She opened the basket, and she saw him the child, and behold, he was a weeping lad, and she had compassion on him, and she said, "This is one of the children of the Hebrews." (2:6) There are two difficulties in this Posuk: The word x ©r©p generally means a young adult, child, or person who can already tell the difference between good and bad - a youngster. In the Torah, when the word x ©r©p is used, sometimes it's obvious what the young adult's age is. We see in Bereishis 21:17 ;¼x ©r¼©P ©d l e ́w z ¤` ‹mi ¦w l ¡` r ́©n §W ¦I ©e Hashem heard the cry of the boy. Here, Yishmael was no longer a toddler, he was already thirteen years old. The same is by Yosef it says Bereishis 31:2 z ¤` d¤r x d ̈i ̈d d ̈p ̈y d ¥x §y¤r r ©a §y o ¤a s ¥q ei x ©r©p `Ed §e o` v ©a ei ̈g ¤` he was a Naar and was seventeen years old!
Why does the Torah refer a baby of three months old a Naar”? Another difficulty is: d¤f mi ¦x §a ¦r ̈d i ¥c §l©I ¦n x ¤n` Y ©e"This is one of the children of the Hebrews." Here she uses a plural language d¤f mi ¦x §a ¦r ̈d i ¥c §l©I ¦n. When in reality it should say c ¤l¤I" "d«¤f i −¦x §a ¦r He is a Jewish child, singular?
To answer these difficulties: The is a story of when Maria Theresa’s ruled in Prague in the 1700’s she was very harsh on the Jews -as known she expulled the Jews from Prague 1n 1744- and constantly made decrees against the Jews. One decree she enacted was very harsh that the Kehila decided to loby and nullify the decree. A prominent Talmid Chacham, Reb Zalmen, decided go to meet the ruler, and nullify the decree. When he came forth and began to plead his case, he began to scream at the top of his lungs that the ruler should have mercy on the suffering of the Jews. She became terrified and asked why did he scream so loud? Reb Zalmen answered: All the Jews of Prague were crying out from me! The ruler was moved at his words and promised to nullify the decree.
The same can be said by our Posuk: Pharoah’s daughter opened the basket and saw a young baby, but his cry was d ¤k A x ©r©p "d¥P ¦d §e" the cry from an older child. She began to think to herself and wonder, how can a baby cry the cry of older boys! She then understood d¤f mi ¦x §a ¦r ̈d i ¥c §l©I ¦n that the cry isn’t only from the baby, but also from many children who were suffering, and she had mercy on him, and saved him. She realized that a genuine leader feels the pain of others. With this insight we can understand the Chazal that she converted to Judaism. She was deeply touched by this young Jewish baby having felt the pain of his brothers, which this sparked in her soul a fire and urge to be part of that nation.
(Yehuda Z. Klitnick based on Sefer Toras Moshe Noson Yungreiz)
