Bityah, Daughter of God
Next month we turn to the book of Exodus, starting with Moses’ meeting God in a burning bush. But before that, Moses was a baby in a river. The following story comes from But God Remembered: Stories of Women from Creation to the Promised Land by Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso.
“When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter who made him her son. She named him Moses, explaining, I drew him out of the water.” Exodus 2:10
The Pharaoh had a daughter named Meroe who loved to bathe in the cool waters of the Nile. Her handmaids always joined her and stood by her side as she washed. One day as Meroe knelt down and scooped up water to splash on her face, she saw a little basket floating among the reeds. She knew it held a Hebrew child placed there to escape her father’s terrible decree.
Meroe loved her father, but not his hardheartedness. The Pharaoh had commanded that all boys born to Hebrew women be drowned in the Nile. He feared that the Israelite slaves, who grew in number every day, would revolt against him.
One of the slaves, Yocheved, had hidden her son from Pharaoh for as long as she could. Then she and her daughter Miriam put him in a wicker basket, sealed it with tar, and gently placed it on the Nile. They hoped that a kind stranger would rescue the child from the river cradle and care for him.
Meroe saw that the basket was drifting beyond her reach, so she asked her handmaids to help her fetch it. But they refused. “Surely, there is a Hebrew child in the basket,” they said. “Your father has commanded that all newborn Hebrew sons be killed. You are Pharaoh’s daughter. You cannot disobey.”
“I am Pharaoh’s daughter,” she agreed, “but I am also Meroe, a woman who will not watch a baby drown.” Meroe did not listen to the women, nor to her father’s command. She leaned forward as far as she could and extended her arms toward the floating cradle. The handmaids were astonished, as it seemed that her arms grew longer and longer until her fingers finally touched the edge of the basket, and she drew it toward her. Meroe gently lifted the basket, placed it on the riverbank, and opened it. There she saw a baby boy, more beautiful than any she had ever seen. The baby began to cry, and Meroe gathered him in her arms and held him close and loved him. “I will call you Moses because in the language of my people, Moses means son. And you are the child I drew out of the water.”
Then Meroe saw two women watching from a distance, and she knew they must be from the boy’s family. Meroe called Yocheved and Miriam out from hiding and spoke to them. “Care for this boy for two years. Then return him to me, and I will protect him from harm.”
So Yocheved cared for her son for two years. She named him Yekutiel. But God called the boy by the name Meroe had given him—Moses. And that is how he was to be known for all time.
At the end of two years, Yocheved brought Moses to Meroe, and Meroe brought him to the Pharaoh and said, “Father, for many years I have longed for a child. Every day I have wept and prayed by the Nile River. Now my prayers have been answered. The gods of the Nile have given me this boy. See how beautiful he is. I call him Moses, my son, because I drew him out of the water.”
Now Pharaoh thought that this boy might be a Hebrew child and not a gift of the Nile, but Pharaoh loved his only daughter. And because she loved the boy, he lifted Moses up and hugged him.
That is how it came to pass that Moses lived in Pharaoh’s palace.
The story continues! Join us in worship during December, or keep reading in But God Remembered.
Prayer: God who calls us by name, help us to be brave when we see people in danger. Give us the strength and love of Meroe. Amen.
