In what would become one of history’s great ironies, Pharaoh’s own daughter found the floating baby as she was bathing in the Nile. Moved with compassion, she disobeyed her father’s decree and saved him, knowing full well that he was of Hebrew stock. “She opened [the basket], and she saw…the child, and behold, he was a weeping lad, and she had compassion on him, and she said, ‘this is a Hebrew’s child’” (Shemos 2:6). Moreover, at Miriam’s recommendation she hired a Hebrew wet nurse – Yocheved – to feed and care for the lad. After some time, she brought him back to Pharaoh’s daughter, who adopted him as her son and raised him in the royal palace.
The fact that Miriam mustered up the temerity to approach the king’s daughter, particularly a child of a monarch who was clearly invested in the enslavement and subjugation of her people, is yet another indication that she put others and their needs in front of her own.
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The Torah tells little of Miriam’s life for the next eight decades – the harshest and most oppressive years of the Jewish enslavement. For that matter, we hear next to nothing about any of that generation’s leaders until the redemption drew near. Jewish tradition does, however, tell us that Miriam remained a continued source of inspiration to other Jewish women in particular, encouraging them to bear additional offspring in the midst of hardship and pain.
By adhering faithfully to her vision of a brighter future, she infused her generation with deep trust in the coming redemption, to the point where they were prepared to bring a new generation of Israelite children into an otherwise intolerable situation.
Actually, it was not only the Hebrew women who required a healthy dose of Miriam’s encouragement. The men were generally not inclined toward propagation either, due in large part to their sheer exhaustion after a full day of harsh labor. The midrash relates that their wives used copper mirrors to adorn themselves and also stimulate their husbands’ interest in intimacy, with great results. So central were these mirrors in achieving the holy outcome of bringing children into the world that they became worthy to be contributed as materials for the tabernacle that the Jews would later build in the desert.
Miriam’s inspiration to others manifested in other ways as well. Because of her unflappable faith, countless other women managed to think beyond their bitter reality and prepare for a brighter future filled with song and joy.
Miriam the prophetess…took the tambourine in her hand. And all the women followed her with tambourines and dances (Shemos 15:20). How did the women of this generation know to take tambourines out of Egypt, when there was barely enough time to take food? The righteous women of the generation were certain that God would perform miracles in the desert, so they brought the tambourines out of Egypt. [Rashi, ibid]
As one might expect, Miriam’s deep care for others sometimes got her into trouble. In one instance, she initiated a critical dialogue with her brother Aharon about Moshe and his wife Zipporah. She condemned her youngest brother for abstaining from intimacy with his wife in order to maintain the requisite standard of holiness needed to receive prophecy. Prophecy was a regular but unpredictable occurrence for the Jewish leader, forcing him to be ready at all times. Miriam argued that she and Aharon were also prophets, yet they retained a normative standard of living with their spouses.
For her undue criticism of Moshe, Miriam was afflicted with a special skin condition. She was cured following his prayer on her behalf. Because of her greatness, the entire nation remained encamped at that locale for seven days until she was again fit to travel.
