It’s a phrase I grew up on. It was definitely one of those lines that we had to memorize.
Like it was on the board the whole month of Nissan.
With age, comes appreciation for the lines of Chazal we were taught at a young age. As I develop on my growth journey, I become more and more connected to this Chazal.
One thing I’ve learned in Chassidus is that beginnings and ends are connected.
Long process towards actualization
Our Tzadikim teach us that the neshamos that were there in Mitzrayim, the first period of galus, are the same neshamos that are in today’s generation. Mitzrayim being the first of galiyos can then be viewed as a case study for all future exiles. It’s galus math. Learn what got us out then and then recreate it when you feel like you are in exile. Sounds simple. I just got the “cheat sheet.”
So what did get us out of Galus Mitzrayim? We were so low.forty-ninth level of tumah. Mitzrayim is the epitome of slavery. Whether it was physical or mental, Pharoh knew what he was doing. He got to us and made us think we never wanted to leave. Now let’s go back to that Chazal: B’zechus nashim tzidkaniyos nigaluh avoseinu m’Mitzrayim. But here’s the ending – in the same zechus-ASIDIN L’HIGAEL- and in the merit of the righteous Jewish Women of this generation we will also once again be redeemed.
So here is the cheat sheet
It’s going to be the women once again!
What’s the significance of the women in Mitzrayim?
Ain shum yeiush – they never gave up not for one seconddddd
In the fields greeting their husbands, by putting on makeup and coming out with the mirrors.
Still giving birth to babies even if they thought they were going to be killed.
And probably the key figure in this story is MIRIAM. Miriam prophesied at a young age that her parents were going to have a baby that would be the leader of the Jewish people. When the world was in a state of divorce. When families were separated and broken.
Miriam got her parents back together and then waited by the water to see what would happen to Moshe. The shame and embarrassment she felt all the years that Moshe was in the palace far from being a leader – but we know, that Miriam was just waiting.
She had patience and emunah in Hashem in the darkest most difficult period the Jewish People ever had yet to experience.
And here she is waiting with her drums and tambourine.
The name Miriam comes from mirirus – bitterness, but also meri – which means to rebel.
Miriam was the ultimate rebel – she took her bitterness and her sadness that she was experiencing in her galus and she used it as a weapon to get everyone out of their personal exiles.
She didn’t sit back for one second. The fact that the Torah records her sitting there waiting by the water and then the description of Miriam taking her drums and her tambourine – its “sof maaseh b`machshava tichila.” It came to fruition then – that’s why the Torah called her neviyah – at that moment she was crowned as one of the shivah neviyos.
sheva sefiros
7 prophetesses, 7 sefiros. Miriam represents the middah of gevurah – of inner strength. Being able to withstand the galus, the difficult times, Miriam epitomized this middah of strength to withstand the hopelessness. Miriam understood the dance of galus. Galus isn’t just OMG Hashem’is not here, the lights are off. Galus is a dance. It’is the space Hashem created when he wanted to interact with this world. Hashem created the world with chessed. But in order to interact with it and bring some excitement, it says Hashem laughed and He created the world. That laugh, that Tzechok was the enzyme of Gevurah. A seemingly dark time that just causes you to dance around and find the light. Each time galus comes to us, we get frightened – OMG, where is Hashem in this moment?? We cry out and we feel pain, and we feel the pain of others and we daven and cry…But what Miriam was teaches us here and is the lesson for all future generations: it’s not that Hashem is not here. He’s right here. He’s in the darkness with you. He is making space for interaction
sheva neviyos
Miriam who embodies gevurah was stuck in the meitzer of Mitzrayim – which was like this tight circle they were trapped in. She needed a way to figure out how to break free from that circle, so she connected the lines, found her emunah, and with her bitachon knew it would come true. She took action to see that it came through. Getting her parents remarried, watching over Moshe, packing her drums and tambourines – and then making her circle with the women and dancing with them at the time of Kriyas Yam Suf.
She didn’t remain in the reality of darkness, she knew it was a dance.
She knew she needed to convince the women and the men that there would be wondrous days, when everyone would see and know Hashem-
She was a neviyah – the capacity of nevuah comes from the Koach Hadimiyon: the imaginative faculty. To see beyond the concrete reality. To believe and to imagine a way out. A way that’is greater – to be able to go to another place beyond the darkness of Mitzrayim.
Miriam haneviyah.
A gevurahdika prophetesses
One that comes with mirrirus and meri-
Rebelliousness to speak up to her parent, to have almost a chutzpah to tell this to her parents, to sit by the water and to daven, to cry out from her bitterness – merrirus.
But not for one second to lose sight of the dream, of her first nevuah she had when she was just a little girl – that her baby brother will be the leader of the Jewish people.
Binah Yesairah
Binah Yeseirah – was granted to women.
Vayiven Chavah – when Hashem first created Chavah, it says “Vayiven Chava” – that Hashem built her – instilled in her binah yeseirah – the ability to discern, to see through the lines-
To read between the lines-
To see the concealed good in everything-
To be able to understand that there is something so much deeper happening-
The koach of binah is a feminine trait instilled in the first woman created and passed on to to all women throughout the generation.
B’zechus Nashim Tzikanoyos…..
In the merit of the righteous Jewish women of this generation we will be redeemed-
Hold on to the koach of Miriam, the neviyah, with the koach of gevurah and binah yeseira to draw our nation out of galus.
By tapping into the inner binah of ourselves and imagining the world in its complete glory, with Hashem’s Shechinah fully present.
Asidin L’higael…..
This article was found in Nekuda Tova Issue 31 Special Pesach.