Translation by Yehoshua Siskin
"Shalom Sivan, This is Tzachi Michaeli from Kiryat Shmona. This week we read the Torah portion of Shemot while still caring for our father, Dov Ben Luba, who is recovering after a bone marrow transplant. This was a particularly complex procedure due to the corona.
Our Torah portion discusses the first medical team in history: the Hebrew midwives, Shifra and Puah. Pharaoh commands them to throw every Jewish baby boy into the Nile River but they refuse to obey his command. They not only risk their lives and allow the babies to live, but treat them and their mothers with devotion and self-sacrifice. Our sages relate how the midwives would encourage and reassure mothers and babies by their calming presence, their smiles, and their caresses. The midwives created an atmosphere of optimism and faith in their improvised Egyptian maternity ward. In their merit, an entire generation survived and left Egypt during the Exodus.
It's been almost a year that our medical teams have been working around the clock. After many exhausting months of treating corona patients, our nurses have led the charge in the vaccination campaign that has made Israel number one worldwide in vaccinations per capita. Perhaps this year we should dedicate this parasha to them, about whom it was said: And you have enabled the children to live. From then until today, our nurses have continued to enable us - from children to old folks - to live".
