Parshas Shemos

Who really gets credit for Redemption?

Moshe is the front row hero of the Book of Shemos.

He was the greatest leader our nation ever had, leading our ancestors out of the 210-year long Egyptian exile.

But what of the women who even made it possible?

• Miriam*, his elder sister, who brought their parents back together - after they separated due to an evil decree forbidding the birth of sons.  
• Yocheved, his mother, who birthed him in secret, hiding from Pharaoh's agents, before finally setting him adrift in the Nile in a waterproofed basket, praying he find a better chance of survival then he would back home.  
• Batya, the royal princess who discovered the baby in the basket and adopted him as her own - effectively granting him a new lease on life.  
• Miriam, once again, who stood watching from the reeds to ensure her brother's safety, and approached Pharaoh's daughter, offering to call a wet nurse from the Hebrew women.  
• Yocheved, who was thus able to nurse her own child, unbeknownst to the royal family.
• Tzipporah, his wife, who circumcised their son on the journey back to Egypt. (Without her embodied wisdom and decisive action, Moshe would have been killed for postponing this mitzvah.)

So it was that in this week's Parsha, a redeemer was born. 

But it was the women who actually bought about the Redemption and believed in a better tomorrow in the bleakest of times.

This reflects reality for the better part of history. Man as ruler of the external world, while women's wisdom tends to the internal world - all the inner workings of nature and humanity.

It says of the future: נקיבה תסובב גבר - the Feminine will encircle the Masculine. 

The internal and external will merge into the Oneness it's always been.

The future IS feminine. But not in the feminist way where women need to be men to exert power.

Feminine power isn't exerted.

It's embodied.

We cycle through the rhythm of womanhood. 

The ebb and flow. 

Waxing and waning. 

Exile and redemption. 

It's all within our cyclical experience of life. 

That’s why the women knew. The women believed. 

The women restored faith in the entire nation. 

They birthed redemption through their wombs.

THIS is the feminine wisdom that will encircle the masculine foundation and impregnate it into something so much greater. 

We, too, can be like the women in Egypt. 

Harnessing the power of Geulah that lives in our bodies. In our cycles. In our womb.

Mashiach may be masculine. 

But Geulah - Redemption - is the most feminine thing in the world. 

I'm in the process of birthing a rare gift to the cyclical woman. A divine initiation to embody the highest calling of the Feminine: to receive - and be a vessel for Redemption.

Stay tuned for more details coming soon!

As always, looking forward to our next Parsha conversation!

*Miriam is my personal favorite Torah heroine embodying cyclical wisdom. Her story is what really made it all click for me - how the truth of our cycles lives in the Torah. More on that in a future Parsha Point.