Miriam in the Wilderness
From: Maria
Dear Rabbi,
Thank you for answering my question about who Miriam was, and the meaning of her name. I found your answer to be fascinating, and if you don’t mind I’d like to know more. Could you please tell me about her life and her role in the Torah?
Dear Maria,
In “Miriam in Egypt” we explored the early period of Miriam’s life. In this installment we’ll explore the events of her later life in the Wilderness.
The Talmudic and Midrashic sources we presented indicate that Miriam was imbued with prophetic inspiration even as a young child. However, it is at the famous “Song of the Sea”, sung by the Jews after their miraculous salvation at the Sea of Reeds, that the Torah explicitly refers to her as a prophet: “Miriam, the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a timbrel in her hand, and all the women came out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam called out to them, ‘Sing to the L-rd, for very exalted is He; a horse and its rider He cast into the sea’.” (Ex. 15:20-21)
The Talmud (Sota 30b) explains that this entire song of exultation to G‐d (Ex. 15:1-19) was sung prophetically by Moses, and repeated in refrain by the men, verse by verse. This is based on the verse, “Then Moses and the Children of Israel sang this song to the L-rd, and they spoke, saying, ‘I will sing to the L-rd, for very exalted is He; a horse and its rider He cast into the sea’” (v.1). Rashi (v.2, based on Sota and the Mechilta) comments that Moses sang to the men, and they repeated after him, but adds that Miriam sang to the women. This implies that Miriam prophetically sang the entire Song of the Sea in refrain to the women, as Moses did to the men.
A famous, yet widely misunderstood event involving Miriam was her criticism regarding Moses’ “Cushite” wife. The Torah states (Num. 12:1), “Miriam...spoke against Moses regarding the Cushite woman he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman”.
Since Cush refers to Ethiopia, an erroneous reading of the text might suggest that Miriam objected to her skin color. But the very next verse (v.2) presents the basis of her and Aaron’s objection: “Has the L-rd spoken only to Moses? Hasn’t He spoken to us too?”
This claim has nothing to do with complexion. Furthermore, in any case, Moses’ wife Tzipora was not from Cush, she was from Midian (Ex. 2:15-21).
Rather, Rashi explains that it became known to Miriam and Aaron that Moses had separated from intimacy with Tzipora. They disapproved of this separation because they considered her to be outstandingly righteous, much as a dark-skinned person stands out among light-skinned people. This is the meaning of the term “Cushite”, which is non-pejorative and often used in Jewish sources (see Mo’ed Katan 16b) as a term for someone unique and outstanding, such as King Saul (Ps. 7:1), and even the Jewish People (Amos 9:7). Their complaint was therefore not about the union between Moses and Tzipora, but about their separation. The only justification they could think of for Moses’ behavior was a need for celibacy in order to maintain his prophetic state. This explains their objection that
In Miriam’s merit, a well of wondrous water miraculously accompanied the Jews during their wanderings to provide for them water in the Wilderness. This well is called “The Well of Miriam”. The Talmud (Ta’anit 9a) teaches, “Three great leaders led Israel: Moses, Aaron and Miriam. In their merit they received three great gifts: the Well [Miriam], the Clouds of Glory [Aaron] and the Manna [Moses]. When Miriam died, the well was removed, as is evidenced by the fact that immediately after the verse ‘And Miriam died’ (Num. 20:1), the Torah states (v.2), ‘The People had no water’. This is the significance of the verses following Miriam’s death (8-13) of Moses searching for and eventually striking the rock in order to restore its waters which had terminated with Miriam’s death.
Rashi (Pesachim 54a) also explains that this well was the same rock from which Moses brought forth water after Miriam’s death, but adds that it was round as a sieve, such that it would roll along with the Jews on their journeys through the desert. The Midrash (Tanchuma Chukat 21) states that when they encamped, the leader of each Tribe took his staff to the well and drew it toward his Tribe’s encampment. The waters of the well were drawn after the mark, and thus supplied water for each of the Tribes. In this way, Miriam was a source of sustenance for all of Israel.
According to one opinion of our Sages (Yerushalmi, Ketuvot 67a; Lev. Rabba 22:4), Miriam’s Well is in the Sea of Galilee (the Kinneret). Based on verses suggesting the travelling and coming to rest of the well (Num. 21:18-20), they note: “One who ascends to the top of Mount Yeshimon [on the Golan Heights which overlooks wastelands (yeshimon) to the east] will see [looking west] a kind of small sieve in the Sea of Tiberias.”
This is the well of Miriam. According to another opinion of the Sages (Shabbat 35a), the Well of Miriam came to rest in the Mediterranean and can be seen from the heights of Mount Carmel on the coast of Haifa.
Regarding the death of Miriam, the Torah states (Num. 20:1), “The entire congregation of the Children of Israel arrived at the desert of Tzin in the first month, and the people settled in Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there”. By identifying Miriam’s death in the “first month” the Torah reveals that she died in the Hebrew month of Nisan, and Talmudic sources (Megillat Ta’anit, fast days; T.Y, Y.Sh. 1:763) indicate that the day of her passing (yahrtzeit) was the tenth of that month. The Torah’s description of her burial place as Kadesh in the Wilderness of Tzin would locate it somewhere in the desert region southeast of the Dead Sea. This is in the general area of the burial place of her brother Aaron, which is identified by Josephus (Antiq. 4.4.6) as being near Petra. There seems to be some record of pilgrimages to the burial place of Miriam in the area of Petra until the 4th century CE, but since then the tradition and location have been forgotten and lost.
The Sages taught (Mo’ed Katan 28a) that the Torah’s account of Miriam’s death follows immediately after the laws of purification through the red heifer in order to teach that just as sacrifices bring atonement, so too the death of the righteous secures atonement. Miriam’s great level of purity and righteousness is indicated by the fact that Gd chose her as the holy person through which to express this teaching. The Talmud (ibid.) also notes that as did Aaron (Num. 33:38) and Moses (Deut. 34:5), Miriam also died through the painless “kiss of death”, whereby the Divine Presence is revealed to the departing soul as G‐d lovingly draws it back within Himself.
