I see a(nother) head! The Midrash Rabbah (1:8) says that in Egypt the Bnei Yisrael gave birth to six babies at once (don’t worry – angels came and looked after the kids throughout their youth until their teenage years – so it was not a constant nappy-changing affair).
Now where is this hinted at in the Torah? The Midrash (and Ba’al HaTurim) point out that the six phrases in 1:7 ‘and Bnei Yisrael multiplied, swarmed, increased, strengthened, very much’ hint at these sextuplet births.
However, as the Mizrachi points out, it seems that Rashi did not learn like this. For Rashi (1:7) points out that the women of Bnei Yisrael had six babies in one go from the third phrase of the pasuk (vayishretzu).
If Rashi held like the Ba’al HaTurim then he should have put this observation on all the phrases of the pasuk – or
at least on the last word. As the Sifsei Chachamim say, it seems that Rashi is explaining the pasuk according to one opinion brought in the Yalkut; that the hint to these sextuplet births is from the interesting word vayishretzu alone.
How? vayishretzu comes from the word sheretz (an insect/creature), and apparently there are some sheratzim that give birth to six children at once.
