The daily lesson from The Rav, Rabbi Eliezer Berland shlit"a — Miriam the Prophetess

Day 6 (Friday), 2 Tammuz 5782 — a lesson delivered after the evening prayer (Ma’ariv)

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

So Miriam—already at the age of 3—was a midwife. At age 3 she would go together with her mother, Yocheved. She was born when her mother was 124 years old, because when Moshe was born she was 130; so Miriam was 6. (One hundred and twenty-four.) So at age 127 she went with her mother to deliver all the daughters of Israel. Pharaoh said—because the astrologers told Pharaoh: “In another three years Moshe will be born.” Every boy who was born—three and a third, three years and four months—already the astrologers said: “Know that this is your end, your end. In a little while a sweet, precious child will be born with long peyos, and he will hang you by his peyos—he will take your crown from you.”

Pharaoh panicked. And so—three years and four months and a third, until Moshe was born—Pharaoh issued the decree: “Every son that is born, you shall cast into the Nile.” Every boy who would be born then… so everyone divorced. Amram divorced; Amram was the leader of the generation, so everyone divorced. What—should we throw the children into the Nile?! It’s impossible. But Miriam said: “No! There will be miracles! We will pray! There are nine months to pray. Angels will come and guard the children!” And that is what happened: angels arrived, took the children, and transferred them… A description: the athletic mothers ran—ran—to the field, gave birth there among the bushes: “They will sprout from the city like the grass of the earth.” The Egyptians chased after them, saw: she went out weighing 100 kilos and came back 20 kilos—where are the other 80 kilos?!

“No, I had such an illness…” That’s not an illness—you gave birth to a child here. Where is your child?! They dug under the bushes to look for the child, and the children were swallowed into the earth. All the children—also Nachman Stern—everyone was swallowed into the earth. They brought plows—100 amos, 200 amos—and 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 didn’t manage to run; they gave birth at home: “Catch for us foxes, little foxes that ruin vineyards.” The “foxes” were Egyptian toddlers, age 4 or 5. They saw a woman who needed to give birth—already weighing 100 kilos, about to give birth any moment. So they placed a baby by the door, so that the moment the woman would cry out—because every woman must cry out—when they heard a cry, they would immediately call the commando, the SS, the Gestapo—SS-men, Russians, Zionists—to snatch the child. As soon as she cried out, they immediately called the commando. And then the angels entered through the windows—all the angels—and snatched the babies, bringing them: “And He will nurse him with honey from the rock, and oil from the flinty stone.”

The entire desert filled with oil, with milk, with honey. But there were mothers who didn’t manage—neither this nor that: they didn’t manage to run to the bushes; they didn’t manage for angels to come—because they didn’t pray for nine months. So they put their children into the wall; instead of bricks, they put children. They cried and cried and cried until “the jug broke,” and the children came out—“and we escaped.” So all of this was in the merit of Miriam the Prophetess. The entire people of Israel—this is in the merit of Miriam the Prophetess, the entire people of Israel! They received the Torah; 600,000 stood at Mount Sinai—everything is the merit of Miriam the Prophetess. The king sent messengers every day to kill them—every day—and they would turn into decorative walls (designs), into cypress trees, all kinds of things. They would turn into benches, cabinets, dressers—every kind of thing. For 80 years, every day they would turn into something else. In their lives, they never saw them.

And Pharaoh knew they were lying to him, but he had no choice. Therefore they merited the light of tefillin (“And He made for them houses”). It is written “houses”—these are the houses of the tefillin. Because the man’s tefillin of the arm corresponds to the woman’s head. Whoever puts on the tefillin of the arm must intend that this is the woman’s head. So for this, Miriam merited the tefillin of the head. Miriam and Yocheved merited the tefillin of the head; they merited the lights of tefillin—which are all spiritual attainments. Therefore, in this parashah one must receive all attainments: the 50 gates of holiness. The Chiddushei HaRim says: “before their eyes”—this is the Ten Commandments: to receive all Ten Commandments anew. Because now this is a new generation. But they argued with Moshe; they made fun of Moshe: “Moshe, will you bring us water from this rock?!” Moshe wanted to show them that Miriam’s rock gives drink to all the waters in the world. Every Motza’ei Shabbos, Miriam’s well goes and gives drink to all the lakes, the rivers, the wells. A person needs to seek to drink water that comes from Miriam’s well—every Motza’ei Shabbos—to drink from Miriam’s well, and we will merit the complete Geulah speedily in our days, Amen.