The "Shifra and Puah" dinner, 5766

00:25 A good and blessed week to all the women taking part in the annual conference of the Shifra and Puah organization, which has reached its thirtieth year. This is very moving for me personally, because I had the privilege of being involved in the birth of this organization thirty years ago. At the time, a request and directive came from the Rebbe through Rabbi Hodakov, and the Rebbe also sent a contribution toward it. The organization began in Kfar Chabad and later became the nationwide Shifra and Puah organization, as part of the Rebbe’s campaign to encourage having children. Boruch Hashem, we have come this far. The organization has grown not only in size but also in the quality of its work. And from the reports we hear of its activities, boruch Hashem, it continues to do more and more—helping mothers who have given birth, offering encouragement, and providing support. As usual, we hold this gathering, this celebration, around the time of Parshas Shemos, which begins, “These are the names of the children of Israel.” Everything is connected with the weekly parsha, and this one tells of the Hebrew midwives named Shifra and Puah. That is why the organization was given the name Shifra and Puah. When we study and read the parsha, some seemingly simple things are difficult to understand. “The children of Israel were fruitful and multiplied, increased and became exceedingly strong.” As Rashi explains, and as the Midrash discusses at length, women gave birth to six children at once, and so on. There were, without the evil eye, a great many mothers. From that beginning, the Jewish people grew to six hundred thousand men alone, apart from the women and children. How could just two women, Shifra and Puah, have handled an undertaking like that? How did two women, two midwives, manage to help with six hundred thousand births? In fact, there must have been many more, since the six hundred thousand counts only the men. There were, without the evil eye, hundreds upon hundreds of births a day—and just two women! Presumably, they did not yet have all the automation and assistance we have today. And “when you see them

03:30 on the birthstools”—imagine seating hundreds of thousands of women on birthstools. It seems very difficult to understand how just two women managed it between them. But as we see in the commentaries, it does not mean that these two women were the only midwives, with no helpers or assistants. They certainly worked hands-on too, but their main role was to lead this effort to increase the Jewish people. The Jewish women knew and felt that a harsh decree was coming: the king of Egypt was persecuting the Jewish people and wanted to kill their children, their sons. So they thought to themselves: Why give birth? If we do, G-d forbid, they will kill the children. The thought arose among the Jewish women that perhaps it would be better not to begin at all. These two women took on this mission. They went from place to place throughout the land of Goshen and told the women: “Don’t be afraid. You have nothing to fear. We will help you, and we will do everything we can to make sure the children are born healthy and whole.” There were probably also women who said, “Even if we get through the decree and the children live, how can we raise six children—six born at once?” That is why Rashi explains why one was called Shifra and the other Puah. They showed the women how lovely it is to raise a child, how you care for and nurture the child, like tending a flower until it blossoms. And Puah—when a child cries, how you can soothe the child and meet the child’s needs. So you have nothing to fear from having many children. That is why they were known as the Hebrew midwives, and why “He made houses for them.” They did not merely help with their own hands; they encouraged and assisted each woman. And they mobilized more and more women to go to all the Jewish

06:07 homes and tell the women: “You have nothing to fear. You have nothing to fear from the decree of the king of Egypt. You have nothing to fear from being encouraged to have children. You have nothing to fear from large families—may they continue to grow. Every child born is another light. Every child born brings more joy.” That is why their reward from Hakadosh Boruch Hu was “He made houses for them”—families of kohanim, Levites, and kings. This organization is an organization of kindness. I know about the kindness and help it provides, and I have seen it in my own home and in the homes of my children, may they live: the help, support, and encouragement the organization gives each and every woman. It says in Parshas Tazria that after giving birth, a woman brings an offering for an oath. Why does she bring an offering for an oath? Rashi explains, and the Gemara explains, that when a woman is in labor and experiences the difficulty of it, she swears to herself, “I will not have any more children.” So the Torah says that after the birth she brings an offering for an oath, in case she resolved in her heart, “I will not go through such an ordeal again. I will not go through the difficulty of childbirth again.” But when a mother knows she has a helping hand, that she has support—both physical and spiritual, during the birth and afterward, when she brings the boy or girl home, and later as she raises the child—that helps her avoid feeling such distress or making such an oath in the first place. Instead, she can rejoice in the joy of Hashem blessing her with another child, and another child, another boy or girl. From that child, a home in Israel will be built, an everlasting home. So the merit, the great merit, of the Jewish women engaged in this kindness through Shifra and Puah brings a reward from Hakadosh Boruch Hu beyond measure. There is something very interesting

08:29 in the Torah. In Parshas Beshalach, some men came to Moshe Rabbeinu and said, “Moshe Rabbeinu, we did not offer the Pesach sacrifice. What should we do?” Moshe Rabbeinu told them, “Let me hear what Hakadosh Boruch Hu says.” He asked Hakadosh Boruch Hu, Who answered that they should observe Pesach Sheini. They had not observed the first Pesach on the festival of Pesach, on 15 Nissan, so they should observe it on 15 Iyar. Why was this done for these men? The commentators ask: Of all the mitzvos—we have 613 mitzvos, including 248 positive mitzvos—we find no parallel to this. If a person did not put on tefillin, did not sit in a sukkah on 15 Tishrei, or did not hear the shofar sounded on the first day of Rosh Hashanah, would he come and ask Hakadosh Boruch Hu what to do? About this, the Mishnah says, “A wrong that cannot be made right.” If you missed it, you missed it. That is what it says in Tanya, Igeres Hateshuvah, chapter 1. There is no way to make it up. If a person did not hear the shofar sounded on Rosh Hashanah, he will hear it next year—but that is for next year. He missed it this year. If a person did not sit in a sukkah, he missed it. Yet for someone who did not offer the Pesach sacrifice, the Torah provided the possibility of Pesach Sheini: Don’t worry, you will be able to observe Pesach on 15 Iyar. Why this special provision? It is certainly a great and important mitzvah. But with no other mitzvah in the Torah do we find anything like this, where a person can fulfill the mitzvah later. I once heard something wonderful in a sicha of the Rebbe. The Rebbe explained it this way: Why did these men not offer the Pesach sacrifice at its appointed time? The Gemara says, and Rashi explains in the Chumash, that they were occupied with carrying Yosef’s remains, which is connected with the weekly parsha. Yosef made the children of Israel swear that when they went up from the land of Egypt, they would take his remains with them.

10:51 Israel from the land of Egypt, from the land of Egypt, that they should take his coffin and bring it up to the Land of Israel. These people were carrying the coffin containing Yosef’s bones. Halachah says that someone who comes into contact with a dead person is ritually impure for seven days. These people did not offer the Pesach sacrifice. Why? Because they were impure through contact with a dead person. Why were they impure? Not because they wanted to become impure, but because they were engaged in the mitzvah of bringing Yosef’s bones up to the Land of Israel. They were doing an act of kindness. Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: For the other mitzvos of the Torah, there is no way to make them up. You didn’t hear the shofar being blown? The loss is entirely yours. But someone who was engaged in kindness, who was doing kindness for others—it cannot be that they should lose out on anything. It cannot be that a person who was doing kindness should lose out on a mitzvah of the Torah. And so Hakadosh Boruch Hu said: With this mitzvah in particular, the festival mitzvah of the Pesach sacrifice—why didn’t these people offer it? Because they were busy doing kindness. It cannot be that they should be left lacking. I will give to them, repay them twice over, so that they can observe Pesach at its appointed time on the 15th of Iyar. This teaches us—and the Rebbe explained at length—just how significant this mitzvah of kindness is, and especially this act of kindness for which we have gathered this evening: the kindness of building homes among the Jewish people, with its reward of “And He made them houses.” How great the reward is, and how great and important this is in the eyes of Hakadosh Boruch Hu. So may all those who engage in this mitzvah, and do even more and more of it, be helped by Hashem from His full, open, and holy hand. As the Rebbe would always mention, in the Baal Shem Tov’s siddur it was written not “holy” with a kuf, but “overflowing” with a gimmel—blessings of holiness, blessings like a vessel whose water spills over its rim. May the Rebbe’s blessings accompany them until we merit the fulfillment of the promise of

13:17 the revelation of the Rebbe, Melech HaMoshiach, immediately, right now.

00:20 Speaker 1 It is good to give thanks to Hashem, it is good to give thanks to Hashem, and to sing, and to sing to Your name, Most High. It is good, good to give thanks to Hashem. It is good to give thanks to Hashem, it is good to give thanks to Hashem, and to sing, and to sing to Your name, Most High. It is good, good to give thanks to Hashem. To declare Your kindness in the morning, to declare Your kindness in the morning. And Your faithfulness at night, and Your faithfulness at night. It is good, good to give thanks to Hashem. Oy, to declare Your kindness in the morning, to declare Your kindness in the morning. And Your faithfulness at night, and Your faithfulness at night. It is good, good to give thanks to Hashem.

02:09 Speaker 2 Blessings and more blessings to the thirtieth conference of Shifra and Puah, the Rebbe’s institution. It is good to give thanks to Hashem, it is good to give thanks to Hashem, and to sing, and to sing to Your name, Most High. It is good, good to give thanks to Hashem. It is good to give thanks to Hashem, it is good to give thanks to Hashem, and to sing, and to sing to Your name, Most High. It is good, good to give thanks to Hashem. To declare Your kindness in the morning, to declare Your kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness at night, and Your faithfulness at night. It is good, good to give thanks to Hashem. To declare Your kindness in the morning, to declare Your kindness in the morning, and Your faithfulness at night, and Your faithfulness at night. It is good, good to give thanks to Hashem.

06:16 Speaker 3 Shh, shh, beloved. Shh, beloved. Ephraim is dear to Me, Ephraim is dear to Me—a delightful child. For whenever I speak of him, oy, oy, I surely remember him still. Is Ephraim a dear son to Me, a delightful child, a child, a delightful child? Oy, for whenever I speak of him, I surely remember him still. Ephraim is dear to Me, Ephraim is dear to Me—a delightful child. For whenever I speak of him, I surely remember him still. Is Ephraim a dear son to Me, a delightful child, a child, a delightful child? Oy, for whenever I speak of him, I surely remember him still, I surely remember him still, I surely remember him still. Therefore My innermost being yearns for him. Therefore My innermost being yearns for him. Oy,