05 Jan Why The Boat?

In Shmos 2:3 the posuk tells us that Yocheved was not able to hide Moshe any longer so she made a box and placed the child in this makeshift boat and put it in the river.

The Pirkei D’Reb Eliezer on Shemos 41 says that Rav Shila says that all the children that were thrown into the Nile did not die, but rather the river ejected the children into the Midbar. There they would each get two slaim stones which sustained them with honey and oil. The question is, if all the children never died in the river, why couldn’t Yocheved rely on the same miracle to save her child? Why did she need to create a box to be used as a boat?

There are a number of answers to this question. The first answer is based on Tosfos in Meseches Sota 12b that tells us that Moshe told Bnei Yisrael that in his zchus they were saved. Tosfos asks for clarification on this since the whole gezeira of throwing the children into the river came because of Moshe since the star gazers said that the Jewish leader who will help them will die in water. They therefore decreed that every male child should be thrown into the river. It would seem to be his fault, not his zchus. Tosfos clarifies that Moshe was the first one to be thrown into the river. That would be the reason that Yocheved did not know that every baby would be saved. After Moshe was put in the river every baby was saved in his zchus.

The second tirutz could be regarding Miriam Haneviah’s prophecy that her mother will give birth to the leader of Klal Yisroel. When Moshe was born the house lit up. Yocheved therefore felt that she could not throw Moshe into the river and so made a protective basket for him. The question on this tirutz is that we find as soon as Yocheved put Moshe into the water Amram tapped Miriam on the head and asked her, “Where is your prophecy?” It would seem that Amram felt that even to put Moshe in a box was not appropriate for the future leader of Klal Yisroel.

A third tirutz could be that Yocheved felt that all other babies were saved because they still had the mitzvah of milah waiting to be done on them and in the zchus of the future mitzvah of their milah they were saved when they were thrown into the river. Since Moshe was born “mahul” and did not have that mitzvah awaiting him Yocheved was scared that he would not be saved like the other children were saved.

The fourth and final answer is based on the Midrash Devarim Rabba 11:10 that says that Moshe was born with the ability to walk and speak right away. He told his parents, “I will be mekabel the Torah from shomayim in fire.” Since Moshe was already a bar daas and would understand that he was being thrown into the river and would be scared, his mother had to make him a box as a boat so not to scare him unnecessarily.