This week 10 of us gathered for the siyyum for the Fast of the First Born. Those of us who are first born children are commanded to fast on the day before Passover in recognition of our gratitude that the Angel of Death passed over our houses in Egypt and spared our lives as first born children. Commanded, except, if we finish studying something, we are also commanded to celebrate the completion of that study, to have a siyyum. Now having a seder on an empty stomach is not a good idea, especially with four cups of wine….so we gathered. The congregation had not done one of these before and I had no idea who would show up. Most people are too frantically busy the morning before a seder. Finishing up chamatz, burning what remains, cooking, cleaning, cleaning, cooking. I like the Siyyum for the Fast of the First Born precisely because it forces me to take a break. It makes look at something in depth and it elevates my seder to another level. It is a great spiritual reward and a mark of people who are free, people who have time to study. It is a luxury. Tevye plays through my mind, “If I were rich I’d have the time that I lack to sit in the synagogue and pray…I’d discuss the learned books with the rabbis seven hours every day…that would be the sweetest gift of all.”
Like most years, I didn’t have time. I got up really early to finish preparing. We would be looking at the women of the Passover story. Yocheved, Miriam, Shifa, Puah, Batya and Zipporah. I divided the group into pairs so they could study in chevruta, with a friend. Each pair took some of the midrashim then presented them back to the group. There were good in depth conversations. I came away learning or relearning some things.
Some people believe that Shifra and Puah, the midwives, were Miriam and Yocheved. I would prefer them to stand on their own. The rabbis really wrestle with whether they are midwives to the Hebrews, in which case they could be Egyptian, or midwives of the Hebrews in which case they were Israelites. Either way they were righteous. Their civil disobedience at risk to their own lives saved the Jewish people.
Although the Bible doesn’t tell us, the rabbis named the daughter of Pharaoh Baya, G-d’s daughter. Again we see them uncomfortable with her not being an Israelite. They teach that she repudiated her father’s evil ways and that when she went down to the river to bathe she was really immersing in a natural mikveh in order to convert to Judaism. As someone who worked at Mayyim Hayyim the community mikveh in Boston, this idea of bathing as mikveh intrigues me, but I prefer to leave her as a righteous gentile. Why are we so afraid of the other? Why can’t we allow them to be who they are?

Miriam, for whom I am named, gets mixed reviews by the rabbis. She is one of seven women prophets. She is the one who according to midrash, brought her parents back together, rescued baby Moses, and found the nursemaid for him (the baby’s own mother Yocheved), She also was outspoken, together with her brother Aaron, rebuking Moses for his relationship with the Cushite woman. For this she was punished with a skin disease. Her name means “Bitter Waters” and water is central to her life. Whether it is acting as a midwife, following the ark along the Nile, singing at the Sea of Reeds or finding water in the wilderness, we gain life through her actions around precious water. Why then bitter? I think I prefer “Rebellious Waters” as Marsha Mirken teaches in her book, “Women who danced by the sea.”

Finally Zipporah, the wife of Moses, is the one who circumcized her own son, when it would appear Moses forgot or didn’t get around to it. There is a complex scene where the anticedents are not clear that talks about the bridegroom of blood. Whose the bridegroom,  Moses? their son? G-d? An anger? Again, however, we see the fate of the Jewish people in the hands, sometimes literally, in women who were not born as Israelites. These women have a very important role to play.

While people were studying in chevruta, male, female, young and older, I was reading some of my collection of Hagaddot. I learned two new things. First, perhaps another explanation of the Four Cups of Wine is that they represent the Four Matriarchs. This was not in one of the women’s hagaddot or a feminist one.

The other quote was by Rabbi Naamah Kelman, the first woman rabbi ordained in Israel. She teaches, “Many do not know that the very first “interfaith” gathering actually occurred long ago at the Nile when Miriam meets the daughter of Pharaoh and together they save the baby Moses from the decree of death. Defying their destinies and also the male establishments, the Egyptian Princess and the Hebrew slave-girl-destined-for-leadership find sisterhood and seek justice together. They choose to affirm life in the shadows of death and enslavement. These role models found in my ancient tradition have been re-activated in the early 21st century as women around the world are increasingly stepping out and rising up to activism and leadership….Like Miriam and the daughter of Pharaoh who joined hands and defied authority, we can set our people on a journey to freedom and justice.”

Even after studying the texts, I still have one big question. Moses does not appear in the traditional hagaddah. We are told not by an angel, not by a seraph, but by the Holy One alone, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm were the Israelites freed from Egypt. Elijah makes a bit appearance, as a hope for the future. As interesting as these women are I wonder whether they belong in the Hagaddah.

I am glad that we had the chance to study the texts in depth. Then I went home and burnt the remaining chamatz, In a snow flurry. Spring may come sometime.