The Hebrew Midwives of Manifested Motherhood

Parashat Shemot

The Hebrew Midwives of Manifested Motherhood

Perpetual Motherly Love is Primary in Spiritual Healing

The unconditional love with which a mother regards her newborn is the most basic and primary spiritual healing. I am holding this innocent, vulnerable bundle of life. I am looking at this defenseless creature, completely incapacitated and dependent on my care. Why would I look at this wrinkled face with so much love? What has this infant done to deserve my love? It cannot even smile yet; all it can do is receive my love and nourishment. And for this, I love my baby. I fall so completely in love with this being, who indiscriminately receives everything I have to give it. It is this life which gave birth to my motherhood and ability to love unconditionally. It opened my incessantly flowing wellspring of lifegiving motherhood – that divine source of perpetual nurture and nourishment. Thank you, Hashem, for this You have kept me alive, established me, and let me arrive at this time and opportunity of birth. No matter what, I am committed to continuing to love and give of my wellspring of motherhood as long as my heart beats and my breath is still within me. I am elated at this opportunity to give unconditionally and love my baby into growing, thriving and becoming independent of me. No matter how objectively ugly, undeveloped, crinkly, and ruddy my baby may be, it is always the most beautiful being in his mother’s eyes. Perceiving this hidden beauty, pulling it out, and expanding it is what transforms me from a new mother to become a spiritual healer. Each point of beauty that I fathom draws it out from potential to actuality, as I give birth to the primary good points in life.

In the Face of Infinite Light, There is no Fear of Darkness and Death

From within the bowels of exile, among the oppressive leadership of male powermongers, you and your mother remain committed to life and motherhood against all the odds. As you see your mother’s love reflected in your own eyes, you become recharged with eternal devotion to the Cause of all life. Against suppression of your innate motherliness, your love grows even stronger becoming willing to defy the threat of the serpent of death and mortality. “Now the king of Egypt spoke to the Hebrew midwives, one who was named Shifrah, and the second, who was named Puah” (Shemot 1:15). Shifrah: This was Yocheved, [called Shifrah] because she מְשַׁפֶּרֶת/meshaperet – ‘beautified’ the newborn infant. [Sotah 11b]. Your commitment to continue to beautify the new infant spills over into seeing the good points in everyone around you. Everyone can be regarded as an innocent newborn. By seeing his points of beauty, you can give birth to them and increase goodness and beauty in the world. Through seeing these goodly sparks, you are reflecting the Shechina – the Divine life of the world, Who invigorates you to become fearless towards anything but G-d. As long as you perceive infinite light and life, why should you fear darkness and death?

Giving Birth to a More Refined Version of Ourselves

Puah: This was Miriam, [called Puah] because she פּוֹעָה/po’ah – ‘cried’ and talked and cooed to the newborn infant in the manner of women who soothe a crying infant. פּוֹעָה is an expression of crying out, similar to “Like a birthing woman will I cry (אֶפְעֶה)” (Yesha’yahu 42:14). She played with the infant to soothe and amuse him (Rashi, Sotah 11b; Rashi Shemot 1:15). Whenever we encounter pain and wailing in the world, we will respond with motherly soothing playfulness, that allows the pain to melt away within the greater waves of life and fertility. We are all giving birth while we continue to be reborn as an increasingly more refined version of ourselves. We will not only talk and soothe but also lift away the pain by offering our listening ear and heart, feeling the quandary of our fellow sister, and holding the space for her, while being with her in her pain. Her cries will become transformed through songs of praise for the Almighty in Whose hand we let go of all anguish and agony, torture and torment. While the skin of the primordial serpent cracks, the unbearable pain too strong for any human to bear, is transformed into the birth pangs of new life in a place where pain and pleasure are intertwined. “The midwives said to Pharaoh, ‘Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are Chayot; when the midwife has not yet come to them, they have [already] given birth’” (Shemot 1:19). By overcoming fear of the side of death and darkness, we become our own midwives and life-givers, giving birth to ourselves and others while bursting and ousting any residual spiritual pollution of the Chiviyah (serpent), as Chava becomes Chaya – Mother of Life! (Based on Be’er Mayim Chayim, Shemot 1).

Building Eternal Houses through Fear of G-d

“The midwives, however, feared G-d; so they did not do as the king of Egypt had spoken to them, but they enabled the boys to live… G-d benefited the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. Now it took place when the midwives feared G-d, that He made houses for them (Shemot 1;17,20-21). The light of the holy motivation of motherly love and devotion must be conditioned by rectified vessels. Without proper vessels, the light will not be able to endure. “Fear of Hashem, that is his treasure house” (Yesha’yahu 33:6). Fear of Hashem will ensure the balanced place of correct actions providing the proper boundaries to serve as a perpetual container to preserve all our love and goodwill. “Holy awe is the rectification of the contraction and judgment of the vacant space that became sweetened in its root, in the aspect of holy judgment. By means of the aspect of awe, houses are created. They are rectification of the vessels and the contractions to receive the light… This is the meaning of “It was when they feared… and He made houses for them” (Shemot 1:21); (Rabbi Natan of Breslev, Likutei Halachot, Orach Chayim, Laws of Tefillin 5). Fearing Hashem implies fearing no one but G-d – No matter how powerful and threatening the Pharaohs of our lives, our fear of the King of Kings will supersede any fear of kings of flesh and blood!

Giving Birth Through Teaching and Encouragement

“Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani said in the name of Rabbi Yonatan: Anyone who teaches someone else’s child Torah is considered as though he gave birth to him (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 19b). Teaching Torah can be expanded to include teaching our sisters to believe in themselves, which is to believe in the Divine core within their own souls. By seeing the good points in others, we give birth to their higher selves. By soothing, comforting, and singing their souls back to life, we allow them to survive the resistance of the other side and become reborn and revitalized. “The midwives are the aspect of the righteous of the generation that gives birth to decent students in Israel. They are considered as if they gave birth to them, as our rabbis of blessed memory state. They [the midwives] did the opposite of the opinion of the other side – the aspect of Pharaoh and Egypt, whose main endeavor is to make sadness dominate through their crooked, cunning ways. This is mainly through the desire for money, and sometimes by their opposite opinions drawn from the halls of replacement that discard the person by their inappropriate reproach” (Rabbi Natan of Breslev, Likutei Halachot, Orach Chayim, Laws of Thanksgiving 6). Through loving people back to life, we will abstain from inappropriate reproach that extinguishes the light in our fellows, discouraging them from feeling self-worth and thus immobilizing them from growing in Torah, rising, and shining.

EmunaHealing Exercise for Giving Birth to Our Higher Selves

1. Find a comfortable space where you can be alone with yourself for a chunk of time. Either lay down or sit on a cushion or sofa and place both hands on your belly.

2. Close your eyes, breathe a few times, then open your eyes halfway. Don’t focus on anything, hold your eyes there for 5 seconds, then close them.

3. Breathe for 5 seconds, then open your eyes only a third of the way. Don’t focus but stay for 5 seconds, then close your eyes and continue with your breath counting.

4. Roll your eyes upward into your head, gently holding them there and focusing on the inside center of your forehead.

5. Become aware of the space on your forehead between your eyebrows, known as the ‘third eye.’ It is directly behind it is the light-sensitive pineal gland, which produces serotonin, a hormone that affects the regulation of wake-sleep patterns and your energy levels. Breathe into your ‘third eye’ and relax the muscles on your forehead between your eyebrows.

6. Bring your thoughts and feelings together, creating a harmonious balance between the two. Tap into your inner wisdom and intuition while quieting the mind so that all your channels of thought are open.

7. Visualize a wave inside of the ocean. Watch it slowly peak in intensity and then allow it to slowly come down. See yourself as a jellyfish, allowing that wave to wash through you.

8. Surrender, letting the waves wash over you. Give yourself to the powerful ebb and flow of nature and to the rhythms of your own body. Gently make a mental affirmation: “I can go with the flow.”

9. Allow all of your thoughts to be gazed upon. Don’t judge or label any of them. Don’t resist them. Allow them to flow over you and raise your vibrations rather than shrink them. Don’t try to control your thoughts or achieve anything with them. Let them flow through you without attaching feelings or meaning to them. If you find that you are being bombarded with thoughts, get up. Walk around your space for thirty seconds and then sit in a new direction. This allows the mind to reboot, the body to be more at ease, and for you to go deeper into the space where your source lies.

10. Visualize a great light shining and illuminating you. Allow it to melt away any fear, doubt, or negativity from your body and mind.

11. Envision your illuminated self, filled with gifts of divine inspiration, goodwill and abundance to share with the world.

12. Take your journal or a special piece of paper and write a list of things you wish to manifest and give birth to through this spiritual journey. Write the manifestation as if it is happening in the present. You may also wish to write about manifestations coming to fruition at a certain moment in the future.

13. Focus on how you want your future self to feel as your manifestations become reality. How will your body feel when your dreams are fulfilled? How will your mind feel when you feel filled with energy to manifest your higher loving self? What will seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting feel like? How will they each contribute to your true nature? Write these points down, too. Now it is time to let them go. Let your manifestations go completely. They require incubation in the ether. While it may seem difficult at first not to babysit and control your manifestations, allow yourself the belief and grace to let Hashem do this work for you.

15. You are now learning to give up control and surrender yourself to ultimate motherhood. Sometimes it’s easy; sometimes it’s a struggle. You have lost a lot in life. But you’ve gained so much more. The more you surrender control, the more you open yourself to being a conduit for giving birth to the love of life!