Total Allegiance to God: The Lesson of Shifrah and Puah

Rabbi Zweig addresses a fundamental question that has troubled him for a quarter-century: why did Shifrah and Puah merit such extraordinary rewards—kehunah, leviah, and malchus—for refusing to kill Jewish boys as Pharaoh commanded? The question is sharpened by the Minchas Chinuch's ruling on the universal law against murder: when someone threatens to kill you unless you kill another person, the law is "yehareg v'al ya'avor"—you must allow yourself to be killed rather than commit murder. This applies not only to Jews but to all humanity based on logic: what makes you think your blood is redder than his? Therefore, every human being is obligated to refuse to murder even under threat of death. If so, what was so remarkable about the midwives' refusal that warranted such exceptional reward? Rabbi Zweig proposes a revolutionary reading of the entire narrative. The key lies in understanding what Pharaoh was actually commanding. When the Torah (תורה) says "vayomas melech Mitzrayim," Rashi (רש"י) explains that the king became a leper (metzora), and the prescribed cure was to slaughter Jewish children and bathe in their blood—150 in the morning and 150 at night. The Mizrachi asks a powerful question: if the Torah states that the Jewish people cried out "min ha'avodah" (from the work), how can Chazal say they were crying about the slaughter of children due to Pharaoh's leprosy? The verse explicitly attributes their cries to the work!