An Identity Crisis

By Rabbi Joshua (identifiably known as The Hoffer) Hoffman

With gratitude to the Almighty, beginning our fifteenth year!

In memory of my mother, Yoninah bas Tzvi Hirsch, who yahrzeit occurs this coming Sunday night, the thirteenth of Shvat

After Moshe and the Jewish people completed their shirah, their song of praise to God for the miracles of the splitting and crossing of the Yam Suf, Miriam led the women in song as well. Interestingly, the Torah refers to her as "Miriam the Prophetess, sister of Aharon" (Shemos 15:20), rather than "sister of Moshe," as we would expect. Rashi and Ramban offer several explanations for this identification. Rashi, in his first explanation, says that Miriam prophesied before Moshe was born, when she was only the sister of Aharon, and told her father that he would father the future redeemer of Yisroel. In his second explanation, Rashi says that Miriam is referred to as the sister of Aharon because Aharon acted in a self-sacrificial manner after Miriam was punished with tzora'as for speaking against Moshe, as recorded in parshas Beha'aloscha. Aharon at that time pleaded with Moshe to pray for Miriam's healing.

The Ramban also offers two explanations for the Torah's identity of Miriam as the sister of Aharon. First, he says that this was done because Miriam and Moshe had already been mentioned in regard to the shirah, and Aharon had not yet been mentioned. Miriam in this context is called the sister of Aharon as a means of giving honor to him. Secondly, the Ramban says that it is the style of Scripture to refer to a sibling through the oldest brother in the family, as he demonstrates from many other biblical passages. I would like to suggest another explanation for calling Miriam Aharon's sister, based on Rashi's reference to the incident in Beha'aloscha, carrying it somewhat further.

In parshas Beha'aloscha, we find Miriam and Aharon speaking critically of Moshe, and asking why he was acting differently from them. The midrash, as brought by Rashi, explains that after the revelation at Sinai, Moshe no longer had conjugal relations with his wife, so that he would always be ready for prophesy. Miriam, speaking to Aharon, asked, didn't God also speak with us, and yet we did not separate from our spouses. God then revealed himself to them, and told them that Moshe was on a different level of prophesy than they were, and was therefore correct in what he did. He then proceeded to punish Miriam with tzora'as, and Aharon pleaded with Moshe to pray on her behalf.

The sin of Miriam and Aharon, according to Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik zt"l, was to deny what, for the Rambam, was one of the thirteen principles of the Jewish faith, namely the fact that Moshe was on a different level of prophesy than all other prophets, and that no other prophet would ever obtain his lever of prophesy. Why is it, though, that only Miriam was openly punished for this sin? Rashi says that this is because she is the one who opened the critical discussion with Aharon. Perhaps, however, we can suggest a further explanation based on the way Miriam was referred to when she led the women in song at the Yam Suf.

When the Torah refers to Miriam as the sister of Aharon, it is indicating that, already at that time, Moshe was on a different level of prophecy than she was, so that she was closer to the level of prophesy of Aharon than that of Moshe. Moshe's greatest attainment of prophecy came at Sinai, when God revealed the Torah to him, in front of the entire nation, but from the difference in quality between Moshe's shirah and the shirah that Miriam led the women in, she should have understood that from then on, Moshe was different, and that the same rules which applied to him did not necessarily apply to her. Plus, from the time of the crossing of the Yam Suf, Miriam should have been aware of this difference, and after the further revelation at Sinai, become fully convinced of it. The reference to Miriam as Aharon's sister, rather than Moshe's sister, is then, in addition to an allusion to Aharon's plea on her behalf, the foreshadowing of the sin which led to her punishment, and an explanation of why she was more deserving of punishment for that sin than was Aharon.