What Ever Happened to Miriam?

Miriam is the sister of Moses. She is called a Prophet in Torah and associated with extraordinary events -- leading the dance of triumph at the Red Sea, for example. But in the entire Torah Miriam appears only three times. There is a powerful midrashic tradition around her, going all the way back to the Babylonian exile, and recently she has been taken up by feminists as a major inspiration. Miriam's well is the best known tradition, associating her with water, and now many include a cup for Miriam at Seders along with the one for Elijah.

The title is a question asked by the poet Alicia Ostriker, and the story is my response. The Miriam described here is, as the tradition demands, based on hints in Torah, though I know of no precedent for my imaginings. The speaker is entirely fanciful, but I have given him the name Hur, which appears a couple of times in the Exodus story.

At readings of this piece, I have been attacked for 'dragging contemporary issues into Torah.' In response I cite as what the midrashists call proof text, the injunction against 'a man lying with a man as with a woman' in Leviticus. If homosexuality did not exist in Torah times, why the injunction against it?

"Whatever Happened to Miriam" will appear in an anthology being edited by Enid Dame (Jason Aronson Press)

What Ever Happened to Miriam?

All those years, I never had the slightest idea she was his sister. When she first came into the studio, she was this gorgeous kid. Maybe 8, 9 years old. Pharaoh's daughter brought her in; said she found her down by the bulrushes or something. But Pharaoh's daughter was right to make her a dancer, because Miriam had fire and grace, and a body the Egyptians just love __ wide shoulders, tiny waist and turnout like you would not believe.

I wasn't much older, but I was already a star. My parents were both famous court dancers, so the Egyptians mated them, and I was the product. So they put Miriam with me, and we were fabulous. For eighteen years we danced for Pharaoh and the court, including Moses, thank you very much. They even tried to mate us, but you know me with women.

Then my knees went, so they put Miriam with a different partner and I was retired. I should have become a court choreographer or at least a teacher, but they told me what they tell all of us: "You Hebrews have great bodies and you're so instinctual, but somehow as a race, you just lack whatever it is that makes for leadership."

I was terrified that they would just throw me in a cage with their pet panther and watch him gorge on me __ they love watching dancers writhe in terror and agony. They think it's so graceful and tragic.

So, I started helping around the place, and turned myself into a house slave, but a fabulous house slave. I could follow orders to the hieroglyph! I mean, before they even knew they wanted it, I had it done.... I became Ak_Hot's personal slave __ yes, Ak_Hot, the chief of Pharaoh's secret police. What a queen! I loved it. I had the best of everything. So, when we got lost in the desert, I was definitely one of the ones who wanted to go back to the good old fleshpots of Egypt, especially after what happened to me and Miriam at the Red Sea.

You didn't know about that? Well, I have to go back a little ways before. I know, I know I don't have to tell you about Moses and Aaron and the plagues .... Everyone knows about that. So, I'll just go back to when we arrived at the Red Sea, on the Egyptian side, and I'm carrying all this gold that I

So, there we are at the big puddle without a paddle and chariots of death breathing down our backs, and I bump into Miriam after all those years. And we're hugging and screaming, and so delirious we don't even see Moses do his big number. And the next thing we know we're walking through the biggest aquarium you ever saw, with fish swimming right next to us, and Miriam is hysterical laughing because I'm ruining these fabulous sandals in the mud.

Well, we get to the other side, and she's telling me about all these dancers I hadn't seen in years. And then suddenly we hear this huge horrible sucking sound.... And we turn around and there's this tidal wave washing them all away -- Pharaoh and Ak-Hot and his whole entourage of Nubian sex slaves, just going down in the sea.

And we're like, beyond words or even sounds... so we just start dancing. But all anyone has for music is timbrels, not my favorite instrument, thank you very much. So tacky! But darling, you do with what you got. And we were hot! We are dancing like this is the performance of our lives and it was, because it was the first and only time in my entire slave life that I was dancing free, and I don't mean we weren't getting paid, I mean free like FREE!

And then Miriam starts singing, and that girl can sing... beyond gorgeous. So pretty soon everyone is singing and dancing, even Moses, stiff, oh my God, and out of tune, but he's singing, and trying to shake his bootie a little, and it's sort of pathetic but for once in his life for a nanosecond or two he's actually smiling. And those damn timbrels are clanging, but I barely even care.

So we were feeling free. But honey, feeling free is not the same as being free, and don't you forget it. Because right then, that soon, the weirdness starts. This gang of Hebrew men start moving through the crowd. Now remember, this was before we had Torah, before Sinai or anything. We were nothing but a ragtag mob of beaten down angry terrified just barely ex-slaves. And these guys coming at us were the most downtrodden of the downtrodden. Back in Egypt, they were brick layers or galley slaves, the lowest of the low; the ones who hated Egypt the most.

So they're moving through the crowd and I can tell something is going down, but it's still out at the fringes, and Miriam and I are at the hot center. Then I hear them singing Miriam's song in a totally different way, heavy and rowdy, like it's a marching song instead of this gutsy, get down shake it thing Miriam made up. And they're trying to drown us out, and pretty soon they do, because only women are singing.... Because that's what these galley slave enforcers are doing __ they're separating the sexes. And I just can't believe it. I mean, why?

And then it gets ugly and four or five of them start whaling on me, and screaming, "Die, Filth! Die, you abomination!" And they mean it, baby. They would have killed me, ... except for Miriam. She flies to Moses and she doesn't even talk. She grabs his right arm, and she throws it up in the air like that. Just raises his arm, and everything stops. Moses doesn't even know what's happening at first. And then, she's screaming and pointing at me, and he looks all humble, you know that look he has? And finally he signals the goons off.

But two of them still take me away, because the men are supposed to dance separate now. And while they're escorting me, one of them is screaming with total hate in his face that I should be dead, and the only reason I'm not dead is that Miriam is Moses' sister, and Moses is already selling out, because I am an abomination in they eyes of God. And I just give him one of my best Queen of the Nile looks and go, "Gorgeous, is abomination the only big word you know?" But look, he's not killing me, and I'm so relieved I'm thinking, 'Maybe there really is a God, and for once He's even on my side.'

And then it gets even more amazing. Miriam walks down from Moses, back to the women. And, Lord that woman can walk. I wish I could walk like that. And she picks up her timbrel and she starts to play... and it sounds beautiful! In that instant it's my favorite instrument in the whole world. And then she starts to move, and I'm thinking, "Where did this come from? This is outrageous! This is like God moving" __ no fear, no time, no space, no gravity. Only light and music and pure pure energy. And then one tall old woman with nothing to lose starts dancing with Miriam, and then her daughter joins her, and then some young ones, and then a lot of women, join Miriam. And then she sings just a couple of lines, but so beautiful, and so free, it drowns out the men. No, not loud, it's soft, but like inside your mind, it's big... soft but big. And it fills every ear, and even the men stop. You know, don't tell anyone I said this, but in that moment I realized God's voice is Miriam's voice! That's why Moses listens to her. And that's why they keep her away from him now. .... Anyway, that's what I think, but what do I know? I'm just an abomination, baby.

So Miriam and the women are dancing, and Miriam is singing, just this couple of lines. Don't ask me to sing, but the words are, "Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea." But the way she sings it, it's not only about what just happened. It's about all the horses and drivers who hold us down, then and now and forever. And it's a prophecy, baby, and she's singing it right in the faces of the goons and the priests and the rabbis and the witch hunters and puritans and the KGB and the KKK, and the FBI and the small town bigots and big city bullies and the Haredim and Evangelicals and all the haters for all time. And they all hear it and they are all there right between us and the sea and they are scared, baby, scared, because this is prophecy, boys and girls, this is truth. You too, into the Sea! And it's the most beautiful and terrifying thing you or I or anyone will ever ever see.

And then they all get exhausted and die down, but Miriam keeps spinning and singing and singing and spinning, and I swear there was a light from Heaven shining straight down on her or up from her, and then she just dropped, and everyone and I stopped breathing. Except her, she was breathing real peaceful and light.

And then one of the enforcers, one of the worst, starts moving in on Miriam, and then a couple more, but slowly, like even they weren't sure. And the women saw, and they gathered around Miriam and took her away and I didn't see her for weeks.

So now here we are in the wasteland with manna __ oh, how I miss the cucumbers of Egypt! And these sandals, which do not do desert, thank you very much. But they're holding up. You know, you buy good stuff....

How am I? Honey, I am a survivor! There are no closets in the desert, but I have made one for myself. I mean check out these side curls. And when did I ever get to wear fringes in Egypt?

Miriam? Like I said, they keep her away from Moses, but I think she can still reach him... and God. During the day we stay away from each other, it's just not safe. But late at night we hang together outside the camp, with the camp followers __ the non_Hebrews, the intermarried, the unclean and all. They've got some nice scenes out there __ even a couple of gay tents. And guess who, of course, shows up sometimes? One of those hunks who whaled on me. I love it!

So here we are, baby, out of Egypt. But free? Hah! Honey, for me and Miriam it's gonna be a long time!

© Arthur Strimling