Numbers 20 begins, “The Israelites arrived in…Zin. Miriam died there and was buried there. The community was without water.”
From that, the sages deduced that the Israelites had not complained about water for 40 years because a magical well1 followed Miriam through the desert, and dried up on her death. Is that the most logical deduction? Probably not, but we still put a cup of water on the seder table for Miriam.
So who was Miriam? She is first mentioned in Exodus 2:4, when Moses is put into the basket by the Nile, “And his sister stationed herself at a distance, to learn what would befall him.” Miriam is the only sister of Moses mentioned in the Torah, so it is reasonable to assume this is her.
When Pharoah’s daughter finds Moses and realises it is a Hebrew child, Miriam asks, “Shall I go and get you a Hebrew nurse to suckle the child for you?” Miriam then calls the child’s mother - her mother - to raise Moses.
Of course, none of this is realistic. Why would a slave girl speak to Pharoah’s daughter? If Pharoah’s daughter realised it was a Hebrew child, and that Pharoah had decreed all Hebrew boys were to be thrown into the Nile, why would she save this one? And why would she need a Hebrew nurse to feed and raise him? Because if that didn’t happen, Moses would not have realised he was a Hebrew, would not have killed the Egyptian beating a Hebrew, would not have fled Egypt, would not have married Zipporah the Cushite, would not have encountered the burning bush and would not have been instructed to return and free the Israelites.
In other words, it’s a MacGuffin, a contrivance that moves the story on. But I digress.
Miriam is first mentioned by name in Exodus 15:20, after the Sea of Reeds: “Then Miriam the prophet, Aaron’s sister, picked up a hand-drum, and all the women went out after her in dance with hand-drums.” So the first two references to Miriam connect her to water.
It seems odd the Torah mentions Miriam is Aaron’s sister rather than Moses’. The sages teach this is because Miriam was prophesying before Moses was born. Her earliest prophecy, they said, was when she was five years old, that her mother was going to give birth to a son who would free the Jewish people from Egyptian bondage. At the time Aaron was one and Moses would be born two years later.
The Midrash links Miriam and Puah, one of the midwives who disobeyed Pharoah’s command to kill the Hebrew boys, saying they are the same person even though Miriam would have been about five years old at the time!
Another story about Miriam’s wisdom goes:
When the cruel Pharaoh gave the order that all Jewish baby boys should be thrown into the river, her parents decided to separate and have no more children. Being aleader of the Jewish people, Amram had set an example which other Jews were quick to follow, and they too divorced their wives.
The six-year old Miriam said to her father, “Your decree is worse than Pharaoh’s for Pharaoh’s decree was aimed at boys only, while you would prevent both boys and girls from being born.” Amram saw the wisdom of his young daughter and remarried his wife, whereupon the others also remarried their wives. The following year Moses was born.
Miriam then disappears from the Torah for many years, reappearing almost randomly in Numbers 12: “Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had taken [as his wife]: “He took a Cushite woman!” Adonai called Moses, Aaron and Miriam to the Tent of Meeting like naughty schoolchildren. When Adonai finished scolding them, Miriam was stricken with tzara'at, which is often translated as leprosy but could be any type of rash or skin disease. Tzara'at is often considered to be the punishment for lashon hara, evil speech, which includes gossip, slander, rumours and deceitful speech.
Why didn’t Aaron get punished? Some believe it was because as the High Priest, a skin disease would have left him impure and unable to perform his duties. In any case, Moses intervenes and God heals Miriam but requires her to be isolated for a week. The Israelites wait until Miriam can join them before moving on (possibly because she had the well).
I want to come back to “Cushite” because this is often interpreted as Miriam not approving of Zipporah’s ethnicity or colour. Kush is often understood to be a reference to Nubia, which is modern-day southern Egypt and northern Sudan, indicating Zipporah had very dark skin. However, Rabbi Abraham Ibn [ebun] Ezra notes Zipporah is a Midianite, and Midianites are Arabs, so the complaint could not have been about her ethnicity.
Rashi suggests Miriam is not criticising Moses for marrying a Cushite, but instead for separating from her. There are many discussions about Moses being celibate2; Rashi references Rabbi Nathan, who says:
Miriam was beside Zipporah when Moses was told that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp. When Zipporah heard this, she said, “Woe to their wives if they are required to prophesy, for they will separate from their wives just as my husband separated from me.”3
Finally, Miriam is last mentioned in Deuteronomy 24:9, in a warning about an outbreak of tzara'at: “Remember what your God יהוה did to Miriam on the journey after you left Egypt.” It is not clear if this is a warning to guard against evil speech, or just dealing with skin diseases in general.
Coming back to Miriam’s well, after the Hebrews complained about the lack of water, Adonai told Moses, “Take the rod and assemble the community, and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water.” But Moses…struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, but Adonai said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.”
Why did Moses strike the rock when Adonai told him simply to speak to it? Rabbi Jonathan Sacks offers a simple explanation: He had just lost his sister. “Bereavement leaves us deeply vulnerable. In the midst of loss we can find it hard to control our emotions. We make mistakes. We act rashly. We suffer from a momentary lack of judgement.”
Aaron, Miriam and Moses died within twelve months of each other. Aaron died on the 1st of Av, Miriam on the 10th of Nissan and Moses on the 7th of Adar. Miriam was 126 or 127. If the 10th of Nissan sounds familiar, it is because it was one year to the day of her death that the Jewish people crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land.
1. https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/3916196/jewish/Miriams-Well-Unravelling-the-Mystery.htm
2. https://www.thetorah.com/article/moses-separated-from-his-wife-between-greek-philosophy-and-rabbinic-exegesis
3. Based on Tanchuma Tzav 13 (see https://www.chabad.org/parshah/article_cdo/aid/4240317/jewish/The-Untold-Story-of-Zipporah-Wife-of-Moses.htm)
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