Musar sobre Exodo 1:17

Acquisiton of מעשים טובים, may not be something independent of the performance of so called מצות, rather it may be the manner in which the commandments are performed. There are 5 levels of performing the various commandments, which may elevate such performance into מעשים טובים, "good deeds." The five people mentioned in our Midrash may personify those five levels of "mitzvah performance." 1) "Ordinary הדור מצוה," i.e. Miriam's allowing the children to live; 1b) the additional dimension she displayed by financing the survival of these children herself. This made Miriam a paragon of the virtue of הדור מצוה, a level described by G–d elsewhere as בקרובי אקדש, "I will be sanctified through those that are close to Me" (when the sons of Aaron died, Leviticus 10,2-3).

Some commentators even claim that the tribe of Yehudah had already begun its journey, but was forced to return in her honour. The author of צרור המור writes at the end of Parshat Beha-alotcha, that there was an element of מדה כנגד מדה in this, since it was Yehudah who had exclaimed at the time the brothers wanted to kill Joseph "מה בצע כי נהרוג את אחינו … לכו ונמכרנו" "what profit is there in killing our brother, let us rather sell him!" This comment was held against him (Genesis 37,26). Miriam, by her very nature ignored material gains, as is evident from the danger she put herself in when defying Pharaoh's instructions to kill all male Jewish babies. On the contrary, she actively helped them survive. The repetition of the statement ותחיינה את הילדים in Exodus 1,18, suggests that she provided victuals for them out of her personal funds. This is why she experienced the honour of the tribe of Yehudah returning to wait for her until she had been healed of her צרעת.