More Miriam

I found this piece in Time Magazine... about how Moses truly loved his sister Miriam.
But the saddest interpretation is that Moses is penalized for mourning his sister. Few figures in Exodus are as vividly drawn, if infrequently featured, as Miriam. It is she who, as a child, saw to it that Pharaoh's daughter temporarily returned Moses to his natural mother to be breast-fed; it is Miriam who danced for joy at the crossing of the Red Sea. She is one of only four women the Hebrew Bible describes as a prophetess. Moses clearly loves her. At one point, she and Aaron complain about Moses' marriage to a "Cushite," which some scholars believe meant a black woman. But when the siblings challenge their brother's prophetic authority, God punishes Miriam with leprosy. Moses, however, intercedes on her behalf.

The incident at Meribah begins with the stark announcement, "Miriam died there and was buried there." The next sentence is, "The community was without water, and they joined against Moses and Aaron." This abrupt shift has fascinated scholars, including Hebrew Union College's Cohen. "His need is mourning," Cohen points out. "And do the people gather to comfort him? No. To complain. The same song and dance." Distraught, Moses strikes. With the blows, "he takes out everything," says Cohen. "He takes it out on the people, maybe on God, because he's lost his sister." And the Lord punishes him.

You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin.

The wonderful Miriam's cup above is one that was made for the Women of Reform Judaism by the artist Linda Gissen. For lots of Miriam's cups take a look at this exhibit from the Oregon Jewish Musem.

Miriam's Cup

Kerry Feldman created this beautiful wine glass for the 100th anniversary of the Jewish museum. A fitting tribute to a wonderful institution and a wonderful woman.

Unlike Elijah's cup, Miriam's cup is filled with water. Miriam is a biblical heroine endowed with many qualities inspiring to young women today, a little girl with protective instinct, who unasked, watches over her baby brother floating in the reeds of the Nile to ensure his safety, and intelligent enough to trick an aristocratic Egyptian princess into returning baby Moses to his home and into the care of his real mother as nursemaid instead of killing the baby as per Pharaoh's orders. Miriam had faith when others did not, despite the adversity of Pharaoh's decree against the first born male children and her brother, Moses, and later against the fast approaching Egyptian army. In fact, so certain was Miriam's faith in her prophesy of victory that she even brought her musical instruments so she could celebrate that victory. In the Passover story, Miriam led the women in grateful song & dance, after the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea.

Many artists have taken to design and created Miriam's cups. Here are two more, one from Bonnie Cohen, and another from Tamara Baskin.




If you have not already, would this not be a wonderful time to begin a new ritual to your seder?

Four cups of wine

The following was written by the poet, I. Halpern who lives and writes in Central Islip, New York. Mr. Halpern records books for the New York Braille Institute World Library for the Blind and Seeing-Impaired. He presents his own poetry and conducts workshops for Poetry in the Schools and National P.E.N. Writers in Prison.

Passover Seder at Bedford Hills
Maximum Security Women's Prison, NY

we tried to depart from Egypt with every breath
behind us stood guards with ammo belts to hold up their pants
we are poets and murderers with more crime behind us than usual

what is the "Order" for us?
four glasses of grape juice, some matzohs, bitter herbs
would this make us free?
to climb over mountains
get away from these locked narrow confines

sister poured the first cup
into Styrofoam chalices larger than olives
in the next room it was time for the cell count
names with numbers of resenters of the lash and chain
at one end of our table was some salt water in a glass bowl
near that the guardian matzohs in a pile by the radish root

we were straining to leave Cairo
a the sun forced itself in through bars
welded onto casement windows wired shut
but the light washed in over our tablecloth


sister poured the second cup we dip parsley into the salt water
teardrops around maximum lockup
every exit dead-bolted as we prayed

sister pours the third cup like it was Louis Roederer Crystal
as the Rabbi tells us we must get out of Mitzrayim not Egypt
Mitzrayim means a narrow place
Egypt is our friend today, so we must get out of our narrow place

sister pours the fourth cup like it was Dom Perignon
grabs the horse radish root like it was the neck of an uncooked goose
it is bitter
so damned bitter
as everyone watches everyone else
to see
if anyone knows
how to do their time

Marian Slepian IS a silversmith and Cloisonne enamilist of world reknown. From her work, it is easy to see why she is so respected. And remember- be careful drinking those four cups of wine!

For more about doing work with Jewish prisoners, look here or here.

Prophetess of water

If Deborah is the prophet of war, and Jeremiah is the prophet of exile, Miriam is the prophet of water. Almost from the first moment we see her, she's next to the water, watching her brother's cradle to safety along the Nile. She knows the power of water to bring life and death. So it's appropriate that here in her Song of the Sea she sings of God's use of the waterpower. As the very next lines show (Ex 15.22-27), Moses himself doesn't know so much about water, but brings the people to a place of bitter waters, Marah, which precipitates the first stirrings of rebellion. He must appeal to God for help, who exacts a promise from the people to obey God's statutes in return for leading them to fresh water. In the desert, water is politics.

Tradition has it that Miriam secured the Israelites against future such occurences by her magic well of water. I prefer to think of it this way: her brother, Moses, is good at the flashy miracle--raise the rod, etc.--but Miriam's unique ability is to listen attentively and patiently to the earth's processes and find the sources of life deep in the aquifers below. When Moses wants to turn back a rebellion by Korach, God helps him by opening up the ground--but that sort of miracle won't work when it comes to the waterpower: the sources would be clogged by the violence of the collapsing earth. Moses doesn't want to speak to the rock to get water, even after God promises him 3 separate times that speaking to it will produce water. Instead, he beats it with his rod--the rod that turns the Nile to blood, the rod of war, the rod of a certain kind of masculine authority.

Miriam knows the secret of speaking to the rock; she knows the secret of dialogue rather than the exercise of autocratic authority. Moses' impatience and reliance on divine authority and power is vital to the success of his mission. Community-organizer, institution-builder, mover of a slave people to freedom--with a little coercion when necessary. Miriam's power of dialogue is no less vital to the success of her mission: that is, to get close to the pure sources of life.


It's no wonder that the people will not stir from Hazeroth until Miriam, punished by God for questioning Moses' authority, is readmitted to camp: the sources of life might dry up if not for her! (Num. 11). Neither is it any wonder that when Miriam dies in Kadesh (in about 1452 BCE) the Torah reports: "Miriam died there and was buried there. The community was without water, and they joined against Moses and Aaron." In this second water-related political crisis in the community, neither the political leader (Moses) nor the priestly leader (Aaron) knows how to respond appropriately. It's in this crisis that Moses disobeys God, raises the rod, and disregards the command to speak to the rock--for which he is condemned never to enter the Land.

Miriam is indeed a prophet: the prophet who knows that the process by which one gets near to the "fountain of living waters" is as important as the nearness itself. She models a type of relationship that is based on listening and respect. For sometimes, though one has the best intentions, the very impatience by which one attempts to construct holy relationships can poison one's own life, and produce such bitterness that it poisons the lives of subsequent generations. (from Anton Marks)



To learn more about Miriam, the prophetess check this out.


Judy Miller combines humor and talent to make this Miriam seder and matzah plate combination as well as her Miriam's cup, which has become a part of so many seder tables. Judy began making ceramics as a young art student in need of money. Thankfully, what she found was her niche!