Batya: Facilitator of the Jewish People’s Redemption

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The story of Moshe Rabbeinu and, by extension, the geula of the Jewish people from Mitzrayim, is incomplete without Batya. In fact, it started with her. So influential was she that she became one of the nine people in Tanakh who ascended to Gan Eden without dying¹, and even in her life, she is referred to as simply the “Daughter of Hashem’. All this for adopting a baby?

Batya enters the Nile² as the daughter of the Pharaoh and exits as the daughter of Hashem. Given such a dramatic change, the commentators³ explain that she used the Nile as her mikvah, and converted to Judaism. This is difficult to understand, given that the ‘Jews’ did not yet exist, so to speak, only the Hebrews, and there was no Torah and mitzvot to accept upon oneself as converts do post-matan Torah. So what actually happened at the Nile?

The Midrash⁴ says that Bat Paroh received a prophecy that she would raise the redeemer of Israel, and so she walked by the Nile every morning waiting for a sign. Targum Yonatan⁵ says that she was stricken with tzaraat, and that she went to the Nile to ease the boils and scabs with its waters. Different reasons for ending up at the Nile, but the same result nonetheless; she came across a reed basket with a baby boy inside, and she (a) rejoiced at having her prophecy embodied, and/or (b) was healed from her ailment. The waters of the Nile may have converted her, but her personal, and our national redemption, began with her taking in Moshe. Batya took in a child that wasn’t her own, and in return, Hashem took in Batya as if she were His own⁶.

The surface-level story of Batya ends here, we don’t read about her again in the Chumash, and the plot moves on to Moshe and his life as an adult. We have to wonder, what happened to Batya? When did she die? Did she leave Egypt with the rest of Am Yisrael and hear Matan Torah?

The Oral Torah gives us a deeper insight. We learn that it was both female and male Egyptian firstborns who died in the Plague of the Firstborn, but Batya (Paroh’s firstborn) was spared thanks to Moshe’s prayers⁷ ⁸. We don’t know exactly where she was at the time, but it’s presumed that she joined Am Yisrael in Yetziat Mitzrayim⁹ and heard Matan Torah, thus completing her conversion that she had started some 80 years before at the Nile.

In what is perhaps the most surprising revelation of Batya’s later life, the Gemara¹⁰ relates that she married Calev, one of the two good spies, who also married Miriam at another point. This shidduch sounds unlikely, but we quickly learn that it is based on a simple connection: rebellion. Vayikra Rabbah¹¹ explains that Calev rebelled against the counsel of the spies, and Batya rebelled against the counsel of her father. Neither of these rebellions were for the sake of rebellion itself, in fact they were both almost impossible to pull off. Both Batya and Calev had to live each day holding their breath, relying only on Hashem to keep their secrets. Each of their experiences were isolating, so it actually makes perfect sense that they would understand each other very deeply.

Batya’s character and role in the redemption of Israel from Mitzrayim is hard to encapsulate, and yet it is written so simply; she sees a baby abandoned in a river, and adopts him. She then gives him to a wetnurse to nurse him. Without being too critical, that doesn’t seem so heroic in and of itself. Most people with a conscience would want to help an abandoned baby in distress, and she was the princess of the most powerful empire of its day, so she would have had ample resources to take care of him. What’s more, Moshe’s greatness wouldn’t have come from the fact that he was simply adopted. It is evident that what scripture records of Batya’s greatness is only a fraction of what wasn’t recorded.

Summarized by one Sage, “He saved the flock; she saved the shepherd”.¹²

Furthermore, one consistent theme that we see in relation to Batya is light. The Ohr HaChaim¹³ notes that what stood out to Batya about the baby at the Nile was that Hashem caused a halo of light to surround Moshe, ensuring that Batya knew this baby was special. Rabbeinu Bachya¹⁴ comments on the verse in Mishlei¹⁵, “She sees that her business thrives; Her lamp never goes out at night” that this is referring to Batya, with the “light” being Batya’s soul, and the “night” being the plague of the death of the firstborn, from which Batya was spared. In the Zohar’s¹⁶ description of Batya’s portion in the World to Come, thrice a day she goes to see Moshe and exclaims “Happy is my portion, that I raised such a light!”.

Batya’s greatness is visible in her actions, and the outcomes of her actions. We see who Moshe became and what he achieved, and while we certainly can’t discredit Yocheved’s role in his upbringing, he is recorded as the son of Batya for a reason. The Zohar¹⁷ describes Batya’s almost unattainable portion in the World to Come, something that could only befit a person whose actions in this world were second to none.

Batya’s personal story is a microcosm of the Jewish people; she found Hashem in a world of idolatry, and she dedicated her life to Him, regardless of the risk it involved. There was no glamor in this choice, no outside motivating factors, simply an understanding of Truth and her duty to it. As a result, Hashem not only saved her, but He rewarded her tenfold.