ea. Just before water crisis number 1 Miriam sings her song, just before water crisis number 3 Miriam dies, and in water crisis number 2 the rock that Moses hits becomes Miriam's well.
But actually Miriam's connection here runs even deeper. Take Miriam's name; Mem, Reish, Yud, Mem. Remove all vowelization, so you just have Mem, Reish, Yud, Mem. Ask yourselves, how many different Hebrew words can you spell now? It turns out that there are three:
- If you vowelize Mem, Reish, Yud, Mem one way it can mean Marim – bitter.
- If you vowelize it another way it can mean; Meirim – to lift up.
- If you vowelize it yet another way it can mean Morim – rebels.
Now think about these words, where did they show up? Water crisis number 1, how come they couldn't drink the water? Ki marim heim – the waters were bitter. There's Marim – Mem, Reish, Yud, Mem. Water crisis number 3, right before Moses hits the rock he lifts up his hand; Vayarem – that comes from Meirim – to lift up. Finally, when he speaks to the people in concert with hitting the rock: Shimu nah hamorim, he says listen you rebels – Mem, Reish, Yud, Mem once again.
Every, single possible permutation of Miriam's name shows up in the water crises, in which the first one Miriam sings, the last one she dies, in the middle one her rock becomes this well. Miriam is everywhere in these water crises stories, why?
Miriam's Connection to WaterI would suggest to you that to really understand Miriam's connection to these three water crises you have to look at Miriam's broader connection to water itself and that takes us all the way back to the beginning. We meet Miriam at water. Egyptians were casting Jewish infants into the Nile. In desperation the mother of baby Moses places him in this pitiful little box and puts him by some reeds near the shore, and when that happened it was Miriam who stood and watched and ultimately intervened with the daughter of Pharaoh. At the Nile his sister saved him.
But what I want to suggest to you is, it wasn't just at the Nile that she saved him, Miriam 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 o