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Was it Geneivas Daas for Yocheved to take money from Bas Paroah?

Question:

I have an interesting question on parshas shemos. How was Yocheved allowed to accept the offer of money from Bas Paroh to nurse her own child. It seems pretty obvious that Bas Paroh wouldn’t have paid her if she knew that Moshe was her child. Wouldn’t this be geneivas daas?

Answer:

This is a very interesting point.  I think an answer for this would be that Bas Paroah knew that the child was a Jew. (She knew this, when she saw that the child wasn’t only a day old, but three months old. Therefore obviously the child wasn’t a Egyptian, since the decree that all children had to be thrown into the river would apply only to infants born that day. Besides she saw that he was circumcised.) Therefore she specifically wanted a Jewish wet-nurse, because an Egyptian woman might kill the child (Malbim) and the milk of a Jew is better for Jews (Abarbenel) because the two people are the same type. However, if a Jew was caught nursing a baby, someone might take the child and throw him into the river, therefore Miriam told Bas Paroah that the nursing has to be done specifically for her (Malbim) this way the child will be protected. The Hemek Davar 2-9, says that Bas Paroah told Miriam “nurse him for me” because Miriam hinted to Bas Paroah that this is the mother of the child, therefore Bas Paroah told her back, nevertheless nurse her for me. Therefore it wasn’t Geneivas Daas.

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