It’s Forbidden to Submit to Pharaoh – Rabbi Eliezer Berland Shlit”a

MIRIAM THE PROPHETESS, A POWERFUL FIGURE AND SYMBOL OF HEROISM, BRAVELY STOOD AGAINST PHARAOH AND HIS CRUEL WAYS.  THROUGH BRAVE ACTIONS WHICH VIOLATED EVERY LAW AND DECREE, SHE SUCCEEDED IN PROTECTING THE LIVES OF THE CHILDREN, TO OVERCOME HIS HARSH DECREES AND TO BRING HER PEOPLE TO A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE.  IN THE WORDS OF MOREINU HARAV ELIEZER BERLAND SHLIT”A, WE WILL DELVE INTO HER FASCINATING STORY, EXAMINE HER COURAGEOUS DECISIONS, AND REVEAL HOW SHE INFLUENCED ALL HISTORY.

SHIUR THAT WAS GIVEN AFTER MAARIV:

Miriam the Prophetess violated all the laws.  She didn’t keep any law!  [With] all the laws that they made, she violated all the laws.  She was impudent towards the king.  King Pharaoh was a king of “justice,” a king of “integrity” – the most honest king in the world…  She didn’t listen to any of his laws.

He said, “When you see them on the birthstool” – the main thing is the birthstool, “if it is a son, kill him.”  You need to put all the sons to death, not to leave any boy.  They did the opposite!  Even if the child was born with a blemish – half-blind, half-deaf – they would heal all the children.  Not just that they didn’t suffocate them like the king said.

The king said that at the time of childbirth, say that the child suffocated, a technical problem.  No!  No technical problem – they caused the boys to live!  The king said to them: “Now I’m sending out to kill you!  From today, every day!  Today, at night, at 12 at night exactly, they’ll come from the prosecutor’s office, a commando will come from the central police unit.  Know that they will eliminate you!  Tonight, say Kaddish, say vidui (confession), go to some rabbi to confess before him and try to make a good confession, because this night, at exactly 12:00, they’ll enter your house, tear off the locks!

They see that they turned into benches, tables!  She and Yocheved one day were benches, one day were tables, one day were decorations, chandeliers, neon lights.  Every day they turned into something else – so it was for over a course of eighty years!  And three years and four months before Moshe was born, the astrologers already said to Pharaoh, “Know that this is your end.  In another three years and four months, a child will be born [that] will hang you from the sidecurls on a fifty cubit high tree.

Listen to this!  He said, “Every boy that is born throw him into the river, and every girl allow to live.”  Even the Egyptians!  The English, French – everyone, throw it into the rive – everyone!  Because they said to him, “Now he is being born, this second.”  Everything was exact to the second!  On the fractions, fractions of seconds.  They said, “Now he is being born.  Put out an order to throw all the boys into the river.”  70,000 children were tossed [into the river] at that moment, snatched from their mothers’ hands.

Therefore, Amram said: “There’s nothing [else] to do.  A person needs to put down his head.” --  “Every single wave, I nodded my head to him” (Rabbi Akiva).  A person needs to put down his head, we need to put down our heads!”  Miriam said: “What are you talking about, to bow your head?!  What nonsense.  There’s no Pharaoh here, and there’s no decrees here.   Nothing exists here!  This is just your imagination.  This is our transgressions.  Pharaoh is our transgressions!  He doesn’t even exist!  He doesn’t exist in the world – he has no existence.  We are doing teshuva (repentance).”

Immediately she said: ”Aba, go back to Yocheved, go back to Ema!”

“But they’ll throw the son into the river in the end!”

“Return to Ema.  Do what I tell you.  Go back to Ema immediately!  I’m warning you!”  She was a tiny little girl, three and half.  Very, very small, so short.  She said: “I’m bringing back Ema.  Nothing makes any difference to me!”

What happened in the end?  Thy also threw Moshe into the river!  Aba gave her two such slaps that were the matter of “her father spit in her face” – he also spit in her face.  “You said to bring back Ema – see what has been done!”  The she went and hid in the reeds.  Yocheved gave birth to the child three months early, because [the Egyptians] knew that she was pregnant then.  They counted nine months.  She gave birth three months earlier.

Then Eldad and Medad were born.  They were the brothers of Moshe, Aharon, and Miriam – also the brothers of Aharon, also the brothers of Miriam, also the brothers of Moshe.  They were brothers.   In the end they received prophecies.  Every minute they were prophesizing.  Then they said, “Moshe is dead.”  Miriam fainted on the spot, had a stroke.  “What, my brother will die??  What should we do, how shall we proceed?  Ah… because he took a Cushite woman.  Why specifically a Cushite?”  A Cushite is the best.  There’s nothing better than a Cushite.

But why did Moshe take a Cushite woman?  Moshe insisted only on a Cushite.  Miriam went crazy, said: “Now he’s going to die on me?  Oy vavoi to me!”  Then she was “a metzorah like snow.”  Because they talked about Moshe.  Moshe is holy of holies!  Even the slightest thought is forbidden.  She had the slightest thought – how to save her brother.

Because they said “Moshe is dead.”  Therefore, the spies didn’t want to enter the Land.  Because they ascended, “Rechov Lavo Chamat” – the initial letters of which are “Rachel.”  But they went “Latur Et HaAretz (to spy out the land)” [the initial letters of which are “Leah.”]  Because the Land of Canaan is [opposite] Rachel, the Land of Israel is [opposite] Leah.  All of our work is to turn the Land of Israel from Rachel to Leah.  Then Moshe said, “You are going now to the Land of Canaan.  Turn it into the Land of Israel!”  But they feared that if they enter the Land of Israel, they would fire them.  In the end they fired all of them.  There was Baki ben Yagli, who was baki (expert) in all of Shas.  Elitzaphan ben Parnach was the father of Eldad and Medad.  They took new [tribal] princes.  Confused their language until their navels!  Everything brought up worms, worms, worms.  Therefore 17 Elul is the yahrzeit.  17 Elul, you need to guard it very carefully to light candles.  Another two months, then there will be the most important yahrzeit in the world.  In the fifth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth day.  Today is 5 Tammuz.  We see the workings of the Chariot – “The heavens opened and I saw visions of G-d” [initial letters: Emunah (faith) – Rebbe Nachman].  Today everyone merits to the revelation of the Chariot!