We break the matzoh as we broke the chains of slavery, and as we are breaking all chains we do not choose, every day. However, as we break this matzoh, we remember that what is broken is not necessarily lost, if we are willing to search and remember.

As we remember this struggle, we honor the midwives who were the first jews to resist the Pharoah. The Torah tells us that Pharoah, behaving in a way common to oppressors, tried to get Jews to collaborate in murdering their own people.

He summoned the two chief midwives, Shifra and Pu'ah, and commended them to kill Jewish boy children at birth. He threatened to kill the midwives if they didn't follow his commands. 

However, the midwives did not follow orders. Instead of murdering the infants, they took special care of them and their mothers. When Pharoah asked them to account for all of the living children, they made up the excuse that the Jewish women gave birth too fast to call for midwives in time.

The midwives act of civil disobedience were the first stirrings of resistance among the Jewish slaves. The actions of hte midwives gave the people courage to both withstand their oppression and imagine how they could overcome it. It became the forerunner of the later resistance.

Thus, Shifra and Pu'ah were not only midwives to the children they delivered, but also to the entire Jewish nation, in its deliverance from slavery. The Talmbud, Sota 11b says: "The jews were liberated from Egypt because of the righteousness of the women."


haggadah Section: Yachatz
Source: Senzon Family Haggadah