Our first encounter with Miriam is as one of the Jewish midwives in Egypt. There, her name is Pu’ah. The Torah tells us that because the midwives feared God and saved the children from Pharaoh’s decree, “He established households for them.”[1] Thus, the foundation of Miriam’s life and conduct is her fear of God. As King Solomon says, “A woman who fears God, she should be praised.”[2] Fear of God is not just about one’s feelings, it guides one’s conduct. When someone fears God, they can be trusted to do the right thing, even when, like Miriam and her mother, they find themselves pushed to disobey Pharaoh and risk their own lives. Obviously, this episode and Miriam’s character revealed through it correspond to the sefirah of might (gevurah) whose inner experience is one of fear or awe.
Advice and Prophecy
The next time we meet Miriam, she is apparently older. This episode is only hinted to in the Torah with the words, “A man from the house of Levi married a daughter of Levi.”[3] Even though this verse seems to tell of Moses’ origins, it does not exactly fit the facts, for Moses was not this couple’s firstborn; he was the younger sibling of Miriam and Aaron. The sages explain the background and context of this verse. After the midwives disobeyed him, Pharaoh decreed that the Egyptians themselves should murder every Jewish child by drowning them in the Nile. Seeing that there was no escape, Amram, Moses’ future father reluctantly parted from his wife, Yocheved. As the leader of the Jewish people in Egypt, others followed his example.
Miriam came to her father and argued that his “decree,” made by parting from her mother, was harsher than Pharaoh’s, for Pharaoh had only decreed that boys would not survive and Amram had just decreed that even girls would not be born. What do we see? First, that Miriam has a sense for the superiority of the feminine. In Amram’s mind, it seems that it had never occurred to him that there were also daughters that needed to be considered. She has to remind him of the girls. In a bit more depth, as explained in Chasidic writings, Pharaoh believed that daughters have a weaker intellect and thus could be easily integrated into Egyptian culture, which is why he did not only command the murder of the boys, but also ordered, “but let every girl live.”[4] Miriam says, “Father, that’s what Pharaoh thinks, but I believe that daughters have a very strong mind. On the contrary, it is they that will save the Israelites.” This had never occurred to her father.
Miriam then made two more arguments: Pharaoh is wicked and there is great doubt whether people will listen to his command, but you, my father are a tzaddik and whatever a tzaddik commands is performed; everyone will leave their wives and the Israelites will cease to exist. In addition, Pharaoh’s decree is limited to this world. But when your decree will prevent any children from being born, you are preventing these souls from entering both this world and the next. Amram accepted his daughter’s arguments, and the verse quoted describes his re-marriage to Yocheved, after which Moses was indeed born.
Miriam here reveals her sharp intellect and her ability to serve as an advisor. Advice is associated with the sefirot of victory (netzach) and acknowledgment (hod), which in the body are identified primarily with the kidneys.[5] Immediately after she convinced her father to re-wed her mother, Miriam received a prophecy that their next son would be the redeemer. So now she is both an advisor and a prophetess. According to Kabbalistic principles, her prophecy is associated with victory[6] and her advice with acknowledgment. Both these episodes are only hinted to in the Torah text.
The Power to Excite
The next time the Torah explicitly mentions Miriam is in our parashah, after the Song at the Sea when she leads the women in song. In this respect, Miriam resembles her brother Aaron who as High Priest will later be tasked with the daily lighting of the Menorah, whose 7 candles represent the 7 roots of the Jewish people’s souls. In this task, Aaron is described as the “man of loving-kindness,” and in exciting the souls of the women, Miriam is likened to a woman of loving-kindness. Loving-kindness (chesed) is what makes the world revolve, it is what brings people together transforming a collection of individuals into a harmonious group that can sing and play music together. Thus, we correspond this episode of Miriam’s life with the sefirah of loving-kindness.
Miriam’s Speech About Moses
A couple of years later, at the end of parashat BeHa’altocha, we find Miriam initiating a conversation about Moses her brother. Even though she meant well and never attacked Moses directly—moreover, according to the plain reading of the text, Moses was even present at the time and took no offense at her words—because of her great spiritual stature, God punished her with leprosy.
Miriam’s improper conduct here is the result of Moses’ having parted with his wife, Tziporah. He did this for a good reason. He was prone at any moment to receive prophecy and therefore had to always be ready for it. But once again, as she did when she was a little girl, Miriam cannot stand the break-up of the holy bond between a husband and wife. This sensitivity is related to the sefirah of foundation, the sefirah that corresponds to the procreative organs in the body.
Miriam’s Well
After Miriam’s passing,[7] we suddenly hear that the Israelites no longer had water to drink. What had they done until then? The juxtaposition of Miriam’s passing with the lack of water reveals that while Miriam was alive, the people enjoyed an abundance of water from a miraculous well that followed them in the wilderness. It came to be known as Miriam’s well.
The water from a well originates from within the earth and then gushes out. The water thus rises from below to above. In Kabbalah, this type of water is known as “feminine waters” (מַיִין נוּקְבִין), as the nature of the feminine is to rise from below to above; this in contrast with rain that falls from above to below and in Kabbalah is known as “masculine waters” (מַיִין דְּכוּרִין). Normally, feminine waters are associated with the sefirah of kingdom (malchut) and masculine waters with the sefirah of beauty (tiferet). To add to the identification of Miriam’s well with kingdom, we note that kingdom is described by the verse, “her feet descent unto death.” Symbolically, this represents the descent of the kingdom of the World of Emanation into the three lower Worlds; every descent from one’s natural place is likened in Kabbalah to “death.” In our context, it was revealed that the well was in merit of Miriam after her death.
Recalling Miriam
After repeating the danger of leprosy on the eve of the Israelites crossing of the Jordan, Moses says, “Remember what Havayah your God did to Miriam on the journey after you left Egypt.”[8] This is one of the traditional six remembrances that we are called upon to recall every day. The others are recalling the Exodus from Egypt, the Giving of the Torah on Mt. Sinai, the obligation to annihilate Amalek, the sin of the Golden Calf, and the Shabbat. Clearly, Miriam is in a special category, as she is the only individual person we are required to remember every day. The story we are meant to recall with reference to Miriam is the account of her leprosy, the episode that came as a result of what she said about Moses, which we corresponded with foundation.
The six remembrances clearly correspond to the sefirot from loving-kindness to foundation and will be treated separately at another time. The point of remembering these events is to keep them in our consciousness and thus, the origin of the act of remembering them is linked with the sefirah of knowledge, which is described as the soul (the living force behind) the sefirah of beauty. And thus, we correspond Miriam’s daily remembrance with the sefirah of beauty.
To summarize, the full partzuf of Miriam’s life is:
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loving–kindness–chessed חֶסֶד exciting the women at the Song at the sea |
might–gevurah גְּבוּרָה
fear of God as a midwife |
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beauty–tiferet תִּפְאֶרֶת remembering what happened to Miriam
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victory–netzach נֶצַח Miriam’s prophecy
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splendor–hod הוֹד Miriam’s advice |
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foundation–yesod יְסוֹד speaking about Moses
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kingdom-malchut מַלְכוּת Miriam’s well |
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Miriam’s Names
So far we have seen two of Miriam’s many names: Miriam and Pu’ah. Where do the other names appear? In the Book of Chronicles. The names mentioned in Chronicles perplex those who are intimately familiar with the rest of the Bible; the sages regard these names as not being non-literal and rather requiring interpretation.[9]
In the Talmud, after discussing the identities of the two midwives, the sages go into a discussion of a number of verses from Chronicles, which they associate with Miriam. The first verse is discussed in the context of an opinion that the “household” given to Pu’ah, i.e., Miriam, is the house of royalty.
And the one who says houses of royalty refers to David, who also comes from Miriam, as it is written: “And Azubah died and Caleb took to him Ephrath, who bore him Hur.”[10]
The next verse is “And Caleb, the son of Hezron, begot children of Azubah his wife, and of Jerioth, and these were her sons: Jesher, and Shobab, and Ardon.”[11]
Two final verses are, “And Ashhur the father of Tekoa had two wives, Helah and Naarah”[12] and “And the children of Helah were Zereth [Tzeret] and Zohar and Ethnan.”[13]
In all, we find that Miriam is associated with 8 different names in these verses from these verses. Let us explain their correspondence with the sefirot: Miriam is her “essential” name and thus we place it in the crown. Azubah means “one who is forsaken.” In this case, she had forsaken herself, thereby attaining a state of self-nullification (בִּטּוּל) considered the inner experience of wisdom. This is also hinted to by the fact that she is said to have died, i.e., nullified the self. Jerioth literally means drapes or curtains and alludes to the surrounding lights of Imma, the mother principle, associated with understanding (just as the Sukkah we dwell in during Sukkot drapes us and is also known as the surrounding light of the mother principle).
The two names that appear in the same verse, Helah and Na’arah correspond to loving-kindness and might, the two main emotional sefirot. Helah (חֶלְאָה) is a notarikon for “sick with love” (חוֹלַת אַהֲבָה) and the value of Na’arah (נַעֲרָה) is 325, a number associated in Kabbalah with the harsh judgments of the sefirah of might.[14]
Miriam’s name Efrat (אֶפְרָת) is clearly related to the sefirah of beauty (תִּפְאֶרֶת).
The next three names appear together and correspond to the three habitual sefirot, victory, acknowledgement, and foundation. She was called Tzeret because of her beauty that was so great that other women felt she was competing against them (and winning); thus, Tzeret corresponds to victory. Her name Tzohar means that her face shined like the sun does at noon, called tzahorayim in Hebrew; acknowledgment (hod) also means splendor. The sages say that her beauty inspired men to bring gift to their wives in order to find favor in their eyes, a clear connection with foundation.
Finally, according to the opinion that Pu’ah is Miriam, we correspond this name Pu’ah with kingdom. Pu’ah literally means to coo, since Miriam would do so to the newborn children. Kingdom is associated directly with the mouth and with speech.
Our complete partzuf is thus,
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crown-keter כֶּתֶר Miriam
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wisdom-chochmah חָכְמָה Azubah |
understanding-binah בִּינָה Jerioth |
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loving–kindness–chessed חֶסֶד Helah |
might–gevurah גְּבוּרָה Na’arah |
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beauty–tiferet תִּפְאֶרֶת Efrat
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victory–netzach נֶצַח Tzeret
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splendor–hod הוֹד Tzohar |
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foundation–yesod יְסוֹד Ethnan
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kingdom-malchut מַלְכוּת Pu’ah |
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[1]. Ibid. 1:21. Incidentally, let us mention that in every parashah in the Torah there are one or more phrases whose value is 913, the value of the Torah’s first word, “In the beginning” (בראשית). Apart from being an important phenomenon, its significance lies in the understand that whatever ties to the “beginning” represents one of the purposes behind creation. In parashat Shemot there are two such phrases, and this is the first (וַיַּעַשׂ לָהֶם בָּתִּים). Apart from these houses representing the priesthood and the kingship, as we will discuss shortly, they also represent the “Houses of God,” i.e., the First and Second Temples. The Third Temple will itself include the spirit of both the First and Second Temples and thus, it is the final iteration of the “houses” built in merit of the midwives’ fear of God. Thus, the first purpose of “In the beginning” in our parashah is the building of the Temple.
[2]. Proverbs 31:30.
[3]. Exodus 2:1.
[4]. Ibid. 1:22.
[5]. Berachot 61a.
[6]. In addition, the inner experience of victory is confidence. Despite the dire circumstances of Moses’ being placed in a basket on the Nile, she continued to have confidence in her prophecy and waited to see what would transpire. Indeed, her confidence led to the vindication and victory of her prophecy, and Moses was saved by Pharaoh’s daughter.
[7]. Numbers 20:1-2.
[8]. Deuteronomy 24:9.
[9]. Vayikra Rabbah 1:3: “Rabbi Simon, in the name of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, and Rabbi Ḥama father of Rabbi Hoshaya, in the name of Rav, said: Chronicles was given only for expounding.”
[10]. 1 Chronicles 2:19.
[11]. Ibid. v. 18.
[12]. Ibid. 4:5.
[13]. Ibid. v. 7.
[14]. See Eitz Chaim 18:5.
