In this parashat, God tells Moses and Aaron how the ashes of a red heifer can cleanse an unclean person. Miriam dies. There is no water. God instructs Moses to tell a rock to give water. Moses hits the rock. God tells Moses and Aaron they will not go to the promised land. Aaron dies. His son Eleazar becomes the chief priest. The Israelites travel as far as the Jordan River, capturing lands as the do.

There are any number of good stories here.

Why a “red bull”?

After 40 years, why now do they have no water?

Why did Moses hit the rock? Anger? Frustration? Fed-up-itis?

Why did God punish Aaron with death at the next place they stopped, while merely forbidding Moses to enter the promised land?

Was God just showin’ off when he sent venomous snakes to punish the Israelis?

Here are verses 1 and 2 from Chapter 20 (the second chapter of the Parashat) in English.

1 The entire congregation of the children of Israel arrived at the desert of Zin in the first month, and the people settled in Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there.

2 The congregation had no water; so they assembled against Moses and Aaron.

For me, the death of Miriam is the most significant passage of this Parashat. It is unfortunate that the author – whether Moses or another – saw fit to say no more about her death than that she died and was buried in Kadesh.

Miriam was one of the most important and courageous Jews in the Torah. It was she who, at the age of six, convinced her father Amram, the leader of the Egyptian Jewish community, to rescind his order that Jewish men divorce their wives so there would be no more Jewish babies for Pharaoh to kill. She followed the basket containing the baby Moses down the Nile to make sure he was safe. She approached Pharaoh’s daughter, suggesting that she, Miriam, find a Jewish woman to wet-nurse the baby… and then she brought her mother, Jochebed to be that wet-nurse. After the Israelites crossed the Sea of Reeds with the Egyptian army drowned behind them, she led the women in song.

She was bold enough to express disappointment with Moses because he separated from his wife, Zipporah, thereby denying her the marital relations to which wives are entitled.

The Midrash tells us that the power of Miriam’s integrity, piety, and caring was such that God provided a moving well of water that followed the people until her death. Without Miriam, Miriam’s Well ceased to exist and, therefore, no water. That is what led to the fateful moment when Moses hit the rock.

Miriam focused on teaching her people how to sing in moments of joy, and she saw to their well-being during their struggles.

Her example, paralleled by countless women after her, is one of action, love, and support. Without Miriam’s efforts, there might never have been a Moses. There certainly would never have been a well to provide water.

No one commented on how important and valued her contribution was until after she died.

The tragic reality is that for most women, after-the-fact recognition is often the only kind. They who work raising children, who teach, who tend the sick, who perform the difficult, tedious tasks that make human life possible and sustain it are often forgotten.

Only when they are no longer able to serve are their works noticed, and then only because they and their works are missed. Why didn’t anyone notice Miriam’s Well while she was still alive?

We should re-examine our own values and our own heroes today.

Do we sufficiently honor those whose contribution is the quiet support of others? Have we each undertaken to make ourselves not only disciples of Aaron, not only children of Moses, but also personifications of Miriam — using our hands and hearts to irrigate the lives of people?

Miriam was a worthy representative of the strength and courage of women throughout history and in today’s world.

Join me in thanking her.

Michael Goldstein