Rise up, O Well

 

This week’s Torah reading begins with the detailed procedure for purification from corpse contamination—a rather technical matter. But this section is then followed by a number of historical recitations and even two pieces of ancient Hebrew poetry. The second of these, known as the “Song of the Well,” is particularly mysterious. After the Israelites arrive in the land of Moab, the Torah reports that they sang the following song:

 

 “Rise up, O Well,” sing about it,

the well that the chieftains dug,

the one that the noblemen opened,

With their staves as it was decreed.”

 

The incident referred to in this brief snippet is quite unknown today, but  presumably it was connected to some famous discovery of a source of water in the arid territories of Edom or Moab, said to have been crossed by the Israelites on their way to the land of Canaan. But this song ultimately came to be connected to a particular person, someone not even mentioned by name in it: Moses’ sister Miriam.

 

It all started back in the book of Exodus—in fact, right after the actual exodus from Egypt. The people were in need of water, so God instructed Moses to strike a certain rock with his staff, which he did. Immediately, the rock flowed with water. Forty years later, in this week’s Torah reading, the same thing happens again: Moses goes with Aaron and again strikes a certain rock, and again the water flows.

 

It certainly seemed strange that there were two water-giving rocks, in two different places and separated by forty years! Thinking about this, interpreters concluded that there were not two water-giving rocks, but only one single rock, and it must have followed the Israelites throughout their forty years of wandering. That’s why they never ran out of water. Moses and Aaron must have repeatedly struck the rock during that whole time, and it had always supplied the people with plenty to drink. In fact, this is what our reading’s song seemed to be hinting at: the rock was “the well that the chieftains dug”—that is, that Moses and Aaron had dug—“with their staves, as it was decreed.”

 

But if so, why was it connected to Miriam? The answer is found a bit earlier in this week’s reading. There it is reported that Miriam died (Numbers 20:1). Immediately thereafter, the Torah reports that the people ran out of water to drink. Naturally, ancient interpreters wondered if these two happenings were related. If, as long as Miriam was alive, there had been plenty of drinking water, but as soon as she died the water ran dry. The ongoing supply must have been delivered because of Miriam’s many virtues. As soon as she was no more, the divine spigot was closed.

 

It may have been Moses and Aaron who physically struck the rock (and not altogether properly on the last occasion, as this week’s reading seems to imply). But the water actually came from the rock because of the virtuous Miriam. Once she had died, her merit could no longer bring about this ongoing miracle, and the water stopped.

 

Shabbat shalom!