Miriam’s Song
On Shabbat we unpack
Abraham’s lech lecha luggage
Jacob’s deceiving goats and look alike wives
Pyramid making bricks, matzah
But on Shabbat Ha-Shirah it’s as if all our questions
Have bells around their ankles
And we follow their ringing all the way back to the shore
Why is it called Miriam’s song?
Because
Miriam was there when her brother was born,
She began to sing when she saw the midwives’ hands
Hesitate, decide, descend,
To cover his mouth
To snuff out his life
To end our journey before it began.
She sang,
“Who is like You, O G-d, who is worshipped among the gods?”
Until Puah and Shifra were filled with fear and let the boys live.
When did she learn the words?
As her feet sank into the river bank mud
And Moses’ fate floated on the current.
She found the words among the reeds
When the maids ‘drew him out of the water’,
“Who is like You…working miracles.”
And when did she teach the people her song?
After the frogs but before the sea
Over cook stoves and near wells
Between conception, labor, and nursing,
While cradling children and men
Hope and redemption,
In thin, sweet threads of song
Binding her people and tugging them softly toward freedom.
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