[Avodah] Moshe Rabeinu and his family

[Zev Sero]

On 9/03/2011 5:36 PM, Arie Folger wrote:
> On 9/03/2011 2:15 PM, Arie Folger wrote:
>> I don't claim that Bat Par'oh [...] told Moshe who his birth mother
>> was, nor that she knew (though the narrative strongly implies this
>> was clear to all participants
>
> RSZ replied:
>> How is it implied, strongly or weakly?  On the contrary, I think the
>> text implies that she did *not* know.
>
> Very simple. If you read the text without preconceptions, you see that
> it highlights a number of interesting twists.

Sorry, you're seeing things that are just not there.



> It becomes however positively daring when the slave girl* disregards
> all protocol and addresses the mighty princess directly.

Who says there was any protocol against it?  And in any case, protocol
never controls children.  A cat may look at a queen, and so may a seven-
year-old.



>  When you put all these together

All of what?  How was Bat Par`o aware of Miriam's role in getting her
parents to remarry?  She has no idea who this girl is.


> ought we not to ask why a girl would, out of
> nowhere, appear and suggest haeilekh lakh ishah meineqet min
> ha'ivriyot?

Why would we ask?  What is unusual about a little girl playing down
by the river?  And since the girl is Jewish, and sees a Jewish child
in need of a wet-nurse, what could be more natural than that she should
offer to be helpful and go find one?


> It becomes quie clear to all present that this girl must
> have some relationship to the boy

How?

> making it very likely that the wet
> nurse, the ishah meineqet, is the boy's mother.

Why?

> After all, wet nurses
> don't just run around by the thousands among the poor, the destitute
> and the downtrodden. It's a profession for those employed by the most
> wealthy, not for downcast slaves and their cousins.

Excuse me?!  That is the exact opposite of the truth.  Where *else*
does one find wet-nurses *but* among the poor, the destitute, and the
downtrodden?  Who else is it, do you think, who has spare milk?


> Then, the Pharao's daughter tells the woman to take that boy to nurse
> him, and she will pay her wage, which is as much as asking the
> presumed mother to relinquish her motherhood

Again, huh?  How on earth are you seeing that there?  What is in the
least unusual about offering to pay the wet-nurse the usual wage?
Did you think they work for free?

-- 
Zev Sero                      The trouble with socialism is that you
zev at sero.name                 eventually run out of other people’s money
                                                      - Margaret Thatcher