Let us focus on the major episodes in Miriam’s life in their order of appearance in the Torah. Though we always prefer when possible to use an established order of the elements in our partzuf when corresponding them to a Kabbalistic model, this is not always possible. Sometimes, as in this case, it is clear, that the elements in the partzuf—in this case, the episodes of Miriam’s life—do not follow the same order as the Kabbalistic model. Thus, after each episode, we will identify the sefirah it corresponds to.
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.”
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.” 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.” 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.”
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. 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 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 to 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, 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” (יין נקבין), 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” (יין דוכרין). 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.” 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:
- loving-kindness-chessed – exciting the women at the Song at the sea
- might-gevurah – fear of God as a midwife
- beauty-tiferet – remembering what happened to Miriam
- victory-netzach – Miriam’s prophecy
- splendor-hod – Miriam’s advice
- foundation-yesod – speaking about Moses
- kingdom-malchut – Miriam’s well
