Miriam the Prophetess — The Daily Lesson from Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a

Friday, 2 Tammuz 5782, lesson delivered after the Ma'ariv prayer.

Now we are speaking about Miriam the Prophetess because she passed away, poor soul.

Miriam was already a midwife at the age of 3. At age 3, she would go with her mother, Yocheved. She was born when her mother was 124 years old, because when Moshe was born, she was 130, and when Miriam was born, she was 6. 124. So at age 127, she went with her mother to deliver all the daughters of Israel. Pharaoh said—because the astrologers told Pharaoh that in 3 years Moshe would be born. Every boy born 3 and a third, 3 years and 4 months, the astrologers said, 'Know that this is your end, your end. Soon a sweet, cute child will be born with long sidelocks, and he will hang you by his sidelocks and take off your crown.'

Pharaoh was terrified, and then for 3 years and 4 months and a third, until Moshe was born, Pharaoh gave the decree: 'Every son that is born, you shall cast into the river.' Every son that would be born—so everyone got divorced. Amram got divorced; Amram was the leader of the generation, so everyone got divorced. 'What, shall we throw the children into the river?! That is not possible.' But Miriam said, 'No! There will be miracles! We will pray! There are 9 months to pray. Angels will come and guard the children!' And so it was; angels arrived, took the children, and moved them. The athletic mothers ran, ran to the field, and gave birth there in the bushes, 'They shall blossom from the city like the grass of the earth.' The Egyptians chased after them and saw, 'She went in 100 kilos, she returned 20 kilos—where are the other 80 kilos?!'

'No, I had such an illness...' That is not an illness; you gave birth to a child here, where is your child?! They dug under the bushes to search for the child. The children were swallowed into the earth; all the children, even Nachman Stern, everyone was swallowed into the earth. They brought plows, 100 cubits, 200 cubits; they were swallowed even deeper. These were the women who managed to run to the field instead of running to Sha'arei Tzedek; they ran to the field. After that, there were mothers who did not manage to run and gave birth at home. 'Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards.' The foxes were the Egyptian children, 4 or 5 years old. They saw a woman who needed to give birth, already weighing 100 kilos, about to give birth. They saw this, so they placed a baby by the door so that the moment the woman would let out a scream—because she must scream, every woman—when they heard a scream, they would immediately call the commando, the SS, the Gestapo, the SS-men, the Russians, the Zionists, to kidnap the child. As soon as she gave a scream, they immediately called the commando, and then the angels entered through the windows, all the angels, and kidnapped the babies, bringing them, 'And He suckled him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty rock.'

The entire desert filled with oil, milk, and honey. But there were mothers who did not manage, neither this nor that; they did not manage to run to the bushes, they did not manage for the angels to come because they did not pray for 9 months. So they placed the children in the wall; instead of bricks, they placed children. They cried, cried, cried, until 'the trap was broken' and the children came out, 'and we escaped.' So all of this was in the merit of Miriam the Prophetess. The entire nation of Israel is in the merit of Miriam the Prophetess, the entire nation of Israel! They received the Torah, 600,000 stood at Mount Sinai; everything is in the merit of Miriam the Prophetess. The king sent messengers every day to kill them, every day, and they would turn into walls, decorations, chandeliers, all sorts of things; they would turn into benches, closets, chests, all sorts of things. For 80 years, every day they would turn into something else. In their lives, they never saw them.

And Pharaoh knew that they were lying to him, but he had no choice. Therefore, they merited the light of the tefillin ('And He made them houses'). It is written 'houses'—these are the houses of the tefillin, because the hand tefillin of the man is against the head of the woman. Whoever puts on hand tefillin must intend that it is the head of the woman. So for this, Miriam merited the head tefillin. Miriam and Yocheved merited the head tefillin; they merited the lights of the tefillin, which is all the attainments. Therefore, in this parashah, one must receive all the attainments, the 50 gates of holiness. The Chiddushei HaRim says, 'Before their eyes'—these are the Ten Commandments. To receive all the Ten Commandments anew. Because now it is a new generation, but they argued with Moshe, they made a mockery of Moshe: 'Moshe, bring us water from this rock!' Moshe wanted to show them that the rock of Miriam waters all the waters in the world. Every Motzaei Shabbat, the Well of Miriam goes and waters all the lakes, the streams, the wells. A person needs to see, to drink water that comes from the well of Miriam. Every Motzaei Shabbat, to drink from the well of Miriam, and we will merit the complete Geulah (Redemption) speedily in our days, Amen.