Thank you all for the birthday wishes. And to all those who did not reach out, really do not worry about it. Birthdays have never really been my thing. This might be due to the fact that I do not like that kind of attention, but I would like to dignify this with a Rabbinic response.

There was only one birthday celebration in the Bible. There we see Yosef in prison interpreting dreams to predict what would happen to two people who are in jail with him. There we learn:

On the third day—his birthday—Pharaoh made a banquet for all his officials, and he singled out his chief cupbearer and his chief baker from among his officials. He restored the chief cupbearer to his cupbearing, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand; but the chief baker he impaled—just as Yosef had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not think of Yosef; he forgot him. (Genesis 40:20–23)

This was a good day for Pharoah and cupbearer, but not such a happy Birthday for the royal baker. On this Rashi comments:

HIS BIRTHDAY. It is called “The birthday festival”(Avodah Zarah 10a) . The causative passive form (הלדת) is used because the infant is born only by the assistance of others, for the midwife delivers the woman. On this account a midwife is called מילדת a Piel -intensive, resultative, or causative- form “one who brings to birth”. This passive form occurs similarly “And as for thy nativity, in the day thou wast born (הולדת אתך)”(Ezekiel 16:4). A similar passive form is used in “after the plague (הכבס) is washed away” (Leviticus 13:55), because the washing is done by others). ( Rashi on Genesis 40:20)

As much as it was Pharoah’s birthday, it was not his accomplishment. Rather is birthday was the product of his mother’s and her midwife’s hard work.

This resonates for me as the only thing I ever really did on my birthday was to call my mother to thank her for giving birth to me. Birthday’s would seem to really be the ideal Mother’s Day in our expression of gratitude to those who gave birth to us.

So, I am still not a big birthday person, but I pause today to express my gratitude for my mother. As we say in Psalms:

This is the day that the LORD has made—
let us exult and rejoice on it. (Psalms 118:24)

And in this, I miss her. I wish I could talk to my mother today, the day I was made, to exult and rejoice her.

Happy Birthday Mom.