There's a suffering soul in the world through which all the biurim - understandings - of Torah come down. All the words of this soul are fire, because in order to draw from the wells of Torah, your words need to be fire (so as not to be consumed). When this soul dies, all understandings of Torah dry up, and then dispute comes into the world, because biurim - understandings of Torah - resolve contradictions and dispute. The name of this soul is Miriam (Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, Torah 20).
When Miriam dies, the well dries up; there is no water. When the people get thirsty, Moshe says "Shimu na hamorim! Hamin hasela hazeh notzi lachem mayim?" "Hear, you morim - morim has the same letters as Miriam (MRYM) - will we get water from this rock?"
It is clear that Moshe is grieving for his sister. He says: Miriam is dead - how will I ever be able to get water from a rock without her? She was the one who resolved contradiction, the one who integrated my truth and Aharon's compassion. She put me, with my fire, in the water; later, she sweetened the bitter waters. She was able to find understanding, Torah, in bitterness and suffering; she was able to find water in a hot, dry stone. Who will do that for us now? How can I get something from its opposite without her?
Sometimes there's a person in our lives or in our family who brings everything together, who provides context for separate and even opposite parts. Sometimes the only reason the family gets together is because Grandma has Sunday brunch every week. Only she can hold the whole family in one space. And when Grandma dies, suddenly we are all parts again, and we don't get together anymore unless we really have to. This is what Miriam did in the family of Amram; only she was able to bring Amram and Yocheved together again, creating the possibility of Aharon and Moshe being born.
Miriam brings the well, Be'er. And this is the Biur, the understanding of Torah, the deeper understanding of life that emerges from low and dark places, and from which perspective you can suddenly see how things fit together. The sweetening of bitter waters is the achievment of a new, deeper and broader perspective.
Maybe Moshe's test here was to do what Miriam always did, to express her essential quality in this world, after she had gone to the other. The Talmud says that the well returned to the people in the merit of Moshe. He, too, has the capacity to sweeten water; but at this moment he is seeing things through his tears, and all he sees is a dry rock in the middle of a huge desert. But the secret of tears is: see the water coming from your (previously) dry eyes? A deeper understanding, a Torah, will come from this pain you're feeling. You're mourning, you feel there's no place for you in the world? Context will come, there is a place for you.
The Land of Israel is the wellspring of the world, and so it can hold so many opposing factions, landscapes, peoples. It is also the Biur - deeper understanding - of Exile. From the perspective of Eretz Yisrael we look out at the world, and we can finally understand what happened in those dark places we've been. In order to enter the Land, you have to learn the Torah of Miriam: how to sweeten waters, resolve dispute, hold all the different parts and see them as one family. You have to be Grandma.
Rav Ariel Burger
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Rav Ariel Burger received his ordination from Yeshivat Bat Ayin in 2003. He is currently completing his doctoral work at Boston University, where he studies under Professor Elie Weisel. Ariel lives in Sharon, Massachusetts with his wife and four children. |