Questions on Parshas Shemos to think about and discuss:

1. Who was the first and last sheivet to die in Mitzrayim?
2. Rashi (2:14) brings that Moshe killed the Mitzri with Hashem’s Name. How then did Doson and Avirom then know that Moshe and not someone else had killed him? What evidence is there by simply seeing someone’s lips moving?
3. Rashi (2:1) brings that Yocheved was 130 years old when she gave birth to Moshe. Why then does the possuk not mention this miracle (like it does by Soro)?
4. What is Shovavim Tat?
5. The daughter of Paro saved Moshe and converted to Judaism. Who did she marry?
6. What can we learn from the evil plan of Paro (Shemos, 5:9) to increase the workload?
7. Why was Sheivet Levi not subject to slavery in Mitzrayim (see Rashi, 5:4)?
8. Why does it repeat Yosef’s death again at the beginning of Sefer Shemos (1:6) after mentioning it at the end of Sefer Bereishis (50:26)?
9. Who were the midwives and how could two be enough to serve all the Jewish People?
10. What lies behind the name Miriam?
11. Who did the daughter of Paro, Bisya, marry?
12. Who named Moshe and did he have any other names? What were they and why was he known as Moshe more than any other name?
13. What was the special type of hard work known as “porech“?
14. How is it possible for Paro’s own daughter to go against her father and save a Jewish child and then bring it into the palace and get away with it?
15. Why only kill the boys and keep the girls alive? Why not simply kill all children?
16. When it describes Moshe’s birth it omits any explicit mention of his parent’s names. Why?
17. Why did Yocheved put Moshe in a basket on the water as opposed to hiding him anywhere else?
18. How could Amrom marry his aunt?
19. How could Yisro marry his daughters to a stranger?

Ideas for answers on the general parsha:

1. The first one to die was Yosef and the last sheivet to die was Levi, when the start of the slavery in Mitzrayim started.
2. The Gur Aryeh answers that the killing with Hashem’s Name only works when accompanied with some small form of hitting.
3. The Ramban (Vayigash, 47:15) brings that a miracle that was told over beforehand by a messenger that it will happen is recorded in the Torah. However, miracles done to assist a tzaddik or punish a rosha are not explicitly mentioned. The Gur Aryeh (Shemos, 2:1) answers that since Hashem made this miracle of birth special in Mitzrayim (e.g. they unnaturally had so many children in one go) therefore Yocheved’s miraculous birth is also not singled out for mention.
4. It is an acronym for many of the Parshious in Sefer Shemos. It is a special time for teshuva in the areas of negativity that the Jews were exposed to in Mitzrayim. With the going out of the Jews with special help from Hashem in these parshious, so too each Jew can have special help to free themselves from sins of aroyous seen in leaving Mitzrayim.
5. Bisya married Kolev (Gemora Megilla 13a).
6. The Mesillas Yeshorim (Chapter 2) brings that Paro’s plan was that the Jews would be so busy working that they would not have time to think and plan how to oppose it. We learn from here that this same thing applies to the evil inclination who tries to make a person so busy with other things that they do not have time to stop, think and analyse their lives.
7. There were special rules for the priests in Mitzrayim (see Vayigash, 47:26). Sheivet Levi as the tribe of priests for the Jews were therefore exempt from the decrees. The Chizkuni (5:4) brings that Paro went out to work and told everyone else to join with him. Since the king commanded them, all the Jews complied except for Sheivet Levi. Only those who had first worked with Paro were then made into slaves.
8. R’ Hutner zt”l learns from here that Yosef was an intermediate between the Avos and the Shevotim – close to being an Av himself. This is why his death is said twice. At the end of Sefer Bereishis that is the Sefer about the Avos and at the beginning of Sefer Shemos that talks about the children and offspring.
9. The Gemora (Sota 11b) brings two opinions. Either the midwives were Yocheved and Miriam or they were Yocheved and Elisheva (here daughter-in-law who married Aaron). The Ibn Ezra says it means that these two were the head midwives but of course there were many more.
10. Miriam is from the word “mar” meaning bitter. She was called so since she was born at the start of the 86 years when the Jews were subjected to real harsh treatment in exile. (Rashi Shir Hashirim)
11. Bisya married Kolev (Gemora Megilla 13a)
12. The Ibn Ezra says that Bisya named him Moshe whilst the Chizkuni says that Yocheved named him Moshe. Moshe had ten other names…
13. There is a Tosfas in Shabbos that links this word to the 39 Avos melochos not done on Shabbos. On a simple level, this was emotional work where the natural jobs of men and women were switched.
14. Moshe we know was ten amos tall. We find that tall people are usually also tall children. We can therefore assume that Moshe was very tall as a baby and after his nursing years looked like an older child, one from before the decree of Paro on the Jewish boys. Looking like this he entered Paro and was not suspected as having been born during the decree.
15. The Egyptians then were immoral and therefore had an ulterior motive for keeping the girls alive.
16. This is because we are talking about an Ish Kloli, the leader of the Jewish Nation. Since it is talking about the spiritual leader and in essence the whole Jewish Nation we do not speak about individual people with their names. Rather we talk in general terms. (See Maharal Gevuros)
17. On a simple level, she could no longer hide him indoors and wanted to hide him in a place where she could still see and reach him.
18. This took place before the Torah was given (See גור אריה פ’ ויגש על הפסוק שאול בן הכנענית for a discussion of this at length with many different answers.)
19. He must have seen something special about him. Rashi brings that he saw that the water rose up to him, something that only happened to a descendent of the Avos. The Midrash brings that Yisro, an advisor of Paro, stole the special Mata before fleeing and stuck it into the ground. He could not get it out and said that whoever did would have his daughter in marriage. Moshe wondered out into the field and unknowingly easily plucked up this Mata from the ground.