The Written Torah’s typically spare prose seems to gloss over this conflict. But the Midrash points to it, and if used properly the story makes us stop and examine her motivations. The metaphor of her extended arm is an expression of God’s directing the actions of Paroh’s daughter. The rabbis are teaching us that her emotional shift toward feeling protective of this baby is as much of a miracle as if God had extended her arm 25 feet.
Leah felt as if a load had been removed from shoulders. At age 14, she was taught – for the first time – the relationship between the Torah and the midrashim. It is my firm belief that all teachers should only teach a Midrash if it helps students discover a deeper message.
Rabbi Simcha and Chaya Feuerman, in a Jewish Press column a couple of years ago titled “Teaching Midrashim to Children” (which is included in the Feuermans’ book Direction: Finding Your Way in Relationships, Parenting & Personal Growth), suggest using the notion of seeking a “moral of the story” for presenting the idea of a deeper meaning to midrashim to children. Here is a good example:
Consider the Midrash which contains a strange twist to the plague of Frogs.
The verse (Shemos 8:2) states: “And the frog went up and covered all of Egypt.” The text uses the singular form when referring to the frogs. Of course, the simple explanation (poshut peshat) is that in Hebrew as in many languages, an entire group or species is labeled in the singular form. However, the Midrash derives from this choice of words that actually one frog rose out of the Nile. However, each and every time an Egyptian tried to hit the frog, instead of it being squashed and killed, it split into several new frogs. Thus, as the frogs began to jump all over, and Egyptians encountered and hit them, the plague grew worse and worse. (See Rashi, Op. Cit.)
To our thinking, there is no question that any classroom of children, encouraged to ponder what the real lesson behind this Midrash is, would draw powerful insights into the nature of problems and how people get further into them. The inescapable lesson of this Midrash is that when you try to stubbornly and pig-headedly fight a problem, as the Egyptians did, instead of thinking about what has gone wrong you will end up panicking and making things far worse. The more the Egyptians fought the frogs, the worse it got. Who among us in life has not panicked and made a situation far worse instead of staying calm and using problem-solving skills?
As our children enter the 21st century and its scientific mindset, it is obligatory for all educators to ensure that our children see the Torah in its most sophisticated light.