WHERE WAS MIRIAM?
A commentary on Parashat B’ha’alot’cha
Where was Miriam at Sinai? If you were following the Torah narrative of the Revelation closely at Shavuot you may have noticed that someone was missing… Not just ‘someone’, of course, the elder sister who was instrumental in saving the life of her baby brother, Moses (Exodus 2:4-9). As the slaves flee, the Torah mentions her for the first time since that moment, telling us that she led the women in dancing and song, through the Sea of Reeds (Exodus 15:20-21) – and gives her a name: Miriam. The Torah even calls her a n’vi’ah – prophetess (:20). But Miriam is not mentioned in the Book of Exodus after the crossing of the Sea… Indeed, all that the Torah has to say about Miriam amounts to just thirty verses; sixteen of which, occupying one short chapter in Numbers (12), appear in the parashah, B’ha’alot’cha.
To say that Miriam is marginalised in the Torah is an under-statement! But then the tale recorded in B’ha’alot’cha is very revealing. We read (12:1-2): ‘She spoke – Miriam and Aaron – against Moses because of the Cushite woman, whom he had married…. / And they said: ‘Has the Eternal One only spoken with Moses? Has He not also spoken with us?’ Significantly, the Hebrew is clear – and the disjunctive n’ginah (cantillation sign), pashta, which hovers over the first word, separating it from what follows, forces the reader to pause momentarily: Va-t’dabbeir – She spoke. Although the Torah then adds: ‘Miriam and Aaron’, indicating that Aaron shared her grievance, Miriam is the prime-mover. Interestingly, the two packed verses in Exodus speak not only of ‘Miriam, the prophetess’ (Ex. 15:20), but also add, ‘the sister of Aaron’ (ibid.). The two siblings are linked because they share a similar status vis a vis their pre-eminent baby brother. But at least Aaron becomes the High Priest – and so it’s not surprising that Miriam takes the lead in their rebellion: Designated as a n’vi’ah, prophetess, she, more than Aaron has reason to feel aggrieved about Moses’ special relationship with the Eternal – and, perhaps, as a woman, she was also particularly upset on behalf of Zipporah, Moses’ wife, when he married again.
And so, although the Torah tells us that ‘the anger of the Eternal was kindled against them’ (:9), Miriam alone is punished for her effrontery – with leprosy (:10) and excluded from the camp for seven days (:14). Significantly, the people did not journey on until Miriam was brought again (:15) – but then we don’t hear anything more about her until the Torah records Miriam’s death thirty-eight years later in one brief verse (Chukkat – Numbers 20:1). No wonder the rabbis linked the people’s thirst for water immediately afterwards with their loss, and developed the legend of ‘Miriam’s Well’: a miraculous source of water which accompanied the Israelites on all their journeys, only drying up when Miriam died (See Legends of the Jews by Louis Ginzberg, Vol. III, ‘Miriam’s Well’, pp.50-44. JPSA, Philadelphia, 1968).
Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah