you sit around your Seder table, don't forget his mother. Don't forget the ordeal and amazing courage this young woman showed. Adonai chose her to conceive, give birth and protect this child who was to become a prophet and leader. She fulfilled her female destiny through pregnancy, morning sickness, the pain of birth and parting from him; the reunion and life giving milk she gave him from her body. This is what she was made for. She made history just by being a mother even if it was under terrible circumstances.

So let's remember all Mums this Pesach 2026. Let's remember their courage, their sacrifices and the love they freely give. Without us Jewish Mums, we would have had no freedom or future.

Enjoy your Seder

Propaganda Under Cut:

Okay. I hope I don't get too many more Bible character asks, because I'm honestly not religious , but here goes. I'll cover both mother and daughter together, because one of my favorite pictures of them is a painting of them both.

Favorite thing about them:

Jochebed: Her love, bravery, and cleverness in protecting her son Moses, by technically following the law ("Every Hebrew boy must be thrown into the Nile") but putting him in a water-tight basket and having her daughter watch over him until he's safely found.

Miriam: Her status as a revered female prophet, who protected her brother Moses as a child, who led the Israelites in music and dance at the Red Sea, and who earned the respect and loyalty of her people. I especially like the emphasis that modern Judaism places on her holiness and position of power.

Least favorite thing about them:

Jochebed: That she had to give up her son to save his life, the poor woman, though at least she was able to be his wet nurse.

Miriam: Her possible racism in criticizing Moses "because of his Cushite wife." Although people have tried to find a more sympathetic explanation for that passage: for example, one legend has it that Miriam and Aaron were defending Zipporah, because Moses had separated from her to live a more holy life of celibacy, not objecting to Moses having married her. At any rate, at least she's punished and humbled when God strikes her with a temporary skin disease.

Three things I have in common with them:

*I'm part Jewish.

*I have dark hair, as they must have in that time and place.

*Like Miriam with her tambourine, I believe in the spiritual power of music.

Three things I don't have in common with them:

*I've never been a slave.

*I'm not devoutly religious.

*I've never lived in Egypt.

Favorite line: From The Prince of Egypt:

Jochebed

"Hush now, my baby

Be still, love, don't cry.

Sleep as you're rocked by the stream.

Sleep and remember

My last lullaby,

So I'll be with you when you dream.

River, o river,

Flow gently for me

Such precious cargo you bear

Do you know somewhere

He can be free?

River, deliver him there"

Miriam

Singing as a child:

"Brother, you're safe now,

And safe may you stay,

For I have a prayer just for you

Grow, baby brother,

Come back someday,

Come and deliver us too"

Encouraging Moses as an adult:

"Moses, hear what I say. I have been a slave all my life. And God has never answered my prayers until now. God saved you from the river, He saved you in all your wanderings, and even now, He saves you from the wrath of Pharaoh. God will not abandon you. So don't you abandon us."

brOTP: Each other, Moses and Aaron.

OTP: For Jochebed, her husband Amram. For Miriam, her own husband, whoever he was, if she did marry (traditions vary).

nOTP: Moses or Aaron.

Random headcanon: For Jochebed, she was born very late in her father Levi's life, so even though her husband Amram was her nephew, she was younger than he was. (I hope nothing in the text contradicts this.) Of course, the very fact that Levi, son of Jacob, was her father is hard to believe, because it would have made her an impossibly elderly mother when Moses was born, even older than Sarah was at Isaac's miraculous birth. But we probably shouldn't worry about whether the timeline is realistic or not – it's innately convoluted and full of contradictions, probably because it consists of multiple sources strung together over centuries.

For Miriam, I like the Jewish legend that a well or a spring followed her throughout the desert, providing water for the Israelites, and that it dried up when she died, which explains why in the Book of Numbers there's suddenly no water after her death.

Unpopular opinion: I don't think I have one.

Song I associate with them:

For Jochebed:

"Deliver Us" from The Prince of Egypt

For Miriam:

"Miriam's Song" by Debbie Friedman

"When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt

Favorite picture of them:

This painting of mother and daughter together with baby Moses.

Of Jochebed:

These stills from The Prince of Egypt. (The first two also featuring little Miriam, little Aaron, and baby Moses.)

Of Miriam:

This modern painting, because unlike most paintings of Miriam at the Exodus with her tambourine, it shows her correct age. Most classic paintings of the scene make the mistake of portraying her as a young woman, but she was Moses's older sister, which means she would have been in her eighties! Please, artists, let elderly women play music and dance!

From The Prince of Egypt, as a child and as an adult. (Even though the movie does make adult Miriam younger at the Exodus than she would have been, that's okay, because it makes Moses younger too.)