In the simple meaning of the verse, Miriam and Aaron criticize Moses for marrying a Cushite woman, implying that this was not appropriate in their eyes. One can almost hear the shocked protest of the emissary: “But he is black!” Yet, the sages reveal the deeper secret, teaching us that the Cushite woman is none other than Tzipporah, Moses’s wife. The reason for Miriam and Aaron’s criticism is the exact opposite of what it seems: their complaint was about Moses separating from his wife because he was preserving his state of ritual purity through abstinence, so that he would be ready to receive prophecy at every moment. He did not separate from his wife because of her ethnicity.
And what is wrong with holiness and abstinence? In the writings of Rabbi Isaac of Homil, it is explained that Miriam and Aaron fully understood Moses’s greatness as a prophet and a righteous person. Their argument was that precisely Moses, the chosen one of humanity, “ought to bring the light of his holy soul into the realm of physical nature.” This is because at the level of the supernal unification (yichuda ila’ah)—the state of consciousness that Moses had attained and signifying the unity of the Divine and the mundane before the contraction of God’s infinite revelation—there is no inherent conflict between the physical and the spiritual. When Moses refuses to descend into reality and conduct marital relations with his wife, who is seemingly the most distant, it signifies a flaw in the perfection of his consciousness. In principle, argues Rebbe Isaac, the argument made by Miriam and Aaron was justified.
Therefore, Rabbi Isaac explains, initially, God was not angry with Miriam and Aaron. On the contrary, the phrase “And God heard,” implies that God agreed with them. However, their attempt to impose this elevated level on Moses, whose spiritual standing was different, was misplaced and led to a severe reprimand from God. All this is retold at the end of parashat Beha’alotcha.
The true response to Miriam and Aaron’s argument comes at the beginning of the next Torah portion, parashat Shelach. God commands Moses to send spies to endear the Land of Israel and its fruits to the people. This positive engagement with the physical aspects of the Land was a significant move towards integrating spirituality with physicality. This mission was undermined by the sin of the spies. But this is not the end of the story.
Actually, Moses had separated from his wife based on God’s command. However, the Mashiach—the soul of Moses in the body of David—will not need to separate from his wife. On the contrary, in his incarnation as the Mashiach, Moses/David’s primary wife will be Michal, the daughter of Saul, who is referred to as “the daughter of a Cushite.”
This concept is indeed connected to the “Fourth Revolution” (the dissemination of Torah study to the nations). Bringing even the most distant individuals, who might appear deficient in the eyes of devout Jews, closer to God through conversion and spiritual elevation is indeed the mission of the Mashiach—the husband of Michal the daughter of a Cushite.
