Comentário sobre Êxodo 2:1

ויקח את בת לוי AND HE HAD TAKEN TO WIFE A DAUGHTER OF LEVI — He had lived apart from her in consequence of Pharaoh’s decree that the children should, on their birth, be drowned. Now he took her back and entered into a second marriage with her, and she also physically became young again. For really she was then 130 years old — for she was born “between the walls” when they were about to enter Egypt (cf. Rashi on Genesis 46:15) and they (the Israelites) remained there 210 years, and when they left Egypt Moses was 80 years old; consequently when she became pregnant with him she was 130 years old — and yet Scripture calls her בת לוי a young daughter of Levi (Sota 12a; Bava Batra 119b).

AND THERE WENT A MAN OF THE HOUSE OF LEVI. Our Rabbis have said⁵¹Sotah 12a. that he went after the advice of his daughter.⁵²Amram and Jochebed, Moses’ parents, had been married previously. The children of that union were Miriam and Aaron. “When Pharaoh decreed that the male children of the Hebrews be killed, Amram separated from his wife, and his example was followed by all of the Israelites. Miriam then told her father that his decree is worse than that of the king. ‘Pharaoh decreed only against the male children, while you include the girls as well. It is doubtful if the decree of wicked Pharaoh will persist, while you are a righteous man and your enactment will surely be upheld by G-d.’ Upon recognizing the justice of her plea, Amram remarried his wife, and the men who had previously followed his example also remarried” (Sotah 12 b). It is this episode which the verse suggests by saying, And there went a man, i.e., “went” after the advice of his daughter and remarried his divorced wife. See also further on in the text for a reference to a prophecy Miriam made at that time. Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra said that the Israelites dwelled in many cities, and this woman Jochebed lived in another city. [This would explain the term “went” in the above verse, i.e., he went to another city for his wife.] But what need is there for Scripture to mention this?
In my opinion Scripture uses the term “went” because this man paid no heed to Pharaoh’s decree and took to himself a woman to beget children. Such is Scripture’s way of speaking of anyone who prompts himself to do something new. Thus: And Reuben went and lay with Bilhah;⁵³Genesis 35:22. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim;⁵⁴Hosea 1:3. Since she was a harlot, it required self-prompting on his part to perform the novel act of marrying her. Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites;⁵⁵Genesis 37:27. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue;⁵⁶Jeremiah 18:18. Come now, and let us reason together.⁵⁷Isaiah 1:18. Similarly this man Amram alerted himself and married a daughter of Levi.
The reason Scripture does not mention the name of the man nor the name of the woman he married is to avoid tracing their genealogy and mentioning who their fathers and their fathers’ fathers were up to Levi. At this point, Scripture desires to shorten the subject until the birth of the redeemer takes place, and after that, in the second seder,⁵⁸I.e., in Seder Va’eira. (A seder is the weekly portion of the Torah read in the synagogue at the Sabbath morning services.) Specifically, Moses’ genealogy is found in Seder Va’eira, Chapter 6, Verses 16-20. He traced the genealogy even of other tribes⁵⁹Reuben and Simeon. (Ibid., Verses 14-15). on account of Moses.
In line with the simple meaning of Scripture, i.e., that this was a first marriage [and not a remarriage as stated above], there is no significance in its being mentioned earlier or later in the chapter. This marriage took place before Pharaoh’s decree [that all male Hebrew children be killed], and she gave birth to Miriam and Aaron. After that, Pharaoh decreed, Every son that is born, ye shall cast into the river,⁶⁰Above, 1:22. and then she gave birth to this goodly son Moses. Scripture did not mention the birth of Miriam and Aaron inasmuch as there was nothing new about them. However, in the opinion of our Rabbis,⁵¹Sotah 12a. this was a remarriage, since Amram separated from his wife in consequence of Pharaoh’s decree and then took her back on account of his daughter’s prophecy.⁶¹Miriam prophesied, “My mother is destined to bear a son who will deliver Israel” (Sotah 13 a). He made her a wedding and placed her in the litter, while Miriam and Aaron danced about them in their joy⁶²So clearly stated in Sotah 12a. because through this marriage, Israel would be redeemed [from Egypt]. Even though Aaron was young⁶³He could have been no more than two years old since he was but three years older than Moses, and Moses was born after the second marriage. [at that time], G-d put gladness in his heart for this occasion, or possibly his sister Miriam taught him.

וילך איש מבית לוי, a reference to Amram.

A man went. This appears twice in Scripture, here, and the second time (Ruth 1:1): “Now it came to pass in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land, and a man went from Bethlehem of Judah to sojourn in the fields of Moav.” As a result of “a man went,” the first redeemer (Moshe) was born, and by means of the latter “a man went,” the last redeemer, who is the Mashiach, the son of David, will come.

And a man from the house of Levi went - as it was stated that the man was from Levi and he took a woman from Levi, and it is clear that she was older than him by many years, and it is not common that a man marries a woman older than him. And this happened just because they were both from the house of Levi, and they behaved with piety, they saw secrets that were hidden from the eyes of that generation, and that is why he took her. That is why it is written "he went", it was a surprising thing, and it was done outside the normal human behavior.

וילך איש מבית לוי, “A distinguished man from the house of Levi went, etc.” our sages comment that this means that Amram followed the advice of his daughter. (He had divorced his wife so as not to condemn any new born children to death. Thereupon his daughter accused him of being worse than Pharaoh who only murdered the male babies. Thereupon, Amram reconsidered and remarried his wife). Ibn Ezra comments that the Israelites at that time lived in many different cities of Egypt, and that the wife Amram married lived in another city, so that he had to go there to ask her to marry him. Nachmanides writes that the reason why the Torah tells us of the apparently trivial fact that Amram went to get a wife, is only to show us that Amram publicly demonstrated that he was unconcerned about Pharaoh’s decree, and that he married precisely in order to sire children. The word וילך is used by the Torah again and again when it introduces any act performed by someone which demonstrates special initiative by that person. Examples are found in Genesis 30,14 and 35,22 where the Torah describes initiative displayed by Reuven. Similar use of the word וילך occurs in Genesis 22,13, Samuel II 21,12, Kings II 5,5, and Hoseah The Torah did not bother to mention Amram’s name at this point, nor that of Yocheved, as the important thing was only to report whose offspring they were. The Torah was anxious at this stage to reveal the birth of the Israelites’ saviour.

Married her a second time. [The proof:] immediately after this marriage, Yocheved conceived and gave birth to Moshe. Yet, Aharon and Miriam were older than Moshe. Therefore, they were born from the first marriage of Amram and Yocheved’s first marriage.

Kap. 2. V. 1. Es wird uns der Name nicht genannt, bloß vorgeführt: "ein Mann aus dem Hause Lewi", ebenso die Frau. Denn wir kennen bereits die Bedeutung des "Hauses Lewi". Wir haben aus des sterbenden Vaters Mund den Tadel kennen gelernt, aber auch gesehen, welche tiefe sittliche Bedeutung in dem Tadel lag. Der Levitengeist, der in Zuständen des Druckes der rettende werden sollte — אחלקם ביעקב — war ja gerade für Zustände, wie sie eben damals herrschten, der berufene. Waren ja nach der Überlieferung die Hebammen selbst aus dem Hause Lewi. In solcher Zeit gehörte Mut dazu, Vater und Mutter zu werden. Es heißt daher nicht: ויהי איש מבית לוי ויקח וגו׳, sondern וילך וגו׳, in diesem וילך liegt der ganze große Entschluss, der dazu gehörte. Es heißt ferner nicht: ויקה בת לוי, sondern: את בת לוי, also: eine bereits vorausbestimmte. Wir wissen ohnehin aus dem Verfolg, dass, als dieses vorging, das Ehepaar schon verheiratet gewesen, es war schon eine Schwester da, und die Schwester hatte bereits einen Bruder. Alles dies sagt uns, was die Weisen sagen, dass dies nicht die erste Heirat gewesen, sondern dass ein Mann, der sich bereits in Folge des königlichen Blutbefehles von seinem Weibe getrennt hatte, es unternahm, es wieder zu nehmen, um dem Blutbefehl entgegenzutreten.

וילך איש, Rabbi Yehudah son of Bizna in the Talmud Sotah folio 12, is quoted as saying: “why does this verse commence with the word: וילך, “he went?” [The word seems superfluous. Ed.] Answer: “he took the advice of his daughter.” We had been taught that when Amram, eventually Moses’ father, heard of the decree that all male babies had to be drowned, he divorced his wife so that he would not produce a child that would be drowned. When his daughter Miriam heard of his reasoning, she accused him of being worse than Pharaoh who only wanted to kill male Jews, whereas he would prevent the birth of any Jews if the people were to follow his example. Not only that, she said, but Pharaoh deprived the Jews only of life in this world, on earth, whereas her father’s policy would also deprive them of their share in the world to come. Amram saw the logic of his daughter and went and re married Yocheved, the wife he had just divorced. Nonetheless, according to the plain meaning of the text, what is reported here as Amram getting married to Yocheved and siring Miriam and Aaron, took place prior to the decree of Pharaoh to drown Jewish boy babies; however seeing that the Torah was interested in reporting to us what transpired later, it commenced with telling us about when Amram got married first and to whom, i.e. a daughter of Levi, many years his senior.

ויקח את יוכבד בת לוי, She had been born for Levi in Egypt (Numbers 26,59). He married her many years before Moses was born, for Aaron was 83 years old when he appeared before Pharaoh with Moses who was 80 years old at the time.

ויקח את בת לוי, “he married Levi’s daughter.” According to our sages this was a second marriage for both, but to the same spouses. According to the plain text we speak about the first marriage of this couple. However, seeing that the Torah has never felt constricted to report events in their historical sequence, we are in order to understand this wedding as having occurred prior to Pharaoh’s decrees. During those years Yocheved bore Moses and Miriam for Amram. Their births were not reported as this was nothing out of the ordinary. Rashi claims that Yocheved had miraculously regained her youth at the time, basing himself on the fact that the Torah did not write that Amram married “Yocheved, a daughter of Levi.” [which would not necessarily have meant that Yocheved was a real daughter, but a descendant, Ed.] Instead, the Torah wrote that he married a daughter of Levi, which means that the woman in question was 130 years old at least when she gave birth to Moses.

She, too, became youthful again. Since Yocheved is described as בת לוי (lit. “girl of Levi”), this implies she was youthful.

And a man of Levi went, and took a daughter of Levi - it appears to me, with the help of heaven, that the letters in Levi, written in full as Lamed Vav Yud sums up Ayin [the are letters spelled out in full, and then the letters in the spelling out are added up, not including the letters themselves, so if לוי is למ"ד וא"ו יו"ד, we add up: / מ"ד – 44/א"ו – 7 /ו"ד – 10 for a total of 61 = אין ], and it is known that every letter in their full form is called House (Bayit), and Amram merited to take the characteristic of humility, which is Ayin, which is hinted at in "house of Levi", that is, in the letters of Levi, in their full form, they are called Houses, and this is how he merited to take a daughter from Levi that gave birth to Moshe, our teacher, peace be upon him whose humility surpassed any living person, and he seized the characteristic of Ayin to its fullest. Or you can understand "he took a daughter of Levi" because the letter in its full form is called daughter or son of the simple letter, as it is known, and we know what the Ari of blessed memory wrote, that when Amram took his wife this time, the soul of Chava mixed itself in her, and that is why this was like a new marriage, and her youth returned to her, and this is the secret of "and the woman conceived", that is to say the idea is that the first woman, which was in the world, see there, and also note that Chava plus Yocheved sum up 61 like the full form of Levi. And this is why it says "and he took a daughter of Levi", this is a hint to "Chava Yocheved" which is hinted by the full form, which is called "daughter" in the simple reading.