There is a midrashic tradition that the midwife Puah was actually Miriam herself, sister of Moses, in disguise. The name Puah means "lifting up of one's face" particularly in defiance of an unjust edict or gezera. The midrash considers that Miriam already bravely challenged the status quo when she convinces her father to resume marital relations with his wife in defiance of Pharaoh's genocidal edict. She again takes up anti-gezera action as a midwife. Avivah Zornberg has a lot to say about women's anti-gezera brigade as founded by Miriam-Puah in her book Particulars of Rapture.It is a provocative attitude that forever challenges inertia, stagnation, and despair. ( I have written about this on my own blog at http:susanrtorn.wordpress.com/... At my seder, I invite everyone to think of a time when she/he took such a stance. This commemoration of our leaving "mitzra'im" or the constriction of Egypt and moving to a much broader place is also a great time to consider the broader repertory of choice we all now have in our daily actions.
There is a midrashic tradition that the midwife Puah was actually Miriam herself, sister of Moses, in disguise. The name Puah means "lifting up of one's face" particularly in defiance of an unjust edict or gezera. The midrash considers that Miriam already bravely challenged the status quo when she convinces her father to resume marital relations with his wife in defiance of Pharaoh's genocidal edict. She again takes up anti-gezera action as a midwife. Avivah Zornberg has a lot to say about women's anti-gezera brigade as founded by Miriam-Puah in her book Particulars of Rapture.It is a provocative attitude that forever challenges inertia, stagnation, and despair. ( I have written about this on my own blog at http:susanrtorn.wordpress.com/... At my seder, I invite everyone to think of a time when she/he took such a stance. This commemoration of our leaving "mitzra'im" or the constriction of Egypt and moving to a much broader place is also a great time to consider the broader repertory of choice we all now have in our daily actions.