It is said that the Jewish People were able to leave Egypt in the merit of the righteous women. There are many stories that back up this claim. When Pharaoh mad the terrible decree to throw all Jewish boys into the Nile, many men said that they no longer wanted to have children. Amram, the father of Moses, separated from his wife to ensure that they would not have a son that would be killed because of the decree. Miriam, who would be the sister of Moses, and who was just a small child at the time, asked her father, “Why do you want to do something worse than Pharaoh? He wants only to destroy the boys, yet you are preventing any Jewish children from being born.” Moved by her words, Amram reunited with his wife, and they conceived Moses. Perhaps you remember that Moses was put in the stream in a reed of baskets and was found by Pharoah’s daughter. What is less well-known is that according to tradition, she was named “Batia”, and became a righteous convert to Judaism.
Miriam and Yocheved, also known as Shifra and Puah, were the midwives who hid Jewish boys and saved countless babies from the harsh decrees of Pharaoh. The Jewish women were known to have maintained their faith during the worst of times, and took tambourines with them from Egypt, which they used to for celebration during the splitting of the Red Sea. Women did not participate in the sin of the Golden Calf, or the spy incident which led to the punishment of having to remain in the desert for forty years. This is one of the reasons that, on Shavuos, we celebrate the merit of the Jewish woman, since it was because of her that the Jews were able to leave Egypt and to receive the Torah.
Another reason for emphasizing the importance of the Jewish woman on Shavuos is that we read the Book of Ruth in the synagogue. Ruth was a convert who chose to remain with her mother-in-law, Naomi, rather than stay in the wicked city of Moab. Her self-sacrifice and modesty enabled her to have righteous descendants, including King David, from whom the Messiah will be descended.