Drasha
While the Torah is full of family infighting, arguably starting with the murderous envy Kayin felt towards his brother Hevel and carrying through the sale of Yosef, this week’s Parshah gives us insight into a particularly petty squabble within the historic Jewish family. Far from murder or sale into slavery, the sibling rivalry in Parashat Beha’alotecha manifests itself in Miriam gossiping with her brother Aharon about Moshe’s marital life. While this seems like Real Housewives of the Midbar type of content, God clearly took this gossip seriously, as he struck Miriam with Tzara’at, the miraculous disease given to those who commit some major social wrong. But while gossip seems bad– much less gossip about Moshe– why was Miriam’s moment of weakness such an affront to merit divine punishment? And, if it really was such a horrible offense that Miriam committed, how could someone as pious and righteous as Miriam come to commit such a sin?
Of course, to answer these questions we have to first understand exactly what it was that Miriam said about Moshe. The Torah tells us that Miriam spoke ill about Moshe’s Kushite wife, but it doesn’t inform us what exactly she said, leading to many different interpretations. Perhaps the simplest explanation is that Miriam spoke disapprovingly of Moshe marrying a non-Jewish woman, instead of marrying a Jew like she and Aharon did. That said, while this might be the simplest explanation with the words in the Torah, it’s the most difficult to understand with the character of Moshe. Firstly, we saw in our Tuesday evening class together a few weeks ago that there is a live discussion amongst the Rabbinic commentaries if Judaism was matrilineal or patrilineal in the pre-Sinaitic times. If it was patrilineal, then surely Moshe didn’t commit any major crime by marrying a non-Jewish woman, as we know the family they raised together was one of strong Jewish identity. But beyond this technical point, if intermarriage did have the same valence and posed the same problems then as it does now, then it is hard to imagine that Moshe could have committed such a sin!
Perhaps that is why the Darshanim, our Rabbis and those who follow in a rabbinic tradition, take a different approach in understanding Miriam’s critique of Moshe. According to the rabbis, quoted by Rashi, Miriam was upset that Moshe separated from his wife for a prolonged period of time. According to this interpretation, Moshe, feeling the pressures of leadership and the spiritual demands of speaking to God face to face, moved his tent away from his wife’s and entered a prolonged period of separation to better focus on his prophecy. Miriam, noting that she and Aharon are also both prophets and leaders of the Jewish people but they never needed to neglect their spousal duties, criticizes Moshe for sacrificing his family on the altar of his job. While this criticism is easier to swallow, as Moshe is depicted as an overly dedicated prophet and leader instead of a lustful assimilator, it is still difficult to understand the significance of this episode. Where do the Rabbis see this in Miriam’s brief words of criticism, and why would Miriam be so invested in the wellbeing of Moshe’s wives? Finally, while perhaps wrong and misguided,why is Miriam met with such a public and prominent divine punishment for a few words of reasonable pushback? ... continued
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