“They became a nation,” teaching that Israel remained distinctive (mitzuyanim).” This passage teaches us that the people of Israel did not become assimilated among the Egyptians so that they were also called Egyptians. Rather they remained distinctive and separate. The word mitzuyanimimplies that anyone who saw them immediately knew they were Israelites; eventually they recognized “Israel,” as a separate ethnic group. If they had become assimilated they would have been designated as Egyptians, God forbid, and they would not have been worthy of redemption. Because they stood apart from their neighbors, they were worthy of being taken out of Egypt.

The Miraculous Increase of the Israelites “Great, mighty as Scripture states: ‘The Israelites were fertile and prolific; they multiplied and increased very, very, greatly so that the land was filled with them:” (Ex. 1:7) It is necessary to understand what the sages said regarding this verse in Midrash: “The Israelites were fertile and prolific: each one gave birth to six in every brood. There are those who say there were twelve twelve. Fertile– two, prolific– two, multiplied– two, increased– two, very, very– two, the land was filled with them– two.¹ There are those who say that sixty were born in every brood! This is not surprising since a scorpion which is a type of crawling creature (sheretz) that gives birth to sixty young.¹, prolific has the same Hebrew root as the word sheretz, a crawling creature or an insect, allowing the Midrashto compare the Israelites’ fertility to that of the scorpion. Rabbi Natan said: the land was filled with them – they were like the reeds of the field.” (Shemot Rabbah1:7) This statement is quite surprising. ¹so literally? He acknowledges that women do not give birth to six children (let alone sixty children) every day and certainly on a regular basis. He searches for a way to interpret this Midrashon its own terms. The Maharal attempts to read aggadahin a metaphorical sense. What is the significance of the number six, neither more or less? What is the reason for the number sixty? Such a thing could happen by chance that a woman could give birth in this number without a reason. Accidental occurrences do not happen constantly, and according to the Midrash, this happened all the time. This can be explained through another verse: “The more they were oppressed, the more they increased and the more they spread out.” (Ex.1:12) The Midrashexplains that the reason for their increase was that they were forced to work six days in a row and only allowed to rest on the Sabbath. This was because as a young man, Moses came to Pharaoh and said, “Is it possible for people to work constantly without a break and an opportunity to rest?” Pharaoh said to him: “Pick one day in the week for the slaves to rest, lest they be unable to continue their work.”¹” on the Sabbath. Even though the Israelites were given a day off from hard labor, they were still oppressed the rest of the week. The time spent with their spouses then became payback for the oppression – they would give birth to one child for each of the six days of oppression! Moses chose the Sabbath. When the Holy One gave Israel the Sabbath through Moses, Moses rejoiced that the portion that God chose for Israel was the same as the one he had chosen for them in Egypt. That is why the Israelites were oppressed and made to work only six days during the week when they were slaves….however it was for the six days of oppression that they gave birth to six infants in every brood. For those who claimed that the Israelites gave birth to broods of twelve, it was because they were forced to work day and night during the six days, so their payment was double. They gave birth to twelve for the night and the day. It seems to me that the twelve included six boys and six girls because the day is associated with males and the night with females. The night is ruled over by the moon and the day by the sun. The moon, which is the weaker of the two heavenly bodies is associated with the female while the sun which is the more active is associated with male. The basis of the opinion that sixty were born in each brood is the verse, “The more they oppressed them, the more they increased (yarbeh).” The verse should have stated “the more they oppressed them, the more they gave birth (yifrah).” Yarbehimplies multiples more than one. This means they gave birth to sixty and not just six since yarbehwould be ten times the original number… The one who said that they gave birth like the reeds in the field implies that they gave birth without limits or boundaries like the reeds grow in a field. They gave birth at such a great rate because they received a blessing from above to such an extent that there were no limits to their rate of reproduction… Perhaps you are bothered by the suggestion that a woman gave birth to sixty in one brood. Know that the fetus which goes forth in the form of a man is more or less the size of a single finger.¹ What this means is that a woman’s fecundity was so great that she had the potential to give birth to sixty, were it not for her limits in actually giving birth since they could not all grow to full size. The statement means she could carry sixty in her womb if she had had the power to deliver them.

footnotes: ¹ Each of the Hebrew terms describing the fertility of the Israelites is stated in the plural so that they represent two. The Midrashic approach to the text is to take nothing for granted. If a word is plural than it should be read numerically as two or more. ¹ One of the terms, yishritzu ¹ Did the Maharal understand this Midrash ¹ It is often said that marital intimacy is a “double mitzvah ¹ This idea of a woman conceiving a small human being in her womb was typical in the Middle Ages. It was called a homunculus. The Maharal suggests that the woman could potentially conceive ‘sixty’ small human beings but was limited by her ability to give birth to them all. Wikipedia: A homunculus is Latin for "little man" is a representation of a small human being. Popularized in 16th-century alchemy and 19th-century fiction, it has historically referred to the creation of a miniature, fully formed human.