Women of Moral Courage: From Shifra and Pu’ah to Today’s Women of Iron

This past

Shabbat, in synagogues around the world, we read the first portion of the book

of Exodus. It is the portion in which the ancient Israelites are enslaved to

the Egyptians, the portion in which the consummate leader, Moses, is born, and

the portion in which the groundwork is laid for the redemption which will come

in a few weeks’ time. It is also the portion that contains two short and rather

cryptic passages.

The first

passage, which is found in Exodus 1:15-21, tells the story of two midwives, Shifra

and Pu’ah, who were commanded by the pharaoh to kill all baby boys as they are

born to the Israelite women. The women are described in the text as

God-fearing, and they refused to do as they were instructed. As a result, the

verse says, somewhat ambiguously, “He made for them houses.” In an essay first

published in 2015, the late Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described this incident as

“the first recorded instance in history of civil disobedience: refusing to obey

an order, given by the most powerful man in the most powerful empire of the

ancient world, simply because it was immoral, unethical, inhuman.”[1] In fact, the

text itself leaves ambiguous if these women were even Israelite—they are

described in such a way that can either be understood as, “Hebrew midwives,”

or, more broadly, “the midwives of the Hebrews.” Framed in that context, these

two women may have been Egyptians who defied their pharaoh in an incredible act

of moral courage. And they paid for it, too: Rashbam, a twelfth century

Tosafist, in his commentary on the Bible explains the phrase, “He made for them

houses,” as Pharaoh arresting the midwives and placing them under guard so that

he could watch their moves.

The next passage

that I’d like to highlight comes later in the portion, in Exodus 4:24-26. At

this point in the story, Moses, who had spent sixty years away from Egypt and

was lately working as a shepherd for his father in law in Midian, was on his

way back to Egypt with his wife, Tziporah, and their two children. The verse

describes, “And it was on the way, at the inn, that God encountered him, and He

tried to kill [Moses]. Tziporah took the knife and cut off the foreskin of her

son, threw it down at [Moses’] feet, and said, ‘You are a bridegroom of blood

to me.’ So He let him go, and she said, “A bridegroom of blood, because of

circumcision.’” Leaving aside what Tziporah meant by her words, her actions

represent a different dimension of moral courage. While the midwives stood up

for basic human decency, Tziporah showed strength in acting, in the face of

fear, by the moral code through which she chose to live her life. Thus, the

midwives represent those who will stand up for objective morality, and Tziporah

becomes the example of those willing to sacrifice for the more subjective, more

personal morality.

The Shifra

and Puah Legacy

It’s not

surprising that these paradigmatic figures are women. It is also not surprising

that their heirs walk among us today. In fact, on the evening of December 23,

2025, in the Nefesh B’Nefesh offices in Jerusalem, hundreds of people gathered

together to honor eighteen women who stood out as these models of moral courage

and virtue. It was the inaugural Women of Iron awards, highlighting eighteen

incredible women who “rescued, uplifted, inspired, sanctified, defended,

advocated, and comforted us”[2] since war

broke out on October 7, 2023. Some of these women were volunteer medics who put

on their vests and drove straight into danger on that dark day. Others serve in

the military; one of whom, a mother of ten, saved countless people from the

Nova festival. Still others lost their husbands in the war; they turned their

pain into purpose, like the one who created an organization in her husband’s

memory where women can borrow dresses for events free of charge. She only asks

that if someone wants to pay, they make a donation to charity in her husband’s

memory. Personally, I was there for my aunt, Laura Ben-David, of blessed

memory, who was taken from us this summer and was the source of inspiration for

the entire evening.

That evening, and

the stories from this past week’s Torah portion, struck me as particularly

poignant for a few reasons: First and foremost, these are our Jewish heroines.

The ones who can stand up in the face of darkness, the ones who have the

fortitude and strength to do what is right, to be ready and willing to

sacrifice—that is how we live well. Second, and perhaps more importantly, is

that these stories are more important than ever in today’s world. The loss of

moral clarity, which has come into sharp focus after October 7, makes it ever

more pressing that we stand as beacons of virtue and integrity. In a world that

can no longer distinguish between right and wrong, it is imperative that we

follow the models of Shifra, Pu’ah, and Tziporah, that we stand with our

Sisters of Iron, and that we carry on with the strength that it takes, even in

the face of so much wrong, to always do what is right.