Nursing & Kindness

"וַתִּירֶאןָ הַמְיַלְּדֹת אֶת הָאֱלֹהִים וְלֹא עָשׂוּ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר אֲלֵיהֶן מֶלֶךְ מִצְרָיִם וַתְּחַיֶּיןָ אֶת הַיְלָדִים"

"The midwives, however, feared God; so they did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but they enabled the boys to live."

Pharaoh saw that Bnei Israel keep growing and taking over mitzraim so he put a decree to throw every baby boy that is born into the Yeor (the main lake in Egypt). The two nurses that were in charge of assisting the Jewish ladies to give birth were Pua and and Shifra and they did not follow Pharaos command due to their fear of Hashem.

The question to be asked is why does the Torah has to specifically tell us that they didn’t follow Pharaoh’s command due to their fear of Hashem.

Many times in our life we do acts of Chesed (kindness), we see an old man gets on the train and we get up to let them sit, we see a lady with a carriage trying to get up or down the stairs and we help her, the question is what pushes us to help and do what we do.

Most of us do things in order for others to see how kind we are and as great as it is, it’s not the real reason we should be doing things for. What should lead us to do kindness and help others is “Irat Hashem” “fear” of Hashem. That doesn’t mean an actual “fear”, what it really means is knowing that Hashem is everywhere and watches us every second and is putting us through situations to see if we will do the right thing in his “eyes”.

We can be people of True kindness or people of Selfish kindness, it’s all about the Kavana, the motif behind the action and that, only Hashem knows as the pasuk says “HaAdam ire laayin ve hashem ire lalevav” “the person can only see what his eyes show him but Hashem sees the heart of a person” and at the end of day that’s what matters.

If one is truly devoted to Hashem, he will always help others and always try to fulfill the will of Hashem regardless if there are people around watching him or not. That was the mainspring of the Nurses when they kept the Baby boys alive regardless of the decree of the king of the world at the time.

We always need to ask ourselves, do we give tzdaka in shul leshem shamaim or so that people will think how charitable we are?, do we learn Torah so that Hashem will send us blessings in our business or do we learn Torah becauase that is the ratzon of Hashem Itbarach?, Do we give a friend a ride so that one day if we need something he will “return the favor” or do we want to fulfill a mitzvah from the Torah of “VeAhavta leraacha kamoach” “Love your friend like you love yourself”?

Now we can also understand the Gemara Masechet Berachot daf 28: before Rabbi Yochanan's passing, his students came to him and asked for a blessing, so he blessed them that they should have fear of Hashem as much as they have fear of human beings.

Always ask yourself “Would you do the same thing if you were all alone and nobody was watching?”

it says in Tehilim “Ki Amarti, Olam Chessed Ibane” “I said, A world will be built on Kindness”, A world can only be built on Chessed however the kind of Chessed that builds the world is the Chessed we do leshem shamaim, for “heavenly sake” as the pasuk says “Ki amarti” “I said” (Hashem said).

That is the lesson from the Shifra and Pua (midwives) to the entire world.

(Based on the teaching of Harav Elazar Menachem Shach in his book Talmudo Beyado)