Rena Quint is a Holocaust survivor.
Rena was a young girl during the War and has limited memories of what she experienced.
She barely remembers her own mother.
She does remember that the family was rounded up at the synagogue and there was a moment where she had a window to escape. She thinks her mother pushed her out the door. She can’t imagine what strength that required.
Many years later, Rena learned that all those who had been captured that day, were taken to Treblinka, where they perished.
In her book, A Daughter of Many Mothers, Rena chronicles her incredible journey of survival. She credits that survival to many women, mothers as she calls them, who protected her along her way.
Being a mother is a difficult job.
It is not defined or limited to being a biological mother, certainly as seen by Rena Quints experience.
Part of being a mother is having faith, often in the most trying of circumstances.
A mother has faith that the child will…survive…thrive…achieve excellence…transcend…she believes in her child, she sees the possibilities.
In Hebrew the word for mother is Em, or Ima.
The letters EM are the first two letters of the word EMUNA, which means faith.
Mothers give birth with faith, they give birth to faith, and their steadfast faith in Gd carries them through.
These Torah portions chronicle the journey of the Jewish nation through the exile of Egypt and to ultimate redemption.
The Talmud states that it was in the merit of the righteous women of that generation that the redemption took place.
This week’s Torah portion, Beshalach, gives us a glimpse of the stalwart nature of those women.
The portion narrates the Jews departure from Egypt and the remorse Pharaoh feels after their leaving.
He exhorts his army to take off in pursuit and can only convince them to do so by giving them great wealth which they carry in their chariots.
The Jews arrive at the shores of the Red Sea, where they find themselves at an impossible impasse.
The Egyptian army is closing in and before them and there is no hope, no road to be taken, only the Sea before them.
One of the Princes of the 12 Tribes begins to walk into the water and when the water reaches his nostrils and he is about to drown, the Sea miraculously splits and the Jews walk through to the other side.
The Midrash shares a conversation between two Jews as they traversed the Sea. One said to the other “it was muddy in Egypt and now it’s muddy here”
This proverbial conversation reflects an attitude.

How do we look at life?
Do we recognize the miracles that happen constantly or are we focusing on our muddy shoes?
Miriam, sister of Moses was the leader of the women.
Her name has the root word Mar, which means bitter in Hebrew.
Miriam lived in one the worst times of Jewish history.
She had good reason to be bitter.
But the Torah teaches us that right after the miracle of the Splitting of the Sea
“Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took her drum in her hand and all the women went forth after her with drums and with dances”.
Dies the verse above evoke any questions?
One question might be:
where on earth did Miriam get the drums?
There were no music shops in Egypt.
And when the Jewish people left Egypt, they did so in a great hurry, there was no time for the bread to rise so there was certainly no time to make drums!
Drumroll please!
During the darkest times in Egypt, when life was so bleak and survival seemed impossible, the mothers of the nation were focused on the future. Their faith was not shaken.
During those long dark times they built drums to use in the time of redemption which they firmly believed would arrive.
Miriam, and all the mothers of the nation, kept their focus firmly on hope, lifting their eyes upward. They did not look down at their muddy shoes.
Miriam did not allow herself to be bitter, she led the women in their charge forward.
Rena Quint credits the “mothers” in her life for her survival.
These women did not give up in the darkest of times and instead used all the tools at their disposal to ensure her survival.
How appropriate that Mrs. Quint’s name is Rena, which means joy.
In a dark time of impending doom, Rena was named with an eye to the future.
A time where hope, redemption and joy would prevail.
I need to make a correction to last week’s statement regarding our present day heroine who braided her friend’s hair a symbol of hope in the darkest of places. Her name is Agam Berger.
Shabbat Shalom and so much love!