ויהי החצי הלילה • It Was in the Middle of the Night Additional Stanzas Concerning Women

Introduction

The piyyut (liturgical hymn) Va-Yehi ba-Hazi ha-Lailah (It Was in the Middle of the Night), sung at the seder on the first night, was composed by the classic liturgical poet Yannai, whom scholars date to the 6th to 7th centuries. The piyyut refers to events that occurred at various times in Jewish history on Passover night. Most of these events involved male personalities. There is one indirect reference to a female figure: Danta Melekh Gerar ba-halom ha-lailah (You judged the king of Gerar in a dream at night). This refers to Avimelekh who was judged for “taking” Sarah on the eve of Passover (see Genesis, chapter 20). There is no known source for this, and it is most probably based on the linguistic and contextual similarities between the Avimelekh story and that of the “taking” of Sarah by Pharaoh on the eve of Passover, which is mentioned in midrashic literature.[1]

I have composed two additional stanzas, consisting of three lines each, to Va-Yehi ba-Hazi ha-Lailah. They are based on references to events on the Eve of Passover involving female figures that are found in midrashic literature. These stanzas are written in the linguistic style of the original piyyut. The women included in the first stanza are Sarah, to whom the first two lines are devoted, and Rebecca. The second stanza deals with the actual story of the Exodus as well as the Purim story. It refers to Rachel, an Israelite woman in Egypt before the Exodus, and to Bitya, daughter of Pharaoh, as well as to the Biblical Esther. The traditions concerning Sarah, Rebecca and Rachel all appear in Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, compiled in the first half of the eighth century. 

The following is the Hebrew text of the extra verses, a linear English translation, and a commentary.

ויהי החצי הלילה

ברית הבטחת את ראש האמהות לילה.

מובלת לבית- פרעה ולאבימלך הצלת לילה.

משולת שושנה יעצה להחליף הברכות בלילה.

ויהי בחצי הלילה.

צעקה היולדת והכית ראשית אונים לילה.

בכורה מלטת לא יכבא נרה בלילה.

בכורה מלטת לא יכבא נרה בלילה.

הדסה עסוקה היתה בסעודתו של המן בלילה.

ויהי בחצי הלילה.

Translation: 

You promised a covenant to the head of the Matriarchs at night. 

She who has been taken to Pharaoh and Avimelekh you have saved at night.

 She who has been likened to a rose suggested exchanging the blessings at night. 

It was in the middle of the night.

Commentary:

1. Sarah was also included in the Brit ben ha-Betarim (Covenant between the Pieces) (Midrash Sekhel Tov, ed. Buber, Genesis 15:18, p.5). According to various sources, this Covenant was established on the first night of Passover (see, inter alia, Mekhilta de-Rabbi Yishma’el, ed. Horovitz-Rabin, Bo, Masekhta de-Pisha, chapter 14, p. 51). Sarah is called Rosh le-khol ha-Imahot (the Head of all the Matriarchs) in Bereshit Rabbati (ed. Albeck, 23:1, p. 101). 
2. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer states that Sarah was taken by Pharaoh (Genesis, chapter 12) on this night (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, ed. Higger, chapter 26, p. 185). As already mentioned, according to the piyyut Va-Yehi ba-Hazi ha-Lailah, Sarah was also taken by Avimelekh (Genesis, chapter 20) on this night. 
3. According to Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, the switching of the blessings between Jacob and Esau took place on Passover night at Rebecca’s initiative (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, ed. Higger, chapter 31, pp. 197-198). Rebecca is compared to “a rose among the thorns” (Song of Songs 2:2) because she remained pure even though she grew up in a corrupt household (Va-Yikra Rabbah 23:1, ed. Margaliyyot, pp. 526-527). 
4. Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer relates the plight of Rachel, an Israelite woman in slavery in Egypt before the Exodus who is not mentioned in the Biblical text at all. Although she was about to give birth, the Egyptians still forced her to make bricks by treading clay. Her child was born and became stuck in the bricks. Rachel’s cry of horror ascended to the Throne of Glory, and that very night the angel Michael came down to earth and took the brick mould containing the baby up to God. The Holy One, Blessed Be He, then descended “on that very night,” and smote the firstborn of the Egyptians. Thus it was Rachel’s cry that triggered the Plague of the Firstborn and the Exodus. (Pirkei de-Rabbi Eliezer, ed. Higger, chapter 47, pp. 239, 294). The term reshit onim is based on the depiction of the Exodus in Psalms 71:51.
5. This line refers to Bitya, daughter of Pharaoh, who saved Moses by night, and who, we are told in midrashic sources, was not killed in the plague of the firstborn although she was a firstborn child (Exodus Rabbah 18:3 and parallel sources). This is connected to the verse from Eshet Hayyil (A Woman of Valor): Ta’amah ki tov sahrah, lo yikhbeh va-lailah nerah (Proverbs 31:18). In Exodus, this woman is known only as “the daughter of Pharaoh.” However, she is identified in talmudic and midrashic sources with “Bitya, daughter of Pharaoh” mentioned in Chronicles I 4:18.[2]
6. According to Midrash Panim Aherim, (ed. Buber, p. 74), Hadassah, i.e. Esther, was occupied on Passover Eve, the night King Ahasuerus could not sleep, with preparing a feast for Haman.