Commento su Esodo 15:20

ותקח מרים הנביאה AND MIRIAM THE PROPHETESS TOOK — But where had she prophesied? When she was THE SISTER OF AARON alone — before Moses was born she said, “My mother will at some time bear a son who will deliver Israel etc.”, as is stated in Treatise Sotah 12b (cf. Megillah 14a). Another explanation of אחות אהרן, the sister of Aaron: because he jeopardised his life for her by entreating on her behalf and so possibly incurring God’s displeasure when she was stricken with leprosy, she is called by his name (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 15:20:1; cf. Rashi Genesis 34:25).

AND MIRIAM THE PROPHETESS, THE SISTER OF AARON. The correct interpretation appears to me to be that because Moses and Miriam were mentioned in the Song and Aaron was not, Scripture wanted to mention him. It therefore said the sister of Aaron as a mark of honor to him, i.e., that he was her older brother and that his sister the prophetess connected her genealogy to him, since he too was a prophet and a holy man of G-d. It is possible that it is the custom of Scripture to trace the genealogy of a family through the oldest brother. Similarly it is written, And the sons of Caleb the brother of Jerahmeel,²³⁴I Chronicles 2:42. because he was the oldest brother, as it is said: The sons also of Hezron… Jerahmeel, and Ram, and Chelubai.²³⁵Ibid., 2:9.

ותקח מרים הנביאה, the author lists a number of verses which appear to commence in the middle and without forming a continuation of what preceded them. Examples given are: Exodus 16,34 commencing with the wordsכאשר ציוה ה' את משה, “as G’d had commanded Moses.” Another example quoted is Jeremiah 37,16-17. כי בא ירמיהו וגו'. [While these examples make the beginning of verse 19 less unique, they still do not explain the reason for this type of syntax. Ed.]

אחות אהרן, “Aaron’s sister.” The reason Miriam is described thus is because both Moses and Miriam had already been mentioned in a “single breath,” as it were in connection with the song, the Torah looked for a way to also have Aaron mentioned in this context. It was a way of giving honour to Aaron, her older brother. After all, Aaron too possessed the rank of being a prophet. It is also possible that it is the norm of Torah verses to relate women to their brothers, as for instance in Genesis 36,22 ואחות לוטן תמנע, “Timna was Lotan’s sister.”

V. 20. Aarons Schwester: sie nahm unter den Frauen im Volke die Stellung ein, die Aaron unter den Männern hatte. Wie Aaron das durch Mosche geoffenbarte Wort unter den Männern verbreitete, so Mirjam unter den Frauen. — תוף von תפף, wie רבב, das schwankende Wort, טפף den trippelnden Gang bezeichnet, so תפף den kurzen nach einander folgenden Tonschlag, und תוף: die Pauke. Daher auch תפף על לב vor Schmerz auf die Brust schlagen (Nachum 2, 8). — מחלות von חלל, das, wie bereits Jeschurun (Vlll, 170) entwickelt, mit עלל ,הלל ,אלל verwandt, ursprünglich die Kreisbildung bedeutet. Daher מחול der Reigentanz.

מרים הנביאה, “Miriam the prophetess;” the word “prophetess” is used here to describe Miriam’s extraordinary ability to use words to express her feelings. [According to Rash’bam,] the word is also used as describing someone who preaches to people to behave morally and ethically correctly. Compare when G-d told Moses that his brother Aaron would be נביאך, which can hardly mean: “your prophet,” as Moses outclassed him in that department.

את התף A TIMBREL — an instrument for a particular kind of music.

הנביאה, the term נביא or נביאה is accorded to people who either are held in high esteem by their peers for their eloquence or their ability to admonish their peers.

בתפים ובמחלת WITH TIMBRELS AND WITH DANCES — The righteous women in that generation were confident that God would perform miracles for them and they accordingly had brought timbrels with them from Egypt (Mekhilta d'Rabbi Yishmael 15:20:2).

אחות אהרן, seeing that he was her older brother the Torah describes her as Aaron’s sister rather than as Moses’ sister. I have explained this in connection with Genesis 28,9 about אחות נביות as well as in connection with אחות לוטן in Genesis 36,22.

בתופים ובמחולות, “with drums and dances.” The women mentioned here were extremely wise as we mentioned earlier. They had experienced visions not granted to the greatest prophets bar Moses. Some of them were motivated by pure motives, others had unacceptable motives. The ones who engaged in dancing had unacceptable motives as the “dance” as a musical instrument was the one associated with the planet Mars, a symbol of warfare, violence. The negative impact of that “instrument” became evident at the time of the golden calf where the Torah reports the woshippers as indulging in מחולות, (Exodus 34,19). I will have more to say on that subject in my commentary on that verse.