Parshas Vaeira 5776

Who were Shifrah and Puah?

The Torah writes (Exodus 6:20):

And Amram took Jochebed his father’s sister as a wife; and she bore him Aaron and Moses. And the years of the life of Amram were a hundred and thirty and seven years.

Earlier, the Torah writes (Exodus 1:15):

And the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, of whom the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah;

Rashi (ibid) connects them to Yocheved and Miriam:

This is Yocheved, due to her beautifying the newborn. This is Miriam, due to her crying and cooing to the newborn, in the manner of women who appease crying children.

This is based on the Talmud (Sotah 11b), which cites another opinion as well:

Rav and Shmuel, one said they were a woman and her daughter, and one said they were a woman and her daughter-in-law. The opinion that said this was a woman and her daughter, these were Yocheved and Miriam. And the opinion that said this was a woman and her daughter-in-law, these were Yocheved and Elisheva [wife of Aharon]

(see also Josh Waxman's parshablog)

Another opinion is that they were not Jews, and became converts. Yalkut Shemoni (Nach 9) writes:

There are some righteous women who converted: Hagar, Asenath, Tzeporah, Shifra, Puah, daughter of Pharoh, Rahab, Ruth, and Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenanite

The Kli Yakar (ibid) also cites a similar opinion:

Some say that the midwives were Egyptian for if they were Jews, why did the Torah ephasize that the "midwives feared G-d"

Who was Eleazar's Wife?

The Torah writes (Exodus 6:25):

And Eleazar Aaron’s son took him one of the daughters of Putiel to wife; and she bore him Phinehas. These are the heads of the fathers’ houses of the Levites according to their families.

The Talmud (Bava Bathra 109b-110a, also in Sotah 43a) cites two opinions regarding her descent, via a grandparent:

From Yisro who fattened calves for idols ... from Joseph, who conquered his desires ... If his mother's father was from Joseph, then his mother's mother was from Yisro; if his mother's father was from Yisro, then his mother's mother was from Joseph. This is what it means "from the daughters of Putiel" implying two ancestry lines.

(Similar explanation for Yisro's name also appears regarding Potiphar in Bereishit Rabbah [86:3], see here)

However, Ibn Ezra argues (ibid):

Putiel was a Jew and we don't know the meaning of his name just like we don't known the reason for Mishael and all names that are mentioned like Aaron.

(see also the Ramban [ibid] and Abarbanel who explain in a similar fashion; also see Josh Waxman's parsha blog here and here, and Rabbi Dov Kramer here)

[Published at parshapeople.blogspot.com / Comments welcome to parsha-people@publishyoursefer.com]