Parashat Hukkat contains the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, as well as the final death sentence for Moshe. Moshe’s death decree, and his death later, is a private one. For Aaron death is semi-shared. His is a passing of the mantle of the priesthood, both figuratively and literally, but for Miriam, death is public, shared with the entire community.
It is interesting that Moshe’s and Aaron’s deaths are so much more private. It speaks to the fact that Miriam’s presence is felt well beyond the number of times she is mentioned in the Torah. She is an omnipresent personality in Jewish life ad hayom hazeh, even unto this day. After Miriam dies the people wait seven days before moving on. The Cloud of Glory, which leads them through the midbar, stays still, as if even God is mourning Miriam’s loss.
Immediately following Miriam’s death the water source the Israelites had been using dries up. Midrash explicates Miriam’s Well based on the juxtaposition of this event to her death. Water is the source of life, and represents Torah and learning in Jewish tradition. One could easily ask the question as to whether there really is a well, or is it the influence of Miriam on the people, the influence of a leader, and perhaps a calming presence in the community, a person who never lost faith, from watching Moshe in the basket on the Nile throughout her life, that is lost. Perhaps without Miriam they lack the faith or emotional strength to search for the well. Whether the well is a literal well or a figurative one, the influence of Miriam touches every Israelite.
We rarely think upon the influence we have. We should take the lesson from Miriam’s death, and her life, that our influence spreads like the ripples in the water, touching those immediately around us and beyond to our entire community.
