The Torah relates that it was the Egyptians' fear of possible rebellion by the people who they controlled that led to the suggestion that they be enslaved. "And in the event of war, they will also join themselves to those who hate us, and fight against us and depart from the land." By suppressing possible thoughts of liberty, perpetual servitude could quell the fear of revolt. The Egyptians wanted to instill in the Israelites a false sense of inferiority by means of enslavement.
The reasoning behind the decree of casting the boys the Nile, however, is not explained in an explicit manner. It is possible to see the murder of the newborns as an act intended to demoralize the people and deepen their sense of worthlessness. But this explanation does not fit with the attempt to disguise the selective killing and present it as a case of natural infant mortality. It is possible to suggest that this decree is an attempt to limit the male fighting force by means of a focused strike on those most likely to rebel.
Rabbenu Bahya explains the intensification of the decrees in a slightly different manner, even as he agrees that there is a connection between the two decrees. He suggests that the Egyptians’ fear of rebellion made them believe that it was necessary to limit the increasing numbers of the Israelites. As a perceived minority, they would have less power and influence. Initially, Pharaoh thought that he could achieve this result by exhausting them by means of hard work, hoping to limit their offspring. This attempt was unsuccessful, and instead the Israelites grew and multiplied. At this point, actual killing became necessary in order to produce the same result – the desired demographic status whereby low numbers of Israelites would be maintained within the larger Egyptian population.
To exhaust the strength of Israel, and to diminish their seed, that they should not be fruitful and multiply, for hard labor exhausts the strength of man and limits his seed. When he saw that they instead of becoming fewer in number, their numbers increased, as it says, “But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied” (v. 12), he decreed that they be killed. (Rabbenu Bahya, Exodus 1)
We find two reasons given here. One is an attempt to demoralize the people, while the other is pragmatic – by limiting their numbers, the threat of revolution is removed.
The Midrash disputes the efficacy of the decree of the casting of the sons into the Nile:
Said the Holy One, Blessed be He: Evil one! Whoever gave you this poor advice is a fool. It was the females that you should have killed, for without females, who would the males have married? One woman cannot take two husbands, but a single man can take ten wives, or even a hundred! The verse is applied, “The princes of Zoan are mere fools; the advice of Pharaoh's wisest advisers has become stupid,” (Isaiah 19:11) for they gave him this advice. (Exodus Rabbah)
It is sufficient to have one man in order to have multiple births. While one woman cannot have more than a single pregnancy at one time, a single man who survives has the ability to father an entire generation. A small mistake in the murder plan – one surviving child – could disrupt the whole strategy. Perhaps this is why the Ohr HaHayyim offers an alternative approach. He argues that the plan to leave the girls alive was intended to lead Israelite women to embrace intermarriage. The Talmudic presumption tav le-meitav tandu posits that women would sooner accept a marriage of low status than remain spinsters. They would have no choice but to marry Egyptian men. Through such marriages, the Children of Israel would be absorbed into the Egyptian people, and their own national identity would become blurred and would disappear. This would minimize the danger of their abandoning Egypt (Ohr HaHayyim, Exodus). This explanation returns to a rationale that appears to be more indirect and benign.
A comparison between the verses, however, indicates that although at the beginning the decree was limited to the Israelites, in the end the decree impacted on all male newborns – including Egyptian babies. At the beginning we find "and he said, 'When you are helping the Hebrew women to give birth and look upon the birthstool, if it is a son, then you shall put him to death but if it is a daughter, then she shall live'," (v. 16), yet in the second stage it says, "Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, saying, ‘Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile, and every daughter you are to keep alive’” (v. 22).
We find that Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Ḥanina makes this point in the Talmud:
Rabbi Yosei, son of Rabbi Ḥanina, says further: He decreed three decrees. Initially, it was “if it is a son, then you shall put him to death,” and afterward, “Every son who is born you are to cast into the Nile,” and ultimately, he decreed this even on his own nation. (Bavli, Sota 12b)[1]
There are other differences between the two decrees. In the first instance, the command was given to the midwives in an attempt to hide the conspiracy and do away with the babies at the time of their birth. The second decree, to throw the babies into the Nile, was a public massacre – a mass execution. Furthermore, the second decree was issued to the entire nation, while the first was given as a secret command to the midwives. We can be certain that there was good reason for the first decree to be given secretly. Rabbenu Bahya explains:
As is known, had he desired to, he could have killed them all at once. It would have been a great betrayal, however, for a king to kill a people that had come to live in his country based on his invitation. This would have caused a great disgrace to the king among the nations. For this reason, he did not desire to kill them in a public manner, rather he wanted to trick them by destroying them in a secretive way so that they would not realize the evil being perpetrated against them. (Rabbenu Bahya, ibid)
What happened to cause Pharaoh to make a public proclamation commanding that all boys be killed? The Sages offer an explanation: " ‘If it is a son, then you shall put him to death.’ And why were they commanded so? His astrologers told him that on this day the redeemer of Israel was born, but they did not know whether he was Egyptian or an Israelite." (Midrash Tanhuma Vayakhel 4)
In his continuing attempt to prevent rebellion and to keep the people of Israel from being redeemed, Pharaoh realizes that the salvation of the people of Israel is not connected with their numbers nor with the sense of slavery that has defined them. Rather, there is an external force that will redeem them from Egypt, even if they are few and even if they suffer from mental exhaustion. Pharaoh believed that his new strategy could be 'marketed' to the Egyptians, because of the crisis that threatened them. Saving them from war required a temporary emergency plan (see the continuation of the Tanhuma).
Pharaoh's actions are based on the concept of the need to sacrifice the individual for the common good. He dictated norms of limitation and sacrifice in the interest of what were presented as national concerns. Pharaoh expresses his desire to rule by controlling the regimen of birth. He is the one who grants the right of parenthood; he is the one who makes orderly selections of who will be born. Pharaoh's cleverness lies in his intervention into simple, natural processes, intervening even in those processes that ultimately cannot be controlled by man. One can look at birth control measures as they were applied in Nazi Germany, or even those that take place in China to this day, to understand the essence of this control – postponing the age of marriage, restrictions on marriage permits, controlled birth, economic and social pressure, and fear of the authorities. This system impacts on the basic desires of man – his desire to raise a large family with no restrictions, to raise happy children, boys and girls. This desire, when placed in a straightjacket, limits the most basic element of life, turning it into a tool for the benefit of the public.
This Pharaoh-like degradation, which is ridiculous in its pretentiousness, has the potential to occur in the heart of every person in relation to his surroundings. Behind this monstrous machine are "religious" and "human" desires that require us to do some soul-searching. For this is a human sin, which, if we identify its foundations, are entirely natural and may be found in every one of us. We are obligated to identify in ourselves this pharaonic inclination, an inclination that allows us to become so committed to one religious concept that we are willing to sacrifice those who stand in the way of its realization. Not only regarding ideas – also in the personal realm – we may find ourselves in a situation where we desire to see only weakness, and not just power. We are willing to destroy culture, fertility and creativity in our desire to attain power and positions of strength.
This inner element has its roots in Egyptian ideals, from which we must be redeemed.
[1] The three separate decrees are not entirely clear, a matter discussed by the commentaries.