‘There is no ‘can’t’, there is ‘don’t want to/ Rav Eldad Zamir

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“And Pharaoh’s daughter went down to bathe by the Nile, and her maidens were walking along the Nile; she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her handmaid, and she took it.” (Exodus 2:5).
What is the message for future generations that we can learn from the actions of Pharaoh’s daughter?
Rashi cites the Midrash which relates that the arm of Pharaoh’s daughter was miraculously extended, enabling her to save the infant Moses.

“And she sent her amah and took it” — Rabbi Yehuda and Rabbi Nechemia: one said it means her hand, and one said it means her maidservant. The one who says her hand derives it from the word “amah”; and the one who says her maidservant derives it from the fact that it does not say “her hand.” But according to the one who says her maidservant — did you not say that Gabriel came and struck them to the ground, leaving her with only one, for it is not proper for a princess to stand alone? And according to the one who says her hand — let the verse write “her hand”! Rather, this teaches us that it was extended miraculously, as the Master said: and so too you find regarding the amah of Pharaoh’s daughter…
(Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Sotah, 12b)

A number of community activists once participated in an emergency meeting chaired by Rabbi Meir Shapiro, the late Rosh Yeshiva of Lublin. The subject of the meeting concerned saving human lives. Some of the activists argued logically and said: “What we are required to do is simply impossible. There is no way we can succeed.” Rabbi Shapiro quoted the words of our Sages, who explained the above verses regarding the miracle that enabled the arm of Pharaoh’s daughter to reach so far as to save Moses. “The question arises,” Rabbi Shapiro continued, “why did she stretch out her arm in the first place? After all, she saw that there was no chance she would reach Moses.”

Rabbi Shapiro answered that a person must always try to do everything within his ability to save a human life. Even if you think that your efforts on behalf of another have no chance of succeeding, nevertheless make a genuine effort to try. In many cases you will be surprised to discover that you achieve far more than you imagined.

“This applies to us,” Rabbi Shapiro said. “We must do everything we can, even if we do not truly believe we will succeed. The Holy One, blessed be He, often helps, and the effort turns out to bear fruit.”

This message is always relevant, for communities and for individuals alike.

Rabbi Simcha Bunim of Peshischa formulates it as follows (Kol Mevaser, Part I, Shemot): “Rather, one must learn from here a great benefit in the service of God: that a person should not withhold himself from any upright and good deed, even if he foresees that he will not be able to reach its ultimate goal. For if a person truly directs his actions with all his heart and soul, nothing in the world stands in his way… So too here, she did her part by stretching out her arm, at least one cubit, and a miracle was done for her that it was extended many cubits.”

We stand before many challenges that can be overcome only if we believe in our ability to overcome them — as Batya, the daughter of Pharaoh, taught us.
Let us remember the words of Rabbi Abraham Isaac HaKook (Orot HaTeshuva 5:6): “If a person is always liable to stumble, to blemish justice and morality — this does not detract from his wholeness, since the principal foundation of his perfection is the constant longing and desire for perfection.”

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