Tucked into Parshat Masei, after the recounting of the many places to which the Israelites traveled in their forty-year sojourn, in Numbers 33:38, the Torah offers a new detail about Aaron’s death not included in the earlier narrative in Numbers 20. Here, the Torah tells us that Aaron died at God’s word—“al pi Hashem”—a phrase the Torah only uses twice to describe death, here and in recording Moses’s death (Deuteronomy 34:5). In both places, Rashi glosses that the phrase indicates that they each died by a divine kiss. Interestingly, in his comment on the single verse that records Miriam’s death (Numbers 20:1), which does not include the phrase “al pi Hashem,” Rashi tells us that Miriam also died by a kiss from God.
What does it mean to die by “al pi Hashem?” How does Rashi know that this phrase refers to “a kiss”? And what is a divine kiss? The Talmud in Berakhot 8a teaches that there are 903 kinds of death, the easiest of which is a kiss, likened to pulling a strand of hair from milk. Who merits such a death? The Talmud in Bava Batra 17a teaches that there were six people over whom the angel of death had no power, including Moses and Aaron, the proof of which is the Torah’s use of the phrase “al pi Hashem” in recounting their deaths. Rashi connects these two talmudic sections by explaining that Moses and Aaron died by a kiss from God.
The other four biblical characters who also were not subject to death by the angel of death were the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob–to whom every honor was given, which must therefore include the honor of easy death—and Miriam. The Gemara in Bava Batra does a double take: Wait. Miriam? The Torah does not say that she died “al pi Hashem!” What is she doing on this list? Rabbi Elazar answers with a verbal analogy, a gezera shavah: We know that Miriam also died “al pi Hashem” because of the Torah’s otherwise-extraneous “there” (sham) in Numbers 20:1, the very brief report of Miriam’s death, and the same word as it appears in the report of Moses’ death in Deuteronomy 34:5. And why does the Torah not say that she died “al pi Hashem?” Because it would be inappropriate to say that God kissed a woman. Nevertheless, the rabbis provide a textual proof to support their claim that Miriam the prophetess, the sole female leader of the Jewish people alongside her brothers, merited the most honorable, most rare, and easiest death the rabbis could imagine.
Rashi transmits the rabbinic claim that Miriam died by a divine kiss in his Torah commentary, and includes the talmudic note that the Torah does not make this explicit because it would not be respectful to God. He notes that the Torah does say “al pi Hashem” regarding Aaron’s death, referring to the phrase in Parshat Masei. But in his first comment on Miriam’s death, echoing the Talmud in Moed Katan 28a, Rashi asks why her death is juxtaposed to the mitzvah of the red heifer, the means of purification from corpse impurity. He answers that just as sacrifices (like the red heifer) offer atonement, so too the deaths of the righteous offer atonement. Putting aside the complexity of the idea that the deaths of the righteous offer atonement, how does Rashi know that Miriam was righteous?
Scattered throughout rabbinic literature, in the rabbis’ interpretations of the verses that mentioned Miriam, the rabbis offered at least a few ways of establishing that Miriam was a tzadika, a righteous woman. A third-century midrash, the Mekhilta, at the very end of its commentary on the Song at the Sea on Exodus 15:20, explains that the women, led by Miriam, had such faith that God would work miracles for them that they readied their timbrels and drums before they left Egypt to accompany their songs of praise and thanks. Earlier in its commentary on the same verse, the Mekhilta accounts for why Miriam is called the “sister of Aaron.” It explains that she was a prophetess even before Moses was born, foretelling that her parents would have another son who would redeem Israel, and watching over him—continuing to prophesy—ensuring his safety and facilitating his adoption into Pharaoh’s house.
Even though the Torah does not record that the people mourned Miriam’s loss, there is yet another way to know that the people felt her loss—in their thirst. Immediately upon her death, near the end of the forty-year sojourn, the people clamor for water. From the juxtaposition of Miriam’s death and the people’s demands for water, the Talmud in Taanit 9a teaches that it was in Miriam’s merit that God provided the well that traveled with the people through the desert. In other words, Miriam was essential to sustaining the nation both spiritually and physically: spiritually—by modeling her faith in God’s promise to deliver them to the promised land, and physically—because water was provided in her merit. In other words, the fatal leadership error that results in God’s decision that Moses and Aaron will not lead the Israelites into the land is the direct result of her loss. Were it not for the loss of her merit, co-leadership, and faith in God’s promise, it is easy to imagine that Moses and Aaron would never have disobeyed God’s word in striking the rock in the wake of her death.
It is undeniable that the Torah grants far more credit and recognition to Moses and Aaron’s leadership. However, through their interpretations of the Torah’s mentions of Miriam’s initiative, the rabbis recognize her role as a leader of the Jewish people shoulder-to-shoulder with her brothers, both during their lives, and in all their very best deaths by a divine kiss.
