iriam is always saving Moses from water. The next time it happens is at the Sea of Reeds. If you look carefully you'll find something remarkable about the salvation of Israel at the Sea of Reeds, and it all happened before. What happened at the sea was just a playing out on a larger canvass of what had once happened at the Nile.
At the Nile one child, Moshe, was threatened by one Egyptian, the daughter of Pharaoh, by a small body of water, a river, and there were a few reeds there. Later on that body of water would not be a small water, would be an entire sea, and there wouldn't just be a couple of reeds, there would be a whole sea full of reeds. And it wouldn't just be one Egyptian threatening just one person from Israel, but it would be an entire army of Egyptians threatening an entire people of Israel. That would happen at the splitting of the sea, and just as Miriam had been there the first time, so would she be there the second.
Va'teitatzav achoto mei'rachok – just as Miriam stood and watched with faith that somehow it was going to work out, so too the people at the sea they stand and watch. Indeed, it's the same words; Hityatzvu ure'u, Moshe tells them, just stand and watch. Have faith, it's going to work out. Indeed, Miriam taught them how to do this – her example at the Nile taught it.
I talked about this in last year's Beshalach video. If you would have asked Miriam at the Nile as the daughter of Pharaoh approaches, what's your plan? Why are you still watching? What Miriam would say is, I don't know what's going to happen, but just because I can't figure it out doesn't mean there's not a way out over here. There's a Master of the Universe here and He has plans that are greater than I can imagine. That's the soul of faith. At the sea Moses said, stand and watch, have faith. It's what Miriam did.
That's why when the people do have faith and the sea splits Miriam sings her song. She taught them how to do this, of course she's going to sing. And one more time she saves Moses – this time, the entire people of Israel along with him.
But it's not just these two times, later Moshe will be threatened by water yet again. Od me'at u'skaluni, he says, in the second water crisis, they're so desperate for water they're going to kill me, they're going to stone me alive. God says, relax, it's going to be okay. He tells him to hit the rock and that rock becomes, of all things, Miriam's well. Miriam somehow saves him one more time.
For 40 years Miriam's well sustains everyone but then she dies and the water that had been there so faithfully in her merit, that's gone too. Suddenly, the people are plunged into a great crisis, a crisis they haven't seen for 40 years. Facing her withered stone, the one that had provided them for so long, he speaks to the people; Shimu nah ha'morim, ha'min ha'selah hazeh notzi lachem mayim – listen you rebels, do you really think we can get water out of this rock? Mem, Reish, Yud, Mem, it's as if he's talking to his dead sister. Shimu nah Miriam – listen Miriam; Ha'min ha'selah hazeh notzi lachem mayim – do you really think we can get water out of this rock without you?
When Aaron dies later on the people mourn, when Moshe dies later on the people mourn, but when the third sibling, Miriam, dies they don't mourn because they're plunged into crisis, they don't have the luxury of mourning, there's no water. But maybe there's one person who mourns? Her brother.
Why Moses Struck the Rock in AngerIt leads him to strike the rock, to try to go back to a time in history when Miriam was alive, back at that second water crisis when he was commanded to strike the rock when Miriam was there and the rock became her well. But Miriam is not there anymore, and God had been asking Moses to have faith.
Yes, that's what God says to Moses when He says: you can't go into the land, you didn't have faith in Me. Why was it a matter of faith? Hitting the rock, speaking to the rock, what's the difference? But somehow it was an issue of faith. God was asking Moses to just stand and watch. You don't have to do anything here, you