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18 Jun PARSHAS BEHAALOSCHA: PAYBACK TIME COMES YEARS LATER
Miriam’s Act of
Patience: Payback
Time Comes Years
Later
When Miriam the
prophetess was afflicted with
Tza’raas, she was required to
remain outside the camp, per the
prescribed procedure. During the
time, the nation did not proceed on
their journey. Picture the scene…
There were some 2 million people
anxious to travel, but they were told
that they could not go. They had to
wait until Miriam was healed.
Rashi [Bamidbar 12:15] explains
that this was the reward that G-d
gave to Miriam for waiting a brief
moment to ensure the welfare of her
brother Moshe when he was floating
in a basket as an infant on the Nile
River. This was her payback for
standing in the reeds to see what
would happen to Moshe. Now the
entire Jewish Nation would stand
and wait for her.
Why did Miriam receive this
reward now? Why was this the
appropriate time for the Jews to
show their appreciation to Miriam?
This was the proper time to show
appreciation to Miriam, because
this was the time when they were
finally able to retroactively
understand what her “small” action
accomplished. In this week’s
parsha, the Torah elaborates about
Moshe Rabbeinu. “With him I
speak face to face, in a vision not
containing allegory, so that he sees
a true picture of G-d…” [Bamidbar
12:8]. Moshe’s relationship with
G-d was different than the
relationship that any other prophet
had with G-d.
As a result of this
insight regarding
Moshe, we have a
new appreciation of
that which Miriam
accomplished. She
may have waited for
a little baby floating
in the Nile. At the
time, everyone
considered it to be a
‘nice act’. But at the time it seemed
like a very small and seemingly
inconsequential act. It was only
many years later – over 80 years
later, that they could understand and
truly appreciate that act of patience.
Therefore, this was payback time.
We can extrapolate from this
incident in the Torah to life in
general. While certain events in life
are occurring, we often do not have
an appreciation of their import and
significance. However, often we
can look back decades later and say,
“That is when it all began” or “That
is when it all ended”. Years later, we
can point back to a date and a time
in history and say, “That is it! That
is the red letter date!”