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Why did the midwives receive such immense reward—Kehunah, Leviyah, and Malchus—for refusing to kill Jewish children when any human being is obligated not to murder under duress? The shiur develops a yesod that while technically permitted under Noahide law to obey when coerced, the midwives possessed yirat Elokim—awe of God—a level where one cannot even entertain doing what God does not want, regardless of legal exemption.
Rabbi Zweig addresses a fundamental question that troubled him for over twenty years: the Torah (תורה)'s account of the midwives Shifrah and Puah (Yocheved and Miriam) who refused Pharaoh's command to kill Jewish baby boys. The Torah states "the midwives feared God" and rewards them with houses—interpreted by Chazal as producing the lineages of Kehunah, Leviyah, and Malchus. The difficulty is profound: according to the Rambam (רמב"ם) and Minchas Chinuch, even a non-Jew is obligated to allow himself to be killed rather than commit murder, following the Gemara (גמרא)'s logic that "your blood is not redder" than another's. If every human being is required to act as the midwives did, why do they deserve such extraordinary reward? The shiur presents a revolutionary reading of the Rambam's position on Noahide law and coercion. Rabbi Zweig distinguishes between two fundamentally different situations where one might transgress to preserve life. The first is where a person actively needs to transgress to save himself—for example, eating non-kosher food when sick, or killing someone to obtain an organ transplant. For Jews, this is governed by "v'chai bahem"—the principle that one should live by the mitzvos. However, Gentiles have no such principle of v'chai bahem in Noahide law, and therefore may not transgress the seven Noahide laws even to save their own lives.
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Shemos 1:15-21
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