Pharaoh's Daughter Had Her Eyes Opened

Parasha Reflection: Shemot

Over the years, I have commented in different venues on the weekly Torah readings. In doing so, I tended to focus on “secondary” figures in the tale. Often, but not always, I would supply the rabbinic text that might support my fanciful flights, as I do below. And if you find these interesting reading, please feel free to share them….

Not in our text, but somewhere
Down the line, the rabbis 
Give us her name:
Batya, God’s daughter.

But our text calls her, 
Albeit namelessly, 
Pharaoh’s daughter, 
The imperious yet compassionate.

And like her son—
For one who raises a child
Is like a parent—
She sees what others

Could not, the Divine 
Presence hovering over
The ark borne babe, 
And she called him

Hers.   The story dispatched
In five lines.
Batya, called Yehudiyya, 
The Jewess, the first Egyptian

Convert, dipped in the river, 
And saved the savior. 



Exodus 2
5. Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe at the Nile,
and her girls were walking along the Nile.
She saw the little-ark among the reeds
and sent her maid, and she took it.
6. She opened [it] and saw him, the child—
now here, a boy weeping!
She pitied him, and she said:
One of the Hebrews’ children is this!
7. His sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter:
Shall I go and call a nursing woman from the Hebrews for you,
that she may nurse the child for you?
8. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her:
Go!
So the girl went and called the child’s mother.
9. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her:
Have this child go with you and nurse him for me,
and I myself will give you your wages.
So the woman took the child and she nursed him.
10. The child grew,* and she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter,
and he became her son.*
She called his name: Moshe/He-Who-Pulls-Out;*
she said: For out of the water meshitihu/I-pulled-him.
(Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses)


Siftei Chakhamim (Shabbetai ben Joseph Bass 17th C. Amsterdam)
 She opened (it) and saw (ותראהו) him, the child.  
She saw the Divine Presence with him. If [the verse means that]she saw Moshe, it should have stated ותראה (she saw). Therefore, the letter ו at the end of the word ותראהו refers to the Divine Presence, [Whom she saw with the child].

Or HaChaim (R Chaim b. Moshe ibn Atar - 18th c. Morocco)
Our sages in Sotah 12 explain the pronoun הו at the end of ותרא as a reference to Batya seeing the שכינה - the Divine Presence - together with the child. … Our sages may simply have meant that Batya saw that the baby was surrounded by a great halo; God arranged for this in order to impress Batya that this baby was someone special. The Zohar section 2, page 12 writes something similar concerning the words "the boy was crying," namely that the cries were on behalf of the Jewish people's suffering in exile. God opened her eyes in order for her to be able to "see" the great light surrounding Moses.

Megillah 13a
“And his wife HaYehudiyya bore Jered the father of Gedor, and Heber the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. And these are the sons of Bithiah (Bitya, Batya) the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took” (I Chronicles 4:18).
Why is she, who we are told at the end of the verse was Pharaoh’s daughter Bithiah, referred to as Yehudiyya (the Jewess)? Because she repudiated idol worship, as it is written: “And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself in the river” (Exodus 2:5), and Rabbi Yoḥanan said: She went down to wash and purify herself from the idols of her father’s house.

 Daf Shevua on Megillah 13a (Rabbi Joshua Kulp)
Pharaoh’s daughter did not really give birth to Moses, she only brought him up. From here we learn a message that is so important for all adoptive parents. Anyone who raises an orphan is treated as he bore him.

Zohar 3:167b
In one chamber, Batya, Pharaoh's daughter, comes, and so many thousands and thousands of women who merit to be with her. Every single one of them deserves the supernal lights and pleasures [of that place], nothing at all is withheld from any of them. Three times each day, the announcement is made: The likeness of Moshe, the faithful prophet, is coming! And Batya goes out, to that curtained area which is dedicated to her, and observes the likeness of Moshe, and bows before it, saying, "Happy is my portion, that I raised such a light!" This is her delight, above all others.

Midrash Mishlei 31

"She rises while it is still night" (Proverbs 31:15) - this is Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh. She was a gentile and became a Jewess and they mentioned her name among the proper [women], since she took care of Moshe.

All citations from Sefaria.org