During their entire sojourn in the desert, Klal Yisrael were blessed with gifts from Hashem; they were three exclusive gifts, in the merit of three exclusive individuals. They had the Manna, in the zechus of Moshe Rabbeinu; the Clouds of Glory, in the merit of Aharon HaKohein; and the well of water, in the zechus of Miriam HaNeviah.
What was the middah k’neged middah that allowed each of them to bring about what they brought to our nation? A number of years ago, Rav Elysha Sandler shlita shared in his derashah an incredible thought, based on the words of Rabbeinu Bachya.
Moshe Rabbeinu was the one who brought Torah to our people—Torah that sustains our neshamos—he thus, brought the zechus of the food that sustained us. Aharon was the one who brought shalom to Klal Yisrael; thus, he brought the clouds of protection.
But what about Miriam? What is her connection to the water that we were zocheh to all the days of our sojourn?
Rabbi Sandler thus explained: Miriam stood by the water to save her brother, Moshe Rabbeinu. Moshe was in a place of no life, a place where intrinsically he should not have had the ability to survive; in such a place she stood by and waited and watched, to make sure nothing would happen to him. In a place of no life—she brought life.
In that great zechus, she brings in her merit the life-giving waters for forty years in the Midbar. But not only that, she stands as the role model for all the righteous women, of the mothers who bring life to their children. Just as she gave life to Klal Yisrael in her zechus, she is also the epitome of our Matriarchs in Mitzrayim, who also raised Yiddishe kinderlach in a place of no life. And that is really the case with every Jewish mother: they all bestow the gift of life.
