D'var Torah - January 16, 2009

D’var Torah 1-16-09  -  Rabbi Mark S. Kram, Temple Beth Or, Miami, FL

One (or two) people can make a difference!

Shifrah and Puah are two unlikely and largely unremembered heroes of the Exodus story which begin our parasha this Shabbat.  They are the midwives who disobeyed the order of the Pharaoh to kill all first-born Jewish male children.  The fear of the Jewish people becoming too large a population within the country and threatening Egyptian stability from within was the cause of the monarch’s order.

The act of saving these children’s lives yielded Moses.  As the leader of the people to help them escape Egypt, the master story of our people begins with an act of civil disobedience so powerful and yet so ethical to attain a permanent place of honor in our tradition.

The small acts among these two co-conspirators remind us that any act – doing what is right – even in our own small way can and DOES make a difference.  The idea of two “minor players” – two unremarkable women assisting in birthing our nation, serves as a model for all who do what is right.  Our actions do count.  They live beyond us in ways in which we might not know at the time, but urge the universe in a “right” direction.

What Shifrah or Puah acts are you going to do TODAY to make our world and the Jewish story flourish?