“She took for him a wicker basket” – why wicker? Rabbi Elazar said: Because for the righteous, their property is dearer to them than their bodies. Why to that extent? It is because they do not extend their hands in robbery.
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: It is a pliable material that can withstand both soft and hard items. “And coated it with clay and with pitch” – clay inside and pitch outside, so that this righteous one would not smell a foul odor. “She placed the child in it [and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the Nile].” Rabbi Elazar said: The Sea of Reeds, as the Sea of Reeds reaches as far as the Nile.
Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: A marsh, as it is stated: “Cane and reeds will wither” (Isaiah 19:6). 48Meaning, the reeds mentioned in the verse are not a reference to the Sea of Reeds, but to actual reeds that grow in the shallow waters of a lake or river. Why did she cast him into the Nile? So that the astrologers would think that he had already been cast into the water and they would no longer search for him.