Shemos 1:22 · unit 2

Parashas Shemos · Passuk 1:22

The Complete Passuk

וַיְצַ֣ו פַּרְעֹ֔ה לְכׇל־עַמּ֖וֹ לֵאמֹ֑ר כׇּל־הַבֵּ֣ן הַיִּלּ֗וֹד הַיְאֹ֙רָה֙ תַּשְׁלִיכֻ֔הוּ וְכׇל־הַבַּ֖ת תְּחַיּֽוּן׃ {פ}

Then Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, “Every boy that is born you shall throw into the Nile, but let every girl live.”

Chabad.org — 1:22

Source Citation

Torah Temimah points to Sotah 12a (verified).

Sefaria — Sotah 12a

Core Text of Chazal

Core Text — Sotah 12a

היאורה תשליכוהו — ראו אצטגניני פרעה שמושיען של ישראל במים הוא לוקה, עמדו וגזרו כל הבן הילוד היאורה תשליכוהו. כיון דשדיוהו למשה, אמרו תו לא חזינן בההוא סימנא ובטלו לגזירתייהו, והם אינם יודעים שעל מי מריבה הוא לוקה.

English: “Into the Nile you shall cast him” — Pharaoh’s astrologers saw that the redeemer of Israel would be struck through water; they arose and decreed that every son born should be cast into the Nile. Once Moshe was thrown in, they said, “We no longer see that sign,” and they annulled their decree — but they did not know that he would be struck at the waters of Merivah.

On the daf / in context: The choice of the Nile is explained by the astrologers’ vision. After Moshe was placed in the water the sign disappeared from their calculations, so the decree was lifted; the true fulfillment of the water-related blow would come decades later at Mei Merivah.

Type of Learning

Custom — historical etiology of the Nile decree.

What Is Learned

Chazal teach that the decree of drowning was prompted by a partial vision of the redeemer’s future connection to water, a vision that was misread both in timing and in location.

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