Texts in Conversation
In Exodus, Pharaoh’s daughter sends her helper to retrieve the basket containing Moses. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Sotah interprets "amah" means her arm rather than her maidservant, and the arm miraculously stretched several feet long.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 2:5
Hebrew Bible
4 His sister stationed herself at a distance to find out what would happen to him. 5 Then the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself by the Nile, while her attendants were walking alongside the river, and she saw the basket among the reeds. She sent one of her attendants, took it, 6 opened it, and saw the child—a boy, crying!—and she felt compassion for him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.”
Sotah 12b
Babylonian Talmud
Rabbinic
The verse concludes: “And she sent amatah to take it” (Exodus 2:5). Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Neḥemya disagree as to the definition of the word “amatah.” One says that it means her arm, and one says that it means her maidservant. The Gemara explains: The one who says that it means her arm explained it in this manner, as it is written “amatah,” which denotes her forearm. And the one who says that it means her maidservant explained it in this manner because it does not explicitly write the more common term: Her hand [yadah]. Therefore, he understands that this is the alternative term for a maidservant, ama. The Gemara asks: And according to the one who says that it means her maidservant, didn’t you say earlier: Gabriel came and beat them to the ground and the maidservants died, so how could Pharaoh’s daughter send her? The Gemara answers: It must be that Gabriel left her one maidservant, as it is not proper that a princess should stand alone. The Gemara asks: And according to the one who says that it means her hand, let the Torah write explicitly: Her hand [yadah]. Why use the more unusual term amatah? The Gemara answers: This verse teaches us that her arm extended [ishtarbav] many cubits. As the Master said in another context: And similarly you find with regard to the hand of Pharaoh’s daughter that it extended, and similarly you find with regard to the teeth of evildoers, as it is written: “You have broken [shibbarta] the teeth of the wicked” (Psalms 3:8), and Reish Lakish said: Do not read the word as shibbarta, rather read it as sheribbavta, you have extended.
Date: 450-550 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
... The Bible ascribes the rescue of Moses to Pharaoh’s daughter, but the identity of the woman who actually drew the ark out of the Nile is ambiguous. The Bible tells that when the princess notices the floating basket, she sends her amah to take it (Exodus 2:5). The word amah in Hebrew has two different meanings. One is maiden (amah), and the other is hand (ammah). If we translate amah as maiden, it would mean that the princess sent one of her handmaidens to fetch the basket. But if we translate amah as hand it would mean that Pharaoh’s daughter drew the basket out with her own hand. The two possibilities are noted in the Babylonian Talmud and the midrash: “Rabbi Judah and Rabbi Nehemiah: one said that the word means her hand and the other said that it means her handmaid.” While biblical commentators and exegetes could include both options, translators had to choose between the two. Thus, the Aramaic translations used by Jews show the meaning as hand ...
Shalev-Eyni, Sarit
Purity and Impurity: The Naked Woman Bathing in Jewish and Christian Art
(p. 205) Brill, 2008
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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