Down by the Riverside: A Collusion of Mothers for Moses

Abstract: The story of Moses's birth and salvation entails a collusion between three female figures: his biological mother (a Hebrew slave), his sister, and his Egyptian adoptive mother, Pharaoh's daughter. Through a close reading of the biblical text, the author shows how mother and daughter deliberately place the reed basket (or "ark") where it might be found by Pharaoh's daughter; the princess then defies her father's decree not only by saving the infant but in adopting him and raising him within the palace precincts. While rabbinic midrash sees the Egyptian princess as exceptional, portraying her anachronistically as a model convert and renaming her Bityah (that is, Batyah, daughter of Yah, God), the author conjectures that this collusion between Hebrew slavewomen and Egyptian aristocracy to save the infant Hebrew boy may very well have been a prevalent phenomenon. The essay closes with an original midrashic retelling of the narrative that highlights the alliance between Moses's Egyptian/Hebrew mothers.