Sotah 12b — the Talmud in English

“And Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe in the Nile.”

Rabbi Yohanan said in the name of Rabbi Shimon ben Yohai: This teaches that she went down to bathe from the idols of her father,

that is, she went down to immerse in the river for the sake of conversion.

And likewise it says

and it is likewise proven that the expression “bathing” is written in a place where one is cleansed from sins, from what is written:

“when the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and so on,”

thus the expression “bathing” is stated when a person returns and cleanses himself of his sin.

“And her maidens walked, and so on.” Rabbi Yohanan said: This walking is not

that Pharaoh’s daughter’s maidens walked,

but an expression of death. And likewise it says

concerning Esau:

“Behold, I am going to die.”

And we explain what the matter of death was that occurred to her maidens. It says:

“And she saw the basket among the reeds,”

when Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket in which Moses was, in the water, and wanted to take him out.

Once they saw that she was endeavoring to rescue Moses,

when her maidens saw that she wanted to rescue Moses,

her maidens said to her,

to Pharaoh’s daughter:

“Our mistress, the practice of the world is that a flesh-and-blood king issues a decree;

even if

the entire world does not fulfill it,

at the very least

his sons and members of his household fulfill it. Yet you are transgressing your father’s decree,”

that he had commanded all the boys to be killed.

The angel

Gabriel

came and struck them

into the ground,

and they died. This is the expression of death stated concerning Pharaoh’s daughter’s maidens, “and her maidens walked,” for in this walking they died through Gabriel.

“And she sent her amah and took it.”

And Rabbi Judah and

Rabbi Nehemiah

disagreed over what her amah was that she sent to take the basket.

One said

that she sent her

hand

to take the basket,

and one said

that she sent her

maidservant

so that she would take the basket.

The one who says “her hand”

the one who explained that the intention was that she sent her hand explained this because

it is written, amata,

and it is not written na’arata, as her maidens are called at the beginning of the verse [Rashash in Midrash Rabba].

And the one who says “her maidservant”

explained it this way, and did not explain that the intention was her hand,

because “her hand” is not written.

And we object: How,

according to the one who says “her maidservant,”

is it possible to say that she sent her maidservant,

when you said that Gabriel came and struck them into the ground,

and they died, and there was no one left to send?

And we answer:

He left one for her,

for Gabriel did not kill all her maidens, but left one for her, because

it is not the way

it is not the way

of a king’s daughter

that a king’s daughter

should stand alone,

should go alone. And that maidservant who remained alive she sent, so that she would take the basket out of the water.

And we object:

And according to the one who says

that she sent her

hand, “her hand” should have been written

so that we would not err and say that the intention was her maidservant.

And we answer:

This teaches us

that it was stated in the language amata, in order to teach us

that it stretched out repeatedly,

that her hand was too short to reach the basket, and the Holy One, blessed be He, performed a miracle for her and her hand was extended sixty cubits; therefore the Torah wrote amata.

For the Master said, and likewise you find concerning the amata of Pharaoh’s daughter,

that the Holy One, blessed be He, extended her hand so that she could reach the basket.

And likewise you find concerning the teeth of the wicked, for it is written, “You have broken the teeth of the wicked,” and Reish Lakish said: Do not read shibarta, “You have broken,” but shirbavta, “You have extended.”

And he expounds this concerning Og, king of Bashan: he uprooted a mountain in order to throw it upon Israel, and they brought it upon his head; the Holy One, blessed be He, sent ants that bored through the mountain, and it entered his neck. Og wanted to remove the mountain from himself, but the Holy One, blessed be He, performed a miracle, and his teeth grew out to this side and that, and he could not remove it. Moses came and killed him.

“And she opened it and saw him, the child”—it should have said, “and she saw him.”

It should have been written “and she saw,” meaning that she saw the child; why did the Torah write “and she saw him”?

Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Hanina said: For she saw the Divine Presence with him,

and therefore it is written “and she saw him,” for she saw the Divine Presence, which is alluded to by the letters heh and vav, dwelling within him.

“And behold, a youth was crying.”

And we object: At the beginning of the verse it says, “and she saw him, the child,” and therefore

it calls him

the Torah called him

“child,” and

if so, why at the end of the verse

does it call him

does the Torah call him

“youth,”

which implies that he was grown and not a child?

And we answer:

The tanna says: He was a child

Moses was a child

but his voice was like that of a youth,

but his voice was like the voice of a youth. Therefore, when his voice was mentioned, that he was crying, it was said, “and behold, a youth was crying,” since the voice of his crying was like that of a youth.

The words of Rabbi Judah.

Rabbi Nehemiah said to him: If so,

according to your words,

you have made Moses our teacher blemished,

since his voice was not like that of a child but like that of a youth.

Rather,

as for what is written, that he was a youth,

this teaches that his mother made for him a nuptial canopy of youth in the basket,

because

she said: Perhaps

he will die, and I

will not merit

to see him enter

his nuptial canopy;

therefore “youth” was said, for he was grown with regard to the nuptial canopy of youth that his mother made for him.

“And she had compassion upon him and said: This is one of the children of the Hebrews.”

From where did she know

from where did Pharaoh’s daughter know that Moses was Jewish?

Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Hanina said: For she saw that he was circumcised,

and from this she understood that he was Jewish.

“This”—

Rabbi Yohanan said: This teaches that she prophesied without knowing it.

And what was the prophecy?

“This one falls,”

that Moses was the last one who fell into the Nile,

“and no other one falls”

into the Nile, because on that day the decree, “Every son who is born, you shall cast into the Nile,” was annulled.

And this is

and from here it is proven what

Rabbi Elazar said: What is the meaning of that which is written, “And when they say to you: Seek to the ghosts and the familiar spirits, who chirp and mutter”?

When they say to you that you should go to learn the future from the ghosts and the familiar spirits, know that they

see

they see some sign, but

they do not know what they see;

and likewise they

mutter, but they do not know what they mutter.

And the proof of this is that Pharaoh’s astrologers

saw

in the stars

that the savior of Israel would be struck in water;

he would be punished through water. Therefore

they arose and decreed: “Every son who is born, you shall cast into the Nile,”

and they thought that this was the end of the savior of Israel.

But in the end they erred, for

once they cast Moses

when Moses was in the basket in the water,

they said,

the astrologers:

“We no longer see,”

they no longer saw

that sign,

that the savior of Israel would be struck in water. They understood from this that the savior of Israel had already been struck, and this was indeed correct, for at that time, while he was in the water, he was truly considered to have been struck in water, and at that time the sign in the stars was annulled. Therefore

they annulled their decree;

they annulled the decree because they thought that he had already been struck in water.

But

in truth

they did not know

Pharaoh’s astrologers did not know

that

the savior of Israel, who was Moses,

would be struck at the waters of Meribah,

that Moses would be punished by not entering the Land of Israel because he struck the rock to bring water from it instead of speaking to it [and the sign was annulled only while he was in the Nile, and he was considered to have been struck].

And this is what

and this is what

Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina said: What is the meaning of that which is written, “They are the waters of Meribah, where they contended”? “They are”

they are the waters

that Pharaoh’s astrologers saw, and they erred

in thinking that he would die in water when he was cast into the Nile.

And this is what

and concerning this

Moses said: “Six hundred thousand on foot, and so on,”

and the Gemara learns that the meaning of the word “on foot” is like “because of,” for

Moses said to Israel: “Because of me you were all saved,”

for because the Egyptians thought that the savior of Israel, who was Moses, had died in the Nile, they annulled the decree, “Every son who is born, you shall cast into the Nile.” It follows that all the lives of the Israelites, whom they did not cast into the Nile, were by Moses’s merit.

Rabbi Hanina bar Pappa said: That day

when Moses was in the Nile

was the twenty-first of Nisan. The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He: “Master of the universe, the one who is destined to recite the song at the sea on this day”

for the splitting of the Sea of Reeds was on the seventh day after their departure from Egypt, and this was the twenty-first of Nisan—

will be struck on this day.”

Rabbi Aha bar Hanina said: That day was the sixth

of Sivan. The ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He: “Master of the universe, the one who is destined to receive the Torah from Mount Sinai on this day”

for the giving of the Torah was on the sixth of Sivan—

will be struck on this day.”

And we object: Yokheved bore Moses and hid him for three months; then, when she saw that she could no longer hide him, she placed him in a basket. The Gemara discusses when those three months were.

Granted, according to the one who says

that Moses was in the Nile

on the sixth of Sivan, one can find three months,

we have three months,

for the Master said: On the seventh of Adar he died, and on the seventh of Adar Moses was born, and

it follows that

from the seventh of Adar

when Moses was born

until the sixth of Sivan,

when she placed him in the Nile, there were

three months. But according to the one who says that on the twenty-first of Nisan he

was in the Nile,

how can one find it

where do we find three months between his birth and the time when he was in the Nile? According to the calculation, from the seventh of Adar until the twenty-first of Nisan there are less than a month and a half.

And we answer:

That year was a leap year,

and it follows that there were two months of Adar, and the calculation is:

the greater part of the first

from the seventh of Adar until the end of the month, and this is considered a complete month;

and the greater part of the last

from the beginning of Nisan until the twenty-first of Nisan, and this too is considered a complete month;

and a complete middle one

the second month of Adar was complete—thus there were three months.

“And his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter: Shall I go and call for you a nursing woman from the Hebrews?”

And we infer that Miriam asked Pharaoh’s daughter to bring specifically a nursing woman from the Hebrews.

And what is different

about Hebrews

why did she specifically ask to bring a Hebrew woman and not an Egyptian woman?

This teaches that they brought Moses around to all the Egyptian women, but he did not

agree to

nurse,

because

the Holy One, blessed be He, said: “Shall a mouth that is destined to speak with the Divine Presence nurse something impure?”

And this is what is written: “Whom shall He teach knowledge, and whom shall He make understand the message? Those weaned from milk and removed from the breasts,”

and its meaning is: Whom will the Holy One, blessed be He, teach Torah?

Those weaned from milk and removed from the breasts,

someone who has been weaned and separated himself from impure milk, who did not nurse from impure breasts. From this we learn that the Divine Presence does not speak with one who nursed from an impure woman. Therefore the Holy One, blessed be He, did not want Moses to nurse from the Egyptian women, since he was destined to speak with Him.

“And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her: Go,” and so on.

And the young woman went and called the child’s mother—

Rabbi Elazar said: This teaches that she went

Miriam

with the swiftness of a young woman,

like a young woman who has all her strength upon her.

Rabbi Shmuel bar Nahmani said: “The young woman”—for she concealed her words,

for Miriam concealed from Pharaoh’s daughter that she was his sister and that she was bringing his mother to nurse him.

“And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her: Take this child.” -

Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina said: She was prophesying,

Pharaoh’s daughter prophesied

but did not know what she was prophesying,

for she said

“Hilikhi,”

whose meaning is

“this is yours,”

that this child was yours—and in truth she was his mother.

“And I shall give you your wages.”—

Rabbi Hama son of Rabbi Hanina said: Is it not enough for the righteous that their lost property is returned to them,

for here Pharaoh’s daughter returned Moses to Yokheved, his mother,

but they are also given their wages,

for she paid her for nursing him.

“And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took,” and so on.—

The Gemara infers that the verse emphasized

“the sister of Aaron,” and not “the sister of Moses.” Rav Amram said in the name of Rav—and some say Rav Nahman said in the name of Rav: This teaches that she prophesied when she was the sister of Aaron,

that is, when Moses had not yet been born, but only Aaron had been born, since Aaron was older than Moses.