Mitzvah d'var

Shabbat Shalom.  So, in my Torah portion, God spoke to Moses and Aaron and told them how to purify stuff. He said: “You need a red cow. Then, give it to the priest. He’ll brutally murder it and sprinkle its blood 7 times. Then, burn it, all of it, even its dung. Throw some other stuff into the fire. The priest then bathes.” Then the things that make someone impure are listed. Anyone who touches a dead person or a grave, pretty much.

Now, the Israelites went to a wilderness and Miriam died. She’s a woman, though, so we kinda gloss over this part. There’s a drought, no one likes it, and they yell at Moses and Aaron. God tells Moses to yell at a rock to get water, but he hits the rock instead. So then they try to go through a country, but the country says no and tries to kill them. Then Aaron dies, and he’s a guy, so we talk about it a bit. Another country tries to do what country #1 did, but God let the Israelites kill them instead.

Then there are fine healing snakes made of copper. They travel a bit, there’s a song, and the same thing happens as with country #2. There is another song and it happens again. 

Let’s focus on Miriam. She dies in the first verse of the first story-chapter. Personally, the first thing I noticed about the chapter was: “Hold on a second. Miriam just died. Why are we not talking about it?” Ayelet and I did some digging and we found a bunch of articles detailing the connection between Miriam and water. I’ll talk about that, but first: Mirian died of God: a painless, easy death, much like her brothers did. This is not notated because she is a woman and apparently talking about the divine in the context of a woman sullies God’s name, I don’t know. Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about this to say any more.

Back to water. First off, every time she appears in the Torah, she is connected to water. She sends Moses down a stream when he’s a baby; she leads the women in dance by the Red sea. This definitely outlines a possible connection between her and the drought that happens after her death. 

Along with that, her name is intriguing. Her name can mean “bitter,” like the time and era of slavery during which she was born. It can mean “water drop” as in the well of Miriam that followed the Israelites in the wild. It could be “rebel,” as Moses called the people in the drought posthumous. It can be “elevate,” like the house of kingship. It might even be related to the ancient Egyptian word for “beloved,” which she certainly was by the community. So she has to do with water, which in Judaism often has to do with kindness. My first thought was, “Huh. Is Miriam a water spirit or elemental?” She might have a supernatural bond with water or something, but I am not sure, so let’s move on.

Now let’s focus on the fire snakes. My first reaction was “What? What do fire snakes have to do with anything?” but I decided to think about it harder. The theory I came up with is that God was reminding the Israelites of what had previously happened. The drought ended but Moses still disobeyed God, so I thought that fire healing snakes might be a reminder that God is helping them because of the goodness, not because they are perfect. Their imperfections came out during a drought, so fire can remind them of the lack of water while still healing the Israelites. Snakes could be a call back to another time of mistakes and imperfections. The Garden of Eden, where Eve fell prey to a snake’s whispers. Also, the thing that is being healed is snake wounds, so there is another possibility.

I decided to dig a bit deeper and it turns out the word used to mean fire, “seraph,” also means “bitter.” I remembered that Miriam, who seems to represent water, has a name that can mean “bitter” as well. Huh. Who would have guessed?

So, the seemingly random fire snakes may represent the similarities and differences between fire and water.

We’ve got water and fire.  What about earth?

“From dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

This is a quote from Genesis, chapter 3, verse 19. There are two things that this brought up for me: science and burial.

Burial is a bit obvious. After death, a person (both in Judaism and in current society) is placed in a hole in the ground. They will generally decompose there and return to dust. Indeed, Miriam was buried.

Now, for science. The idea that a person’s atoms may change and become something new is rather scientific. Also the fact that after decomposition, worms, insects, and plants may eat the soil left behind, allowing them to grow and continue the cycle of life and death. 

Using this logic, earth could represent death and what comes next.

Shekhinah, ruach, and the pillar of cloud. 

Shekhina is known as the divine presence and is feminine. Ruach, on the other hand, is both feminine and masculine, but is otherwise rather similar. Ruach can also mean breath, wind, and spirit.

It is thought that the cloud is a physical version of the shekhina, being the day version with a fire pillar being the night version. The cloud is related to ruach in that the human breath is the basis of it. While researching, Ayelet and I came upon two interesting quotes from an article by Kol Raychaim. The first quote is: “God is glorified when we show honor and dignity to all who breathe.” I felt that this meant that treating living beings with respect honors God’s legacy.

The second quote is that “God’s breath is never wasted by putting extra people in the world,” which I took to mean that we are all here for a reason and none of us are unnecessary.

I chose to think about the four elements due to my general interest in them, and also the way that I wanted to do the fire snakes, but also Miriam. The elements discussed are water, fire, earth, and air. I associated each element with a concrete and abstract noun. I found that water is Miriam and community. Fire is snakes and imperfections. Earth is death and stability. Air is breath and divinity.

All in all, we are all important, random things might have meaning. Also, everything is intertwined and fire snakes are cool. 

 To be a bat mitzvah is to figure these things out.