22 Jun PARSHAS CHUKAS: THE DEATH OF MIRIAM – CLOSURE, BUT NO TEARS

This week’s parsha
contains the deaths of
two out of the three
great shepherds of
Israel. The trustworthy
shepherds who had
shepherded Klal
Yisrael through the
latter part of their time in Egypt and now
through the Wilderness were the three children
of Amram and Yocheved — Miriam, Aharon,
and Moshe. In this week’s parsha, both Miriam
[Bamidbar 20:1] and Aharon [Bamidbar
20:28] die.
In connection with Miriam’s death, the Torah
uses a peculiar language: “She died there and
was buried there.” What is the pasuk trying to
tell us with this apparent redundancy?
The Torah is contrasting Miriam’s death with
that of her brothers. Later in the parsha, when
Aharon died, Moshe, Aharon, and Elazar
ascended the mountain but only Moshe and
Elazar came down from the mountain. No one
was aware of exactly when Aharon died or
how he died. The people were merely informed
that “Aharon is dead.”
Everyone knew that Moshe Rabbeinu was
about to die, but nevertheless — as the Torah
tells us at the end of Zos HaBracha — no one

was aware of where he died and in fact until
today, we do not know where he is buried.
However, Miriam died THERE and was
buried THERE. People knew when she died,
where she died and where she was buried.
What is the point of all this?
Rav Zalman Sorotzkin makes a very interesting
observation: When Aharon died the pasuk
says, “The entire House of Israel mourned
him” [Bamidbar 20:29]. Chazal point out that
when Aharon died, there seems to have been
an even greater mourning than there was over
the death of Moshe Rabbeinu. Nevertheless,
the Torah does mention that when Moshe
Rabbeinu died, the people mourned his loss as
well [Devorim 34:8]. However concerning
Miriam’s death, the Torah only says that she
died and was buried. There is no reference to
any public mourning. Rav Zalman Sorotzkin
asks: Why not?
Rav Zalman Sorotzkin answers that all three
of the “shepherds” lived very long lives. At
this point in history, people usually did not live
120 years. The normal situation is that when
older people die and they have lived a long and
fruitful life, there is not such profound
mourning. Whether this is appropriate or not,
most people do not view the passing of an
elderly person as a tragedy. Such funerals are

usually not overly emotional or marked with a
great deal of public crying, certainly not
beyond the immediate family members.
This is what happened with Miriam. People
were aware that she was going to die, they saw
her die, and they saw where she was buried.
There was emotional closure.
When Aharon died, that was a tremendous
shock. One day he was here, the next day he
was gone. There was no opportunity to share
any last thoughts. He went up the mountain
with his brother and son and the two of them
came back and announced, “Aharon is dead.”
There was no opportunity to close things off
and say goodbye.
When someone — even when he is old — is
taken away from us like that, it is a shock and
therefore there is public mourning.
In the case of Moshe, people knew he was
going to die. He came to them and gave them
his final blessings and charge. The people said
goodbye to him. But to not be able to go to his
gravesite — or even to know where he was
buried — that was hard to handle. People were
traumatized by the fact that they had not been
able to participate in the funeral of their great
leader or would not ever visit his kever. This
trauma led to tears and strong emotion,
regardless of the advanced age of Moshe at the

time of his death.
Miriam was an old woman who lived an
illustrious life. People knew she died. They
knew where she was buried. Spiritual people
realize the great tragedy in the death of any
righteous person, and from that perspective
Miriam’s death was certainly worthy of great
mourning. But for the average person, there
was closure and consequently there was no
great outpouring of emotion from the masses
upon the death of Miriam.