In this week's Torah reading both Miriam and Aharon die. Despite the difference in the description of their deaths, Rashi, quoting the Babylonian Talmud (Mo'ed Katan, 28a), teaches us that she too was among the seven that died 'al pi Hashem' / by the mouth of God. This is considered to be the highest form of death, the easiest death. It is a death in which the image that is offered is that God, so-to-speak, inhales into God's-self the last breath of the person, as they exhale. The reason this isn't expressed explicitly in the verse (Bamidbar/Numbers 20:1), why it doesn't say 'al pi Hashem' regarding Miriam's death, Rashi quotes for us, is that it isn't respectful to say that God kissed a woman. The anthropomorphic and gender layers of this reading scream out to us to redeem all the components of this Talmudic segment.
Unless you are aware of the biography of the Piastzna Rebbe (Reb Klonimus Kalman Shapiro, 1888-1943) you may think it interesting that it is a Chassidic Rebbe that challenges the integrity of the Talmud. In his teaching's on parashat Chukat, that he taught in the Warsaw ghetto, published in his known commentary, The Aish Kodesh, he poses this challenge based on an earlier question that he raises.
His first question is based on the Babylonian Talmud (Ta'anit 9a), that Rashi also quotes in our parasha, as to the connection between Miriam's death and the lack of water that the children of Israel are plagued with:
"Then came the children of Yisrael, the whole congregation, abode in Kadesh, and Miriam died there, and was buried there. And there was no water for the congregation..." (Bamidbar/Numbers 20:1-2)
The Talmud teaches us that the reason these two versus are adjacent to each other is because the well was in Miriam's merit, and with her death the well dried up. Elsewhere we are taught that there were three gifts that sustained us in the desert: the manna in Moshe's merit, the clouds of glory in Aharon's merit, and the well in Miriam's merit.
In his humbleness the Piasetzna Rebbe says that we have no way to understand the greatness of such a tzadeket / righteous woman like Miriam, but non-the-less, he aspires to understand what does this connection between Miriam and the well come to hint to us.
The paradigm that he introduces is one that I remember shedding many words (and even some tears) over in my high school years. It is the teaching of Rabbi Chanina in the Babylonian Talmud (Bava Kama 38b): "Greater is the one that is commanded and fulfills the commandment then the one that is not commanded and fulfills the commandment". It always seemed to me that when an intention, followed by an action, comes from within one's own personal drive it surpasses an external commandment / obligation. Tosafot, Rashi's grandchildren, (Babylonian Talmud, Kiddushin 31a), suggest that the reason for Rabbi Chanina's statement is that the commanded person will be even more careful in the fulfillment of the commandment due to their concern to correctly fulfill their obligation. From here we can derive that seemingly, when the obligation comes from within then there lies the danger of laxness, since the volunteer is the sole authority behind the deed.
When challenging this opinion as often presented by my teachers, and as adopted throughout the Halacha, I would suggest a perspective drawing on altruism, self-sacrifice, intimacy as ways to contest this opinion.
I didn't know that I could quote the Babylonian Talmud (Gittin 20a) that teaches us that 'the reward for a mitzvah is the reward for a mitzvah' even when the person was not obligated from the outset to perform it. I also didn't know that I could quote the Piasetzna Rebbe...
First he clarifies that it is hard to understand the Talmud, as brought by Rashi, since clearly we are not talking about a physical kiss! Clearly we can't say it isn't God's glory, 'kavod shel ma'alah' to say that God kissed her, since we aren't talking about a corporeal kiss at all! It is here that the Piasetzna Rebbe will follow the practice of many before him and offer an interpretation on Rashi himself. Based on his father's teachings, the Piasetzna Rebbe suggests that 'kavod shel ma'alah' means glory that was commanded from above, and Miriam represents the voice, and actions, of those that are not commanded and nonetheless set out to fulfill God's commandments. Therefore the verse can't say 'al pi Hashem' / by the mouth of God, because the generator of her actions was internal, and did not come as a commandment from above!
It is for this reason we can now understand the relationship between Miriam and the well, since the well is perceived as a self-generated, self-contained source of water. Miriam is the well, and when she dies, the well dies with her.
The last question left for us to solve is what drives the Piasetzna Rebbe to contest such a broadly accepted halachic paradigm, "Greater is the one that is commanded and fulfills the commandment then one that is not commanded and non-the-less fulfills the commandment". What demands of him to voice the voice of those that generate from within themselves their desire to serve God, to go beyond what they were commanded to do?
His love and respect to his wife seems to be the key to this puzzle. The Piasetzna's wife, Miriam, was known for her piety and rabbinic scholarship. It is told that she would learn Torah four hours every day. It is told that once someone sent the Rebbe a question that he began to answer before he had to leave the house. When he came back home the responsa had been completed by his wife Miriam. The source of this story has shared that you can see the shift in the handwriting mid responsa. It begs to be understood that since the tzadeket / the righteous woman Miriam Shapiro of Piasetzna left the world this week, seventy years ago, the 10th of tamuz 1939, Shabbat parashat chukat, she is the prototype for the Miriam that the Piasetzna Rebbe see's in Miriam, Moshe and Aharon's sister. He sees the reflection of both Miriam's in Miriam-the-prophetess's well. The well that his wife Miriam revived through her Torah study.
May we follow in the footsteps of Yitzchak who dug up the dried up wells of his father Avraham. May we follow in the footsteps of Miriam Shapiro (of blessed memory) and in our Torah study dig up the well of Miriam the prophetess. And may we too merit, at the end our days, to return our souls to God with a kiss.
Shabbat Shalom