Pharaoh’s oppression of the Hebrews has reached its lowest point:
And Pharaoh commanded his entire nation, saying, “Every son that will be born shall you cast into the Canal [Nile], but every daughter shall you keep alive” (Shemot 1:22).

Pharaoh’s astrologers have divined that the Hebrews’ savior has been born, and that his downfall would come via water. However, it is unclear to them whether this savior is a Hebrew or an Egyptian, so Pharaoh’s decree even applies to his own countrymen (Rashi, based on Sotah 12a, Shemot Rabbah 1:18, Sanhedrin 101b).

The Hebrews’ savior is indeed born:
And there went a man of the house of Levi, and he took the daughter of Levi [in marriage]. And the woman conceived and bore a son (2:1-2) .
The woman is Yocheved, wife of Amram, and the child is Moshe (6:20). Ever on the lookout for newborn Hebrews, the Egyptians had known Yocheved was pregnant. Therefore, the baby is born three months premature, but he is healthy:
And she saw him that he was good,
— so she can hide him until the Egyptians will begin looking for him —
and she hid him for three months (2:2) .
Then she must take more drastic measures:
And when she could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of (TEIVAT) gomeh, and smeared [it] with mud and with pitch, and put the boy in it, and put [it] in the reed-grass on the shore of the Canal [Nile] (2:3).

A TEIVAH is a rectangular box with a flat bottom that can rest on the ground. GOMEH is the Egyptian plant called papyrus. It grows in marshy areas (Iyov 8:11), and it is buoyant (Yesha’yahu 18:2), light and flexible, so it is suitable for both calm and swift waters. Smearing the mud on the inside and the pitch on the outside makes the TEIVAH watertight, and spares the baby from the offensive smell of the pitch (Sotah l.c.). The gomeh very closely resembles the reed-grass (some say they are the same plant), so it provides excellent camouflage (Rashbam).

Why does Yocheved put the little baby in the TEIVAH, and the TEIVAH in the Nile?

Has she utterly despaired of protecting her child, and wants only to keep herself from seeing him taken from her, as Ibn-Ezra suggests? If so, how is she any different from the dissolute Hagar, who abandoned the ailing Yishmael under a bush so she would “not see the lad’s death” (Bereishit 21:15-16)?

Or, did her daughter Miriam – who is a prophetess (Shemot 15:20) – instruct her that this is the way to save the baby, as Ibn-Ezra also suggests? If so, why did Yocheved not join her daughter in watching to find out the outcome of their efforts?

Is Yocheved, perhaps, merely removing the baby from discovery at home, using the reed-grass as an interim hiding place, unseen by those on the shore, like the maidens of Pharaoh’s daughter (Bechor Shor, Chizkuni)? But then, how can the baby remain undetected if he cries? And doesn’t Yocheved know that people bathing in the water might see the TEIVAH, as eventually happens?

Perhaps Yocheved desperately hopes that there are still some compassionate Egyptians who will care for the foundling, as suggested by Abravanel. [It is thus ironic – and heartening – that that compassion is found in Pharaoh’s own household!] But, we are surprised that the saintly Yocheved does not pray that one such person steps forward.

For a fuller answer, let us compare Moshe’s TEIVAH with the only other TEIVAH in Tanach, namely, that of Noach, which Hashem commanded at the time of the Flood:

Make for yourself an ark of (TEIVAT) gofer-wood; rooms shall you make for the ark; and you shall cover it from within and from without with tar (Bereishit 6:14).

There are obvious differences between the two TEIVOT: the materials from which they are made; the dimensions; and the number of occupants. Furthermore, Yocheved does not make her TEIVAH, but rather took one she already had, while Noach constructed made his at Hashem’s command. Also, Moshe’s TEIVAH is kept stationary by the reed-grass, and is intended for concealment, while Noach’s is held, or stopped, by Mount Ararat, and is exposed.

What is more significant, however, is the similarity of the two TEIVOT:

• As sea vessels, they are moved entirely by wind and waves; they have neither rudder nor sails, and neither sailors nor oars. They are therefore completely reliant upon Hashem’s benevolence.

• Both are meant to protect and save those within from the dangers, corruption and Divine decrees of destruction that rage outside.

• Salvation comes through natural means: both Yocheved and Noach act without expecting miracles, while demonstrating trust in Hashem (Rabbenu Bachya).

• Those who are saved by the two TEIVOT become the founders of a new world-order: Noach, of mankind, and Moshe, of the nation of Israel. Both Noach and Moshe make covenants with Hashem, and both receive commandments from Him, on behalf of their peoples.

Moshe’s TEIVAH, like Noach’s, becomes the key to salvation in the darkest of times.

Seeing all male babies, Egyptian and Hebrew, thrown into the Nile, and knowing the Egyptians’ reliance upon magic and astrology, Yocheved concludes (or perhaps hears from the officers) that the Hebrews’ savior is the target of the decree. Her son, born in the midst of all this, may have been born to be that savior. She looks for a way to thwart Pharaoh’s designs.

Sforno says that Yocheved
“chose the place of the reed-grass in order to transform the decree of casting him into the Canal into placing him in the reed-grass on the shore of the Canal [Nile].”

As a result, Pharaoh’s astrologers misinterpret the stars as saying that their prognostications have been fulfilled (Shemot Rabbah 1:25, 29; Sotah 12b). Pharaoh’s decree is recalled forthwith, and the stage is set for Moshe to lead the surviving nation out of servitude.

Yocheved intended her child to become a latter-day Noach, and Hashem fulfills a mother’s wish.