"And these are the names of the Children of Israel, who were coming to Egypt with Jacob; each man and his household came." (1:1)
Question: After the initial statement "these are the names of the Children of Israel, who were coming to Egypt" the balance of the verse, beginning "with Jacob," seems superfluous.
Answer: When a person marries and raises a family, he is considered the head of the household. The entire family looks up to him for advice and guidance. Often, as he ages and the children mature, they take over the father's position and begin to run all the family affairs. If a major move has to be made, they make the decisions and take their aged parents along with them.
The Torah is attesting that the children of Jacob had the highest respect and greatest admiration for their father. Though he was already 130 years old and they were in their forties, full of zest and vigor, it was Jacob who led the way, with the rest of the household following.
The midwives feared G-d and they did not do as the King of Egypt spoke, and they caused the children to live." (1:17)
Question: The words "and they caused the children to live" seem extra. If they did not listen to Pharaoh, is it not obvious that the children lived?
Answer: In every hospital with a maternity ward, a small number of children die naturally at birth.
The Jewish midwives feared that during the time of Pharaoh's decree a child would die, and the mother would accuse them of obeying Pharaoh. Being righteous women, they prayed to G-d, and through their prayers they "made live" even those children who would have died naturally at birth.
"Pharaoh commanded all his people saying, 'Every son that is born cast him into the river, and every daughter you shall sustain [keep alive].' " (1:22)
Question: Pharaoh's sole concern was for all the boys to be cast into the river, while the fate of the girls did not seem to interest him. Why did he add, "Every daughter you shall sustain"?
Answer: The word techayun, sustain in Hebrew, means "you shall be the actual source of their life." Pharaoh ordered the Egyptians to cast Jewish children into the river in order to cause their physical death. The same Egyptians were also told by Pharaoh that those children who would remain physically alive (i.e., the girls) were to be sustained by them, that is, assimilated and totally raised in the Egyptian way of life - in order to exterminate their Jewish souls.
This explains the difference in the command to the Jewish midwives and the Egyptians respectively: The Jewish midwives were simply told to leave the girls alone, "If it be a girl let her live" (1:16). Pharaoh hoped that by telling them to let the girls live, it would be easier for him to persuade them to carry out his order to kill the boys. However, he told the Egyptians "sustain," not just to let the Jewish girls live, but to make sure to assimilate them into Egyptian culture.
The Torah cites both decrees together in the same verse to indicate that "Every daughter you shall sustain" is a decree equivalent in its harshness and even surpassing the decree regarding the boys, "Every son that is born you shall cast into the river." To destroy the soul is equal to the killing the body, and indeed even worse - for spiritual death far surpasses physical death.
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