Commentary for Exodus 2:5

לרחץ על היאר — Invert the order of the words in this verse and then explain it: “The daughter of Pharaoh went down על היאר, by the river, לרחץ to bathe in it”.

TO BATHE ‘AL’ (BY) THE RIVER. “Transpose [the order of the words in] the verse⁶⁵The order of the Hebrew words is: And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe by the river. Rashi explains it to mean: “And the daughter of Pharaoh went down by the river to bathe in it.” and then explain it: the daughter of Pharaoh went down by the river to bathe in it.” Thus the language of Rabbeinu Shlomo [Rashi]. If so, al haye’or (by or upon the river) is like el haye’or (to the river). Similarly, And Elkanah went to Ramah ‘al beitho’ (upon his house)⁶⁶I Samuel 2:11. [is like el beitho (to his house)]; Thus shall ye say every one ‘al rei’eihu’ (upon his neighbor) and every one to his brother⁶⁷Jeremiah 23:35. [is like el rei’eihu (to his neighbor)].
It is possible that there were steps upon the bank of the river and that she went down from the royal palace to bathe upon the first step by the river, but did not enter into the river’s stream. [In this case, the expression al haye’or would be completely understandable, as it would mean that she came down to bathe “upon the step near the river”], and then she saw the ark among the reeds far from her and she sent her handmaid to fetch it. It may be that to bathe ‘al haye’or’ is like “to bathe baye’or (in the river).” Similarly, And thou shalt put them ‘al’ one basket⁶⁸Further, 29:3. [is like b’sal echad (‘into’ one basket)].

אמתה, not “her nursemaid,” but “her maidservant.”

לרחוץ על היאור. She had a view of the river, her room in the palace bordering on the embankment. No doubt, royal etiquette would not permit an Egyptian princess to actually bathe in the river. [the author was alerted by the preposition על instead of ב, “in,” in front of the word יאור. Ed.]

ונערותיה הולכות, walking with her ladies-in-waiting, etc. Why is that detail pertinent to the story of Moses' rescue? Perhaps the Torah felt that inasmuch as Batya (Pharaoh's daughter) had performed such a great deed in rescuing the life of a Jewish baby, she deserved that all the details be revealed for all to know. It is a well known fact that a Royal princess does not go down to the river to bathe without her attendants. Moreover, it is customary that amongst her attendants there should be one who is senior, in charge of all the other junior attendants. The Torah speaks about "her attendants who were walking, etc." Presumably, the Torah means that at the time when the princess was actually bathing in the water all the other attendants were walking some distance away, affording the princess a degree of privacy while she bathed. Only the senior attendant stayed close to the princess. The Torah referred to this senior attendant when it writes: "she sent out her maidservant who picked up the basket." It is possible that the princess sent her maidservant to save the baby whereas the maidservant merely picked up the basket without the baby. In either event, the princess deserves praise for displaying noble human feelings. Her soul was pure, indicating that sometimes something pure emerges from something impure (Job, 14,4). One of two things may have happened. 1) Although the princess was attended by only a single servant at the time, she sent even that servant away and she herself picked up the baby remaining alone and vulnerable at the time. 2) Although the princess had only one attendant close by at the time, having sent her other maids some distance away, she even took a chance by sending the one remaining servant to pick up the basket with the baby.

ותרד בת פרעה לרחוץ על היאור, ”Pharaoh’s daughter descended to the banks of the river to bathe.” Rashi claims that our verse is truncated and that its correct meaning is as if the Torah had written: “ותרד בת פרעה על היאור לרחוץ בו.” [as written it could be understood as “Pharaoh’s daughter descended to bathe above the river.” Ed.] Nachmanides writes that it is possible to understand the verse to mean that there were steps leading down to the banks of the river and that these steps led directly to the river from the palace of the king, the lowest step being covered by the water in the river. When reaching that lowest step, Pharaoh’s daughter saw the basket in which Moses had been placed from a distance and she ordered one of her attendants to bring it to her. Alternately, the words לרחוץ על היאור is another way of writing לרחוץ ביאור, “to bathe in the river.”

They were going to die because they opposed her (Pharaoh’s daughter).” The maids opposed her rescue of Moshe.

Questions:
Why did it tell that her young women walked by the Y'or? And what is it written "the baby [crying] - and behold, it was a youth" (Shemot 2:6)? And why did she [Miryam] say to her [bat Par'oh] that she would call for a wetnurse specifically from the Hebrews?

V. 5. על היאר, an der Seite des Flusses, wo er nicht zu tief ist. Möglich auch am oberen Flusse, oberhalb der Stadt, am "Obernil", wo er noch nicht durch den Schmutz der Stadt getrübt ist. Vielleicht hatte die Mutter das Kind dort mit Absicht hingelegt, weil der Ort sauberer, weil er auch der Platz zum Baden, und vielleicht gar ein gesonderter Platz zum Baden. für Frauen war und bei Müttern eine Mutter mehr Erbarmen voraussetzt. — Ihre Begleiterinnen gingen am Ufer: schöner Zug der Schamhaftigkeit. Auch von weiblicher Umgebung nimmt die Fürstin nur eine Magd mit sich, glaubt nicht, dass sichs ihre Hofdamen als große Ehre anrechnen dürften, um die Fürstin im Bade zu sein.

ותשלח את אמתה, “she sent her handmaid (to fetch it).” In the Talmud, tractate Sotah folio 12, two sages disagree concerning the meaning of the word אמתה here, one claiming that it refers to her forearm, (The princess’;) According to one sage this was a bodily owned slave, שפחה, whereas the other sage the princess went down to bathe on her own. [The author speculates how to reconcile the opinion of the sage who claimed that she sent forth a slave with the aggadic statement that an angel struck down all but one of her slaves at the time. [This editor does not follow the need for these far fetched interpretations, and I have not pursued them further. Ed.]

לרחוץ על היאור, “to bathe in the waters of the river; other examples of the word על meaning “in,” instead of “on, or above,” are found in: Genesis 27,40 על חרבך תחיה, “you will live with the use of your sword.” Also Exodus 12,7: על הבתים אשר יאכלו אותו בהם, “in the houses that they will eat it in.

על יד היאר means BESIDE THE RIVER. Similar is (II Samuel 14:30) “See, the field of Joab is beside mine (על ידי)”. It really denotes even in this sense the actual hand, for a person’s hand is beside him (i. e. beside his body). Our Rabbis explained that the word הלכת “they were going” denotes dying, similar to (Genesis 25:32) “Behold I am going (הולך) to die” — they were going to their death because they attempted to prevent her from saving the child. Scripture, too, supports them in this explanation, for if this is not the meaning, why do we need that it should write “and her damsels were going”? (Scripture reports nothing as having happened because they were walking there. Why then stress this detail if it merely signifies that they were walking along the bank?).

ונערותיה הולכות, this is the reason why she did not command one of them to bring the basket to her as they were not with her at that time.

Her handmaiden. Rashi said above: “Our Sages explained” [that the maids died.] For the angel Gavriel killed all the maids who accompanied Pharaoh’s daughter. If so, [how could she now send a maid to fetch the box?] The Gemara (Sotah 12b) already answered that Gavriel did not kill all her maids. He spared one maid, to extend honor to royalty, so that Pharaoh’s daughter would not be left alone. This remaining maid was sent.

And she went down (Shemot 2:5). Now, the reasons for which God presented him that he would be saved will be told: that he would be "reared in purple" (Eicha 4:5) in the king's house, but despite all this his people and his tribe would recognise him.
1. God invited bat Par'oh - regarding whom, "all the glory of the king's daughter is within" (Tehillim 45:13) - and "she went down" from her height "to wash in the Y'or", in an open place and a public thoroughfare. For if it weren't, his sister [Miryam] wouldn't have been able to reach her.
2. That her young women weren't directly with her - she would have been afraid before them to transgress her father's commandment and save those given to death.
3. "And she saw the ark" (Shemot 2:5) and wasn't it also that God may They be blessed was within the reeds, concealed and covered by the reeds.
4. That she took it by means of her slavegirl - the lesser one, that she wasn't embarassed to do anything she wanted in front of her. And there's a difference between young women [ne'arot] and slavegirls [amahot]: young women are given to her as a staff and they're honoured and the daughters of dignitaries, and slavegirls are lesser and stand in her service.

ונערותיה, “and her servantmaids;” this is mentioned here as the Torah shortly will refer to a specific servant maid who went to take the basket in which Moses was lying.

את אמתה means her handmaid. Our Rabbis, however, explained it in the sense of hand (cf. Sotah 12b) — but according to the grammar of the Holy Language it should then have been written אַמָּתָה , dageshed in the מ. — And the reason why they explained את אמתה to mean את ידה “she stretched forth her hand” is because they hold that Scripture intentionally uses this term to indicate that her hand increased in length several cubits (אמה, a cubit) in order that she might more easily reach the cradle.

ותשלח את אמתה, the servant who was attending her at the time when she bathed herself. All of this happened at the instigation of G’d so that she would not dispatch one of her regular attendants as she might mistakenly place her trust in them and such an attendant would throw the baby in the river.

But the Sages explained it as “hand” . . . and her arm extended many cubits . . . The verse should have said, “(She sent) נערתה or שפחתה ” if it simply meant handmaidens. Because it did not sprecifically state ידה , the Sages explained אמתה as implying that her arm extended many אמות (cubits). Alternatively, the Sages explained this because the מ [of אמתה ] has no dagesh [although the word אמה (hand or arm) requires one]. And the dagesh in nouns does not change even in the nismach form, or with a possessive suffix [such as תה as it appears here]. Yet the word did change here, for the א has a sheva [i.e., a chataf patach, due to which the dagesh in the מ drops out], although the א should have had a [simple] patach. [Therefore our Sages explain: The word אמתה changed, to indicate that the arm of Pharaoh’s daughter changed.] (Gur Aryeh).

הולכות ,ונערותיה, “and her servantmaids “walking,” Rashi, while interpreting the word as meaning “walking towards her death,” quotes a traditional explanation in the Talmud Sotah 12 according to which it is short for “being on a path which leads to death,” as in Genesis 25,32, where Esau is quoted as saying: הנה אנכי הולך למות, “here I am pursuing a path that will result in my death;” The scholar in the Talmud has the servant maids warning the daughter of Pharaoh who was actually going to use the waters of the Nile as a mikveh, ritual bath, in order to cleanse herself from the desecrations that were a daily occurrence in her father’s palace, by warning her that even when other people might disregard the king’s command surely his own daughter would not dare do so? They warned that by doing so she would condemn herself to death by execution. When hearing what her maidservants had said to Pharaoh’s daughter, the angel Gavriel struck them so that they fell to the ground. At this point there surfaces a divergence of opinion between two scholars, one saying that the word אמתה, as distinct from the word נערות for the servant maids used by the Torah previously, refers to the servant maid who had been spared by the angel, as it is not fitting for a princess to remain without at least one of her attendants. The other scholar does not understand the word אמתה as “her servant maid,” but as “her arm,” i.e. the arm of the princess which had been miraculously lengthened to the extent of about 2,5 meters for this purpose. Rashi, for reasons of a grammatical nature, rejects the second opinion offered in the Talmud, saying that if correct the letter מ in that word would have to have a dot, dagesh in it. He adds that further proof is the fact that the letter א in the word is vocalised with an abbreviated vowel chataf patach.