Taamei Hamitzvos - Remembering Miriam
The Torah instructs us: “Remember what Hashem did to Miriam on the way, when you left Egypt.” It is referring to the incident recorded at the end of Parashas Beha’aloscha, in which Miriam was struck with tzaraas leprosy and exiled from the camp for a week for having relayed negative information about Moshe to her brother Aharon.The entire nation was aware of what had happened because they waited a week for her to recover before continuing to journey.
Miriam had found out that Moshe was not engaging in the Mitzvah to propagate, and she was concerned that his conduct was wrong. After all, she and Aharon had been prophets for longer than Moshe and had never been commanded to refrain from relations, nor had the Patriarchs been commanded so. According to one of the Sages, she wondered if Moshe’s conduct was perhaps unwittingly spurred by arrogance. She conferred with Aharon about it, with the righteous intent of rectifying the matter. Hashem rebuked them for not speaking ill about such a great man and failing to realize that he had an unparalleled level of prophecy that required an unparalleled level of purity. His conduct did not stem from imagined supremacy but rather from authentic supremacy.
Authorities differ as to whether or not to include the Torah’s instruction to remember what happened to Miriam in the count of the 613 Mitzvos. Even according to the majority opinion that does not include it in the count, it is commendable to fulfill it daily. However, all agree that it is important enough for it to have been written in the Torah even though it faults a saintly prophetess who was one of the greatest people who ever lived. Why was it not enough for the Torah to tell us not to speak lashon hara? And if it was instructive to illustrate with an example, why could it not select another lashon hara incident? Apparently, the incident of Miriam contains essential lessons that we would not have otherwise known, and we need to contemplate it carefully.
The Sages contemplated it and made the following observations:
- Miriam never intended to speak lashon hara. She related that Moshe was doing something that was essentially virtuous, only she wondered if his conduct was wrong and needed to be corrected.
- She did not relate that Moshe was certainly wrong, but rather asked if he was wrong.
- She spoke with only one person, keeping the matter as private as possible. Nobody heard their words except for Hashem.
- She spoke about her younger brother, over whom she had an element of superiority and responsibility. She thought that if she and Aharon would not correct Moshe's supposedly mistaken conduct, no other person would do so.
- She had a noble intention to increase propagation, one of the greatest of Mitzvos.
- Moshe was not shamed because he was not present. Moreover, even had he been present, he would not have been offended in the slightest, as he was the humblest person on earth.
Notwithstanding all the above, Hashem became angry with her and smote her with tzaraas, which was incurable because the only Kohanim at the time were her relatives and relatives cannot administer the purification of tzaraas. Even when Moshe interceded on her behalf, Hashem refused to heal her and allow her back into the camp until a week would pass.
Only by remembering the above incident can we appreciate how severe it is to speak lashon hara with unconstructive intentions, as though the facts are certain, to multiple listeners, criticizing superiors, weakening relationships and shaming, as well as causing serious and unrepairable damage. Even when we have to speak negatively about someone for constructive purposes, the incident of Miriam teaches us to be extremely wary and to consider alternative avenues of operation before opening our mouths. Just as a person does not fire a gun at random, we cannot allow ourselves to converse about the faults of others without careful consideration of the Halachah.
It was only because our ancestors did not learn from this incident about the great power of the tongue and the responsibility of its wielder, that they spoke ill about Eretz Yisrael and perished in the Wilderness. It was only because our ancestors forgot about the severity of lashon hara and hatred of Jews that the second Beis HaMikdash was destroyed. And only when we remember what happened to Miriam will we merit its reconstruction, soon in our days.
Note: The above article reflects the incident of Miriam from an Aggadic perspective, based on the following sources: Sifri §99, Yalkut Shimoni §737, Avos D’Rabbi Nassan (ch. 41), Tagum Yonasan, and Midrash HaGadol. It does not reflect the Halachah, which is based on additional sources and lies beyond the scope of this article.
