Let My People Go - The Birth of Moses

Jocheved, the wife of the Levite Amram, gives birth to a son. When she can no longer hide him, she weaves a basket from some tall weeds growing by the Nile River. To keep him safe, she floats the basket down the river. The child's sister, Miriam, hides among the reeds to watch the child.

Pharaoh's daughter comes to bathe in the river when she sees the floating cradle. When she opens it and sees the weeping baby, she realizes that this is a Jewish child, but her compassion is aroused and she resolves to take the baby home. She names him Moses, "he who was drawn from the water."

Miriam approaches the princess and offers to find a wet-nurse for the baby. When she accepts, Miriam brings Jocheved to the Princess, who hires her to nurse and care for the baby. When Moses grows older, he is returned to the palace, where Pharaoh's daughter raises him like a son.

As a young man, Moses leaves the palace and discovers the hardship of his brethren. He sees an Egyptian beating a Hebrew and kills the Egyptian. The next day he sees two Jews fighting; when he admonishes them, they reveal his deed of the previous day, and Moses is forced to flee to the faraway land of Midian. There, Moses lives in a tent instead of a palace and marries a woman named Zipporah. Moses works for her father, Jethro, as a shepherd.


haggadah Section: -- Exodus Story
Source: Adapted from Chabbad.org, Art by Sefira Ross