Shiphra and Puah: What We Can Learn from Our Biblical Matriarchs
Adam Baruch, MD, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Medical School; Jeremy Baruch, MD, Associate Director, University of Michigan Medical School, Program on Health, Spirituality and Religion; Reni Forer, Medical Student, University of Michigan Medical School; Meridith Pensler, Medical Student, University of Michigan Medical School
Moses, the eventual savior of the Israelites, enters his own narrative without agency. As a newborn, he is incapable of saving a nation, let alone himself. At the time of Moses’s birth, Pharaoh had commanded the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, to kill newborn Israelite boys. As the first healthcare providers in the Bible, Shiphrah and Puah are our professional ancestors. What can we learn from their response to Pharaoh's edict? During the proposed paper presentation, we plan to engage participants in Shiphra and Puah’s narrative to explore this question.
Upon being commanded to kill baby boys, Shiphrah and Puah disregard Pharaoh's edict out of fear of God. In the secular medical space, the midwives' fear of God functions similarly to acting based on conscience. Ironically, acting according to one’s conscience does not necessarily result in a single, morally unambiguous outcome. Shiphra and Puah’s modern descendants continue to struggle with questions of life and death when deciding whether to provide abortion. Some healthcare providers describe the performance of abortion as an act based on conscience while others attribute their conscience as the source of refusal. In this story, “God dealt well with the midwives...he established households for them” (Exodus 1:20-21), but in our times, we do not have a divine voice to clarify the rightness of one position over the other. We can look to our matriarchs who taught that the provision of healthcare requires more than following guidelines but demands that we ask deeper questions of meaning.
Shiphra and Puah also teach us how to behave in the clinical space. The medieval biblical commentator, Rashi, teaches that Shiphra and Puah were not their actual names. Shiphra, which means to improve, was so called because she improved a baby’s physical condition. Puah is the crooning sound that she made to comfort babies when they cried. Our biblical matriarchs remind us that although our badges contain our degree and last name, our patients remember us because of our compassion, listening ear, and clinical care.
The biblical story paints Shiphra and Puah as leaders. Moses’s parents follow in Shiphra and Puah’s footsteps by intervening to save Moses, despite the illegality of the action. While it seems obvious that one’s parents would break a law to save their baby’s life, the midwives’ interventions for the sake of Hebrew boys leads directly into Moses’s story, suggesting causation. It stands to reason that Moses’s parents felt emboldened by the midwives’ actions. Strikingly, Pharaoh's daughter, who intuits that Moses is a Hebrew boy, breaks her own father’s law, in the spirit of Shiphra and Puah’s civic disobedience, raising him as her son.
While Shiphra and Puah only appear for a few verses in the entire Bible, their impact is immense. Their brief act of inspiring the salvation of Moses allows him to grow to become the savior of the Israelites. As healthcare providers, we quickly pass through many patients’ lives. Shiphra and Puah remind us how impactful these brief interactions can be.
Upon being commanded to kill baby boys, Shiphrah and Puah disregard Pharaoh's edict out of fear of God. In the secular medical space, the midwives' fear of God functions similarly to acting based on conscience. Ironically, acting according to one’s conscience does not necessarily result in a single, morally unambiguous outcome. Shiphra and Puah’s modern descendants continue to struggle with questions of life and death when deciding whether to provide abortion. Some healthcare providers describe the performance of abortion as an act based on conscience while others attribute their conscience as the source of refusal. In this story, “God dealt well with the midwives...he established households for them” (Exodus 1:20-21), but in our times, we do not have a divine voice to clarify the rightness of one position over the other. We can look to our matriarchs who taught that the provision of healthcare requires more than following guidelines but demands that we ask deeper questions of meaning.
Shiphra and Puah also teach us how to behave in the clinical space. The medieval biblical commentator, Rashi, teaches that Shiphra and Puah were not their actual names. Shiphra, which means to improve, was so called because she improved a baby’s physical condition. Puah is the crooning sound that she made to comfort babies when they cried. Our biblical matriarchs remind us that although our badges contain our degree and last name, our patients remember us because of our compassion, listening ear, and clinical care.
The biblical story paints Shiphra and Puah as leaders. Moses’s parents follow in Shiphra and Puah’s footsteps by intervening to save Moses, despite the illegality of the action. While it seems obvious that one’s parents would break a law to save their baby’s life, the midwives’ interventions for the sake of Hebrew boys leads directly into Moses’s story, suggesting causation. It stands to reason that Moses’s parents felt emboldened by the midwives’ actions. Strikingly, Pharaoh's daughter, who intuits that Moses is a Hebrew boy, breaks her own father’s law, in the spirit of Shiphra and Puah’s civic disobedience, raising him as her son.
While Shiphra and Puah only appear for a few verses in the entire Bible, their impact is immense. Their brief act of inspiring the salvation of Moses allows him to grow to become the savior of the Israelites. As healthcare providers, we quickly pass through many patients’ lives. Shiphra and Puah remind us how impactful these brief interactions can be.