Often people invoke their parents when celebrating great personal achievements. Graduating valedictorians, bridegrooms, athletic champions, and even newly inaugurated presidents will mention those who welcomed them to the world and nurtured them to adulthood. There is typically no connection between the parents and their children’s specific achievements, but sometimes the connection is profound.
This week’s parsha opens with G-d’s instruction to Moshe and his brother Aharon to approach Pharaoh once again with the divine message “Let my people go and serve Me (G-d) in the desert.” The first time they delivered the message it boomeranged terribly for the Jews, and now the two brothers made the herculean effort to follow through with the mission.
The Torah then suddenly breaks from the narrative to record the family trees of three Israelite tribes with a specific focus on Amram and Yocheved, Moshe and Aharon’s parents from the tribe of Levi. The section concludes “That is Aharon and Moshe, to whom the L-rd said, "Take the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt with their legions. They are the ones who spoke to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to let the children of Israel out of Egypt; they are Moshe and Aharon." Why was this introduction to these two legendary brothers recorded in the middle of their mission and not in the beginning? In G-d’s original instruction to Moshe the Israelite elders were meant to join him as a delegation to Pharaoh. Perhaps it would look awkward for two solitary people to represent many millions of Jews requesting freedom and initially, a group of seventy venerable sages joined Moshe and Aharon as they approached the royal palace. However, one by one the elders backed away. Pharaoh was so ferociously intimidating, the mere thought of being in his presence, let alone demanding freedom, filled their hearts with dread. By the time they arrived at the palace, Moshe and Aharon stood alone. How did they have the courage and bravery to do it? They got it from their parents. Their mother Yocheved had a long history with Pharoah. About a year before Moshe’s birth the Egyptian astrologers foretold that a boy would soon be born who would liberate the Jews from Egyptian slavery. Determined to nip this threat in the bud, Pharaoh commanded Yocheved, the chief Israelite midwife to kill every Israelite male baby at birth. With tremendous sacrifice, she refused to comply and even bravely talked him down from the devilish plan. When Pharaoh then decreed all baby boys should be drowned in the Nile, Amram, the Israelite leader at the time, after a brief hesitation, inspired the Jews to continue having children by doing so himself. Moshe was born shortly afterward. Amram and Yocheved’s courage did not only have the short-term impact of ensuring Jewish continuity, but it also primed their children to make similar choices eighty years later with monumental consequences. Always remember that your mitzvot today can be the catalyst for tremendous good for generations to come.