The Women Behind Moses_ Miriam and Tzipora

Y'all know behind every great man is a greater woman or great woman now how that even includes the likes of Moses himself Miriam the sister of Moses and one of the seven female prophetesses in the Bible and not only saved his life putting him in a basket in the Nile but also led the Israelites in song as They crossed the Red Sea plus Sephora Moses's wife who herself was a Midianite a great spiritual leader Maya Margit is here with more to talk about these fantastic ladies. We got it We have to remember some of the lesser heard of figures and names, you know Especially these are very important people Miriam very important in the Old Testament in the Bible We first hear about her in the book of Exodus when she is basically taking Moses her little brother and saving him from Pharaoh's evil decree to kill all the firstborn of the Jews Who are living in Egypt at the time? Puts him in the Sea of Reeds in a basket and where he as we know what happens He ends up being a prince of Egypt what right, you know, yeah, some people are lucky So she's a daughter of Amrana and you have it the brother and the sister of Moses and Aaron and she and basically She's one of the major seven one of the seven major female prophetesses of Israel What's interesting is her strong association with water. Her name is Miriam which can be translated as bitter water Yeah, Missy also in right and there's several stars bitter, right? Exactly and there's several strong like stories about her relationship with water For instance, you know when she saves Moses in the end by putting him in the Nile You have the Song of the Sea which she writes as they're crossing the Sea of Reeds You have also the well of Miriam which was a well that followed the ancient Israelites through their pilgrimage to the desert They're wandering through the desert for 40 years. There was always a water a well filled with water It was a miracle and it was all thanks to Miriam, right? It was her association with water that brought water is like life force Life force, but I mean, I'm even the Song of the Sea like everyone like me like you see the depictions of her with The tambourine and you know, I'm looking at the lyrics It's like sing to the Lord for very exalted as he a horse and its rider He cast into the sea and like apparently it was like, you know Singing row row row your boat in rounds like the women would do it and then like the men would follow suit So she really was the one kind of and she was considering everyone through the water She was guiding the women out of Egypt It said in the in the Torah that Moses Aaron and Miriam all guided the ancient Israelites out of Egypt So she played a very important role. She wasn't just someone in the background. They're standing behind Moses She's like the interesting thing is is like she you know in spite of I mean This is a kind of archetypal for all of us in spite of everything that she did I mean she ended up getting leprosy which is said to be a disease caused by evil tongue because she didn't she didn't approve of You know of Sephora his wife this episode in the Bible is actually very much disputed among Torah scholars What happened is that she according to the literal text is she calls? the wife of Moses Sephora The equivalent of the n-word but in Hebrew a very racist kind of term because Sephora was very dark-skinned apparently But other scholars have said that she wasn't actually insulting Sephora She was trying to defend her because what happened is that Moses and Sephora? Apparently had at some point the relationship where they were not sleeping together anymore. They were having a relation They were typical marriage, and she was trying to defend Sephora and complaining to Moses about it But she did receive leprosy she got this divine Punishment for speaking out against Moses from God and she was healed after Moses and Aaron both prayed for her to be healed right another Thing that's interesting about her is that first of all she was seen as a prophetess from a very young age She apparently convinced her parents to conceive of Moses. She said that you will Through you will be born a savior of Israel And and so this it's kind of an interesting story that goes back to even when she was seen as just so relevant all Of us, I mean she never she never got married She like her purpose was you know guiding the Israelites out of Egypt, but let's let's get to Sephora now right so you know I think of her and I think of the Ten Commandments with the the woman who was in the Munsters playing Sephora, but I think Sephora is very much more of a like a subtle background figure She's less well known than Miriam Miriam was really seen as a strong leader Sephora was also seen as very decisive. You know she helped Moses in different times during his journey She appears in the book of Exodus as the wife of Moses the daughter of Ruel or Jethro Jethro is a very important figure because he's seen as the forefather of the Druze the spiritual father of the Druze And they have their own very unique and special religion, which is very mysterious actually yeah No, it's interesting because you yeah, it's true because like you true has a portion just from the you know the Zohar I mean there's a portion named after him Which is a big deal for someone who was not technically in Israel exactly because he saw you know the miracles and everything he made The change to become you know a great You know a great spiritual leader It's so interesting and Moses got to marry Sephora well We have to remind everyone of the story basically Moses killed an Egyptian in Egypt When he saw the Egyptian striking a brother of his Israelites And then he had to flee so that Pharaoh wouldn't kill him and Moses fled into the desert He ran into basically these shepherdesses these female shepherdess Shepherdess and and what happened is that he saved them from some other people in the desert who were trying to steal the water and They're harassing them basically and then Jethro Awarded him as in return awarded him his daughter Sephora whom he married and then they had two sons together Gershon and Eliezer, and this is the role She basically played and she also had this very strange role in one of these really weird scenes I don't know if you remember this It's a very weird scene where basically God attacks Moses after he sees the burning bush There's a small passage in the Bible that's very obscure very mystical where God attacks Moses And she saves Moses Sephora does by cutting the foreskin off of her child and throwing it on the ground What does this mean? I don't know you know I know how from having sons That's what they do after a brief you bury you bury it So I wonder if that's so much And it's just so interesting explains the relationship between the Druze and the Israelites like it goes back to you know this time