For the source text click/tap here: Sotah 11
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Continuing with the theme of reciprocity, where one's behaviour or words or thoughts leads to a complimentary consequence later in life, the rabbis examine some of the book of Exodus. In particular, they focus on the lives of Israelites while in Egypt, the Pharaoh, and the women mentioned in the story of the Exodus.
The Torah relates that Pharaoh, in his attempt to reduce the growth of the Jewish people and to eliminate the perceived threat of rebellion (Shemos 1:10), ordered the Jewish midwives (1:15) to kill every baby boy that was born (1:16). The Gemara relates that he taught them a way to discern when the expectant mothers were ready to give birth (so that they would not be able to give birth in secret and hide their babies; Rashi). Pharaoh also taught them how to discern whether the baby -- before it emerged from the womb -- was a boy or a girl. The Torah relates that the midwives "feared G-d" (1:17) and they did not kill the babies, but, on the contrary, they helped keep them alive.
Who were the midwives who risked their lives to save male Hebrew babies—Israelites or Egyptians? A text discovered at the Cairo Genizah sheds new light on this exegetical conundrum.