Tzaddeket

Basya bas Pharaoh

בתיה בת פרעה

The daughter of Pharaoh who drew the infant Moshe from the Nile, raised him as her own son, and left her father's idols behind.

YahrzeitNot recorded

Biography

A Daughter of Pharaoh's House

Basya a"h was the daughter of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt who enslaved the Jewish people and decreed that every son born to them be thrown into the Nile. The Torah calls her only the daughter of Pharaoh. Her name is found in Divrei HaYamim, where she is called Bisya bas Pharaoh, and Chazal hear in it the words bas Yah, the daughter of Hashem.

Chazal teach that she turned away from the idols of her father's palace. When the Torah says that she went down to bathe in the river, Rebbi Yochanan, in the name of Rebbi Shimon bar Yochai, explains that she went to wash herself clean of the idols of her father's house. For this reason, the Gemara says, the verse in Divrei HaYamim also calls her HaYehudiyah, the Jewess, since anyone who rejects idolatry is called a Yehudi.

Her father's decree weighed on every Jewish home. In a family of the tribe of Levi a son was born, and his mother hid him for three months. The Midrash says that the house filled with light at his birth. When she could hide him no longer, she placed him in a basket coated with clay and pitch and set it among the reeds at the edge of the Nile, and his sister stood at a distance to see what would become of him.

Drawn from the Water

On that day Pharaoh's daughter came down to the river with her maidens. She saw the basket among the reeds. Chazal relate that her maidens warned her against defying her father's decree, and that she reached for the basket all the same. She had it brought to her and opened it. Inside was a baby boy, and he was crying. She had pity on him and said, This is one of the Hebrew children.

The Gemara relates that Pharaoh's astrologers had seen that the savior of Israel would meet his downfall through water, and that is why the decree had been made. Once this child had been placed in the water, they no longer saw the sign, and on that very day the decree was cancelled. They did not understand that what they had seen pointed to the waters of Merivah, years later. Rebbi Yochanan reads her words, this one, as a prophecy she did not know she was making: this one falls into the water, and no other will.

The baby would not nurse from any Egyptian woman; Chazal say that a mouth destined to speak with the Shechinah would not take their milk. His sister offered to bring a nurse from among the Hebrew women, and the nurse she brought was his own mother. When the child had grown, his mother brought him back to the palace, and he became a son to Pharaoh's daughter. She named him Moshe, saying, for I drew him out of the water.

Mother of Moshe Rabbeinu

The Midrash describes how she raised him. The child grew in a way unlike other children, and she kissed him and held him and loved him as though she had borne him, and she would not let him leave the king's palace. He was so beautiful that everyone wanted to see him. Pharaoh himself would hug him, and the child would take the king's crown and place it on his own head. The Midrash notes the wonder of it: the daughter of Pharaoh was raising the very one who would one day bring judgment on her father.

Moshe grew up as her son in the eyes of all Egypt. Years later, when he went out to see the suffering of his brothers and two Jews quarreled with him, the Midrash says they threw it at him: You are Yocheved's son. How is it that they call you the son of Batya?

Divrei HaYamim speaks of the sons of Bisya bas Pharaoh, and Chazal explain that the names there are names of Moshe, though it was Yocheved who gave birth to him. The Gemara learns from this a lasting principle: whoever raises an orphan in his home, the Torah regards him as if he had given birth to the child. In the same verse Chazal find Moshe's other names, Yered, Chever, Yekusiel and more, each describing what he would be for his people: the one in whose days the mann came down, who joined Israel to their Father in Heaven, and in whose days they placed their trust in Hashem.

Her Enduring Legacy

When Hashem struck the firstborn of Egypt at midnight, there was no Egyptian house without its dead. The Midrash teaches that firstborn daughters died as well, yet Pharaoh's daughter was spared, because a good advocate stood up for her: the child she had drawn from the river.

Chazal teach that she married Calev, who stood firm against the spies. Hashem said, let Calev, who rebelled against the counsel of the spies, come and marry the daughter of Pharaoh, who rebelled against the idols of her father's house. That, the Gemara explains, is why Divrei HaYamim calls her husband Mered, the one who rebelled.

The Torah never records her passing, and no kever or yahrzeit is known. Chazal count her among the few who entered Gan Eden alive, together with Chanoch, Eliyahu HaNavi, Eliezer the servant of Avraham and Serach bas Asher. The Midrash tells that Hashem gave her a name of His own: she had called a child who was not hers her son, and He called her His daughter.

Of all the names Moshe Rabbeinu was given, the Torah calls him only by the one she chose, and Hashem Himself called him by no other. Rebbe Elimelech of Lizhensk, in the Noam Elimelech, teaches that when she drew Moshe out of the water she returned him to his root in Hashem's kindness. Jews remember her as the princess who chose a crying Jewish child over her father's decree. Her story gives strength to everyone who raises a child not born to them, and to everyone who comes close to Hashem from far away.

Stories

The Princess at the River

Against her maidens' warnings and her father's decree, Pharaoh's daughter reached out to the basket in the reeds.

Pharaoh's daughter came down to the Nile, and her maidens walked along the bank beside her. Chazal say she had come to cleanse herself of the idols of her father's house. Then she noticed a basket floating among the reeds.

The Gemara relates that her maidens understood at once what she meant to do. They said to her: Our mistress, when a king issues a decree, even if the whole world ignores it, his own children and his household keep it. And you would break your father's decree? At that moment, Chazal say, the angel Gavriel came and struck them down. Only one maid was left, since it is not fitting for a princess to stand alone.

The basket was out of reach. The Torah says she sent amasah to take it, and one opinion in the Gemara reads the word as her arm: she stretched out her hand, and it grew many cubits long until it reached the basket.

She opened it and saw the child, and, the Gemara says, she saw the Shechinah with him. The baby was crying, and she was filled with compassion. She knew he was a Hebrew child, the Gemara explains, because he was circumcised.

The Midrash adds another tradition. Pharaoh's daughter had been stricken with tzaraas, and that was why she went down to bathe. When she touched the basket she was healed, and from that moment she had compassion on the child and loved him very much.

Source: Shemos 2:5–6; Gemara, Sotah 12b; Midrash Shemos Rabbah 1:23–24; Rashi on Shemos 2:5–6. English: The William Davidson Talmud (Koren–Steinsaltz); The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah (2022).

Practical lessonReach out your hand

The basket was too far away, and Basya stretched out her arm anyway; Hashem did the rest. Think of one person whose need seems out of your reach: someone sick in another city, a family in a crisis you cannot solve, a friend who has drifted. This week, do the part that is yours. Send the message, make the call, give the small donation, offer the one hour you have. You do not need to reach all the way. Stretch out your hand, and leave the distance to Hashem.

Here Is Your Own

When the baby would not nurse, Pharaoh's daughter handed him to a Hebrew nurse with words that were truer than she knew.

Pharaoh's daughter brought the baby to one Egyptian woman after another, and he would not nurse from any of them. Chazal explain that the mouth that would one day speak with the Shechinah would not take in what was impure.

His sister came forward and asked: Shall I go and call you a nurse from among the Hebrew women, to nurse the child for you? Pharaoh's daughter answered, Go. The Gemara says the girl went with the speed of a grown young woman, and another opinion adds that she kept her words hidden, never revealing whom she was about to bring.

She came back with the child's own mother. Pharaoh's daughter said to her: Take this child and nurse him for me, and I will pay your wages. Rebbi Chama bar Chanina hears a hidden message in her first word, heilichi, take. Read as two words, it means here is what is yours. Pharaoh's daughter was prophesying, and she did not know what she was saying.

Rebbi Chama adds another lesson from the same verse. Hashem does not only return to the righteous what they lost; He gives them a reward as well. The mother who had set her son among the reeds took him home again, nursed him in safety, and was paid wages for it by Pharaoh's daughter.

Source: Shemos 2:7–9; Gemara, Sotah 12b; Midrash Shemos Rabbah 1:25; Rashi on Shemos 2:7 and 2:9. English: The William Davidson Talmud (Koren–Steinsaltz); The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah (2022).

Practical lessonLet someone help you

Pharaoh's daughter had every resource of a palace, and she still listened when a young Jewish girl offered a better idea. This week, when someone offers to help with a problem you were handling alone, a neighbor, a younger colleague, one of your children, say yes. Listen to the whole suggestion before deciding. If it works, thank them by name. Accepting help gracefully is its own kindness, and sometimes it brings back to people exactly what belongs to them.

An Advocate at Midnight

When the firstborn of Egypt died, the princess who had saved Moshe was saved through him.

Many years after she drew Moshe from the river, he returned to Egypt as Hashem's messenger, and the plagues began to fall on her father's land. At last came the night of the tenth plague. At midnight Hashem struck every firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh on his throne to the firstborn of the captive in the dungeon, and a great cry rose up, for there was no house without its dead.

The Midrash teaches that the plague reached the firstborn daughters of Egypt as well. Only one was spared: Bisya, the daughter of Pharaoh. A good advocate was found for her, the Midrash says, and that advocate was Moshe, of whom it is written at his birth that his mother saw he was good.

The Midrash applies to her the words of Shlomo HaMelech in Eishes Chayil: she sees that her merchandise is good; her lamp does not go out at night. Long before, in the reeds of the Nile, she had seen that this child was worth saving. On the night that her own house was struck, that kindness came back to stand guard over her.

Source: Shemos 12:29–30; Midrash Shemos Rabbah 18:3 (on Mishlei 31:18 and Shemos 2:2). English: The Sefaria Midrash Rabbah (2022).

Practical lessonInvest in someone's good

Basya saw goodness in a crying baby that everyone else was ordered to destroy, and years later that goodness stood up for her. This week, choose one person in your life whose good others overlook: a struggling student, a difficult relative, a new employee. Tell them one specific thing you see in them, and do one concrete thing to help it grow, such as a recommendation, a lesson, or simply your time. You may never see the return. Do it anyway.

Teachings

I Call You My Daughter

Divrei HaYamim speaks of the sons of Bisya bas Pharaoh, and Chazal read the names there as names of Moshe. The Midrash in Vayikra Rabbah hears in her name a reward from Heaven. Hashem said to her: Moshe was not your son, yet you called him your son. You too are not My daughter, yet I call you My daughter. That is why she is called Bisya, bas Yah, the daughter of Hashem. The Gemara draws the practical rule from the same verse: whoever raises an orphan in his home, the Torah counts it as though he had given birth to the child. Basya took a child who was not hers and gave him a mother's love and a name. Hashem answered her in the same measure, taking a princess of Egypt as His own daughter.

Vayikra Rabbah 1:3 (on Divrei HaYamim I 4:18); Gemara, Megillah 13a

Practical lessonTreat someone as your own

Think of a child or young person in your life who is not yours: a student, a niece or nephew, a neighbor's child, a guest at your Shabbos table who has no family nearby. This week, give them one thing you would give your own: your full attention at a meal, help with homework, a call on their birthday, a word of praise in front of others. Basya's love for a child who was not hers made her Hashem's daughter. Every bit of that love counts above.

Back to His Root

The Noam Elimelech explains why Pharaoh's daughter named the child Moshe, for I drew him out of the water. The Egyptians knew that Moshe's soul came from the root of all chassadim, Hashem's kindnesses, and so they cast him into the water, to cut him off from his root. The Torah speaks of the upper waters and the lower waters, divided from one another, and the Egyptians meant to sink him in the lower waters and sever him from the upper ones. But Pharaoh's daughter took him out of the lower waters, and he cleaved again to his root. In Rebbe Elimelech's reading, her act of rescue was not only physical: she returned Moshe to his root, and he cleaved to it again.

Noam Elimelech, Bereishis, Vayetzei (on Shemos 2:10 and Bereishis 1:6)

Practical lessonHelp someone return to their root

Every Jew has a root of holiness, even when life has pushed them far from it. This week, think of one person who seems cut off: a friend who stopped coming to shul, a relative who feels distant from Yiddishkeit. Do not lecture. Invite them to a Shabbos meal, send them a short dvar Torah you enjoyed, or simply ask how they are. Like Basya at the river, you are not creating something new; you are helping someone back to where they already belong.

The Name That Remained

Moshe Rabbeinu had many names. Chazal find them in Divrei HaYamim and elsewhere: Yered, Chever, Yekusiel, Avi Gedor, Tuvyah, Shemayah and more, each describing a side of his greatness. Yet throughout the Torah he is called by one name only, Moshe, the name that Basya gave him when she said she had drawn him from the water. The Midrash in Shemos Rabbah says that from here we learn the reward of those who do kindness. Even Hashem called him by no other name; Vayikra Rabbah adds that when He called to Moshe from the Ohel Moed, it was by the name Bisya bas Pharaoh had chosen. One act of compassion at the river became the name by which the giver of the Torah is known forever.

Shemos Rabbah 1:26 (on Shemos 2:10); Vayikra Rabbah 1:3 (on Vayikra 1:1)

Practical lessonName what you love in someone

Basya's name for Moshe recalled the kindness she had done, and it stayed with him forever. Words we give people can last that long. This week, give someone a lasting word: tell a child what you saw them do well and name the quality, such as honest, generous or brave. Write a short note of thanks to someone who helped you years ago. Choose your words with care. What you call people can become part of who they are.

Family & talmidim

Children: Moshe Rabbeinu, whom she raised as her son

Historical sources