The Song of Miriam (Miriam right), reproduction of a painting by William Gale (1823-1909)

Miriam (Hebrew: מִרְיָם, Modern Miryam Tiberian Miryām ; Arabic: مريم (Maryam); see Miriam (given name)) was the sister of Moses and Aaron, and the daughter of Amram and Jochebed. She appears first in the Book of Exodus in the Hebrew Bible.

Biblical account[link]

At her mother Jochebed's request, Miriam hid her baby brother Moses by the side of a river to evade the Pharaoh’s order that newborn Hebrew boys be killed. She watched as the Pharaoh’s daughter discovered the infant and decided to adopt him. Miriam then suggested that the princess take on a nurse for the child, and suggested Jochebed; as a result, Moses was raised to be familiar with his background as a Hebrew. (Exodus 2:1-10)

Miriam is called a prophetess, and is traditionally believed to have sung a brief victory song after Pharaoh’s army was drowned in the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20-21).

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
Horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

It is considered by many that this poetic couplet is one of the oldest parts of the Biblical account.

She raised a Timbrel in her hand in joy.

Later, she objected to the marriage of Moses to a Cushite woman, which made her guilty of speaking Lashon hara (gossiping, or speaking negatively about someone), for which she was struck with tzaraat. After Aaron asked Moses to intercede for her, Moses uttered a five-word prayer:“O Lord, make her well,” and she recovered within seven days. (Numbers 12) A passage in Micah suggests she had a legacy with significant regard among later prophets: “And I brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, and I sent before you Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam.” (Micah 6:4)

"And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances." (Exodus 15:20).
Illuminated manuscript, Tomić Psalter, 1360/63, Moscow State Historical Museum

Marriage[link]

Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews states that Miriam was the wife of Hur, who is mentioned in Exodus as a close companion of Moses.^[1] However, in the Targum to I Chron. ii. 19, iv. 4, Miriam is said to be Hur's mother, asserting that Ephrath, the wife of Caleb, was another name for Miriam.

Snow-white Miriam[link]

Miriam and Aaron confronting Moses.

At Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron speak against Moses because:

of the Cushite (Ethiopian) woman whom he had married: for he had married a Cushite woman

Miriam and Aaron question Moses’ exclusive religious authority, since they consider themselves to also have been prophets.

'They said, 'Was it only to Moses that God spoke? Did he not speak to us as well?

God hears and calls all three to the door of the tabernacle. When they arrive, God states to them that Moses has a much greater authority than Miriam and Aaron; indeed, He chooses to speak to Moses face to face, rather than merely through dreams.

In anger, God subsequently visits a punishment on Miriam, giving her tzaraat turning her “white as snow.” According to the rules concerning tzaraat, Miriam must then live outside of the camp, in isolation, only being allowed back when Moses intercedes with God on her behalf. Nevertheless, God insists that she still be punished for seven days. (Numbers 12:10-14). Tzaraat was an illness traditionally translated to be leprosy, while it really is something more like skin cancer or vitiligo.

Rabbinic Interpretation[link]

According to the Hebrew Bible anyone with tzaraat was tamei (Leviticus 13-14) The Rabbis of the Talmud noted that Aaron did not receive the same punishment as his sister, otherwise he would no longer have been able to perform his duties as high priest.

Form criticism[link]

Zipporah is identified as the wife of Moses, so the traditional Jewish and Christian view is that Zipporah is the woman that Miriam opposes. However, Zipporah is described as being a Cushite from Midian. According to Richard E. Friedman, because Cush refers to Ethiopia (Note: “Ethiopia” in ancient resources refers to the region of Nubia in modern Sudan.) or other lands well outside, the “Cushite woman” of the story is not Zipporah. Friedman, building on interpretations from the documentary hypothesis, notes that Zipporah is only mentioned in the Jahwist text, while the story of Snow-white Miriam is assigned to the Elohist, and so, in each, Moses only ever has one wife.^[2]

According to Friedman's interpretation, these two accounts reflected the stories of two different, rival priesthoods, the Aaronid priesthood in the Kingdom of Judah, which claimed descent from Aaron and which controlled the Temple in Jerusalem, and a priesthood based at Shiloh, in the Kingdom of Israel. Friedman asserts that various Biblical tales were created or publicized by these factions in order to add an aura of legitimacy to their various claims to privilege and power. According to Friedman, the Elohist was from, or supported, the Shiloh priesthood, and thus had a strong motivation to repeat or create this tale.^[2]

Death[link]

According to Numbers 20:1-2, when the Israelites on their journey to the Land of Canaan came into the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed in Kadesh, Miriam died and was buried there. True to her symbolism with water, after her death, God opened a spring of abundant water for the people, called Meribah. Unfortunately, this happened after the Israelites contended with God, also resulted in Moses and Aaron committing sin that prevented them to enter Canaan.(Numbers 20:7-13)

Miriam in Jewish culture[link]

The poetic couplet in Exodus 15 is considered by many to be one of the oldest parts of the Biblical account. Rashi’s commentary on this verse, based on the Mekhilta (Be-Shalah, ch. 10), states “Moses chanted a song for the men; he would chant for them and they would answer him. And Miriam chanted a song for the women.” In other words, the Song on the Sea was recited twice, for the men and the women in parallel. Moses chanted the song in its entirety for the men, who answered him in refrain, and Miriam repeated this procedure for the women.

Miriam is a popular figure among some Jewish feminists. Some place a “Cup of Miriam,” filled with water, beside the customary “Cup of Elijah” (filled with wine) during the Passover Seder. The cup contains water in memory of Miriam's well, which according to a Midrash (see Ginzberg, Legends of the Jews 3, 50-54) accompanied the Israelites on their journey through the desert. Some Modern Orthodox^[who?] Jews have revived a millennium-old custom of adding a piece of fish to the seder plate, with the lamb, egg and fish jointly symbolizing the three prophets referred to in Micah 6:4, and also alluding to the mythical beasts (the bird Ziz, the animal Behemoth, and the sea-creature Leviathan) which, according to Midrash, are to be served at the Seudat Chiyat HaMatim, the feast for the righteous following the resurrection of the dead, which the Passover Seder (and the Cup of Elijah) allude to. The fish represents Leviathan as well as Miriam and is also a water symbol.^[3]

Quranic account[link]

Miriam is mentioned but not named in the Qur'an, and as in the Hebrew Bible, she obeys her mother's request to follow the baby Moses as he floats down the river in a basket, their mother having set him afloat so he would not be killed by the Pharaoh's servants and soldiers (28:11). Later on, Asiya, wife of the Pharaoh, finds Moses at the river and adopts him as her own, but Moses refuses to be suckled by her. Miriam asks the Pharaoh's wife and her handmaidens to have his own mother act as nursemaid to Moses, the mother's identity not being known to the Pharaoh's wife (28:12–13).

References[link]

1. ^ Antiquities, Book 3, ch. 1
2. ^ ^{a b} Richard E. Friedman (May 1997). Who Wrote the Bible?. San Francisco: Harper. pp. 78, 92. ISBN 0-06-063035-3. 
3. ^ Where is Miriam on the Seder plate? Yael Levine, Edah, YNet News.com, 2006-11-04. Retrieved 2007-05-13.

Deborah Lynn "Debbie" Friedman (February 23, 1951 – January 9, 2011)^[1][2][3][4] was an American singer-songwriter concerning Jewish religious content. She was born in Utica, New York, but moved with her family to Minnesota at age 5. She is best known for her setting of "Mi Shebeirach",^[4] the prayer for healing, which is used by hundreds of congregations across America.^[2] Her songs were used by some Orthodox Jewish congregations, as well as non-Orthodox Jewish congregations.^[5] Ms. Friedman was a feminist, and Orthodox Jewish feminist Blu Greenberg noted that while Ms. Friedman’s music impacted most on Reform and Conservative liturgy, "she had a large impact [in] Modern Orthodox shuls, women’s tefillah [prayer], the Orthodox feminist circles.... She was a religious bard and angel for the entire community."^[5][6]

Biography[link]

Debbie was the daughter of Freda and Gabriel Friedman.

She wrote many of her early songs as a song leader at the overnight camp Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, in the early 1970s. Between 1971 and 2010 she recorded 22 albums.^[7] Her work was inspired by such diverse sources as Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, and a number of other folk music artists. Friedman employed both English and Hebrew lyrics and wrote for all ages. Some of her songs include "The Aleph Bet Song", "Miriam's Song", and the songs "Not By Might" and "I am a Latke". She also performed in synagogues and concert halls.^[7]

Friedman had suffered since the 1990s from a neurological condition,^[4] with effects apparently similar to multiple sclerosis.^[8] The story of her music, as well as the challenges she faced in living with illness, were featured in a 2004 documentary film about Friedman called A Journey of Spirit, produced by Ann Coppel, which followed her from 1997 to 2002.^[9][10]

In 2007, Friedman accepted an appointment to the faculty of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion's School of Sacred Music in New York (now called the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music) where she instructed both rabbinic and cantorial students.^[11]

In 2010, she was named to the Forward 50 after the release of her 22nd album As You Go On Your Way: Shacharit – The Morning Prayers.^[7]

She was a lesbian.^[12]

Death and legacy[link]

She was admitted to an Orange County Hospital in January 2011, where she died January 9, 2011, from pneumonia.^[13]

Rabbi David Ellenson, President of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, announced on January 27, 2011, that the School of Sacred Music would be renamed the Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music. On December 7, 2011, it was officially renamed as such.^[14][15]

Discography[link]

• Songs of the Spirit- The Debbie Friedman Anthology
• Light These Lights
• Debbie Friedman Live at the Del
• The Water in the Well
• The Alef Bet
• Debbie Friedman at Carnegie Hall
• The World of Your Dreams
• And You Shall Be a Blessing
• Ani Ma-Amin
• Not by Might Not by Power
• Sing Unto God
• One People
• As You Go On Your Way: Shacharit - The Morning Prayers
• It's You
• Shalom Aleichem

Affiliations[link]

• Friedman was a 1969 alumna of Highland Park High School in Saint Paul, Minnesota. She was inducted into the school's Hall of Fame in 1999.^[16] She was also an honorary member of the American Conference of Cantors.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Debbie Friedman website
• Jewish Women and the Feminist Revolution from the Jewish Women's Archive
• Judaism Wikia's article on Debbie Friedman
• A Journey of Spirit
• Debbie Friedman Tributes Page (URJ)

This article's lead section may not adequately summarize its contents. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of the article's key points. (December 2009)

Miriam Margolyes
Miriam Margolyes reading at an event for the charity Sense, 2006
Born	(1941-05-18) 18 May 1941 (age 71) Oxford, England
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1965–present

Miriam Margolyes, OBE (born 18 May 1941)^[1] is an English actress and voice artist. Her earliest roles were in theatre and after several supporting roles in film and television she won a BAFTA Award for her role in The Age of Innocence (1993).

Early life[link]

Margolyes was born in Oxford, England, the daughter of Ruth (née Walters), a property investor, and Joseph Margolyes, a physician from Glasgow.^[1][2] She grew up in a Jewish family,^[3][4] a descendant of immigrants from Belarus. She attended the local Oxford High School,^[1] at which she also opened the new buildings in March 2011, and later Newnham College, Cambridge where she read English.^[5] There, she began acting in her twenties, and also appeared in productions of the comedy troupe Cambridge Footlights.^[6]

Acting career[link]

With her distinctive voice, Margolyes first gained recognition for her work as a voice artist. She recorded a soft-porn audio called Sexy Sonia: Leaves from my Schoolgirl Notebook.^[7] She performed most of the supporting female characters in the dubbed Japanese action TV series, Monkey. She also worked with the theatre company Gay Sweatshop and provided voiceovers in the Japanese TV series The Water Margin.

Margolyes' first major role in a film was as Elephant Ethel in Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers (1977). In the 1980s, she made appearances in Blackadder opposite Rowan Atkinson: these roles include the Spanish Infanta in The Black Adder, Lady Whiteadder in Blackadder II and Queen Victoria in Blackadder's Christmas Carol. In 1986, she was cast as one of the major supporting characters in the BBC adaptation of the Fay Weldon novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil. She received critical acclaim for her portrayal of Flora Finching in the 1988 movie Little Dorrit.^{[citation needed]} On American television, she headlined the short-lived 1992 CBS sitcom Frannie's Turn. In 1993 she won a Best Supporting Actress, BAFTA for her role as Mrs Mingott in Martin Scorsese's The Age Of Innocence.

Margolyes came to the notice of younger audiences through two roles in 1996. The first was her comic take on the role of The Nurse in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet. The second when she starred as Aunt Sponge in James And The Giant Peach; she also provided the voice of the Glow Worm in the same movie. Around this time, she voiced the female rabbit character in the animated commercials for Cadbury's Caramel bars^[8] and provided the voice of Fly the dog in the animated film Babe.^[9] She played Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in 2002.

She was one of the original cast of the London production of the musical Wicked in 2006, playing Madame Morrible opposite Idina Menzel, a role she also played on Broadway in 2008.^{[citation needed]}

In 2009, she appeared in a new production of Endgame by Samuel Beckett at the Duchess Theatre in London's West End.^{[citation needed]} She (along with Simon Callow) voiced one of the Blathereen creatures in the Doctor Who spin off The Sarah Jane Adventures in a story from the third season called The Gift.^{[citation needed]}

In 2010, she appeared in the British Television situation comedy Coming of Age, playing Doreen, a delinquent pensioner with a penchant for kissing strangers and blowing up ducks. In the 2010 film Legend of the Guardians, she voices Mrs. Plithiver. Margolyes reprised her role as Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. She appears in the ITV series Doc Martin.

Other work[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2011)

Margolyes is a supporter of Sense (the National Deafblind and Rubella Association) and was the host at the first Sense Creative Writing Awards, held at the Dickens Museum in London in December 2006, where she read a number of works written by talented deafblind people.^[1][10]

In 2011, Margolyes recorded a narrative for the album The Devil's Brides by klezmer musician-ethnographer Yale Strom (ARC Music).^[11]

Personal life[link]

Margolyes is openly gay^[12] and has been with her Australian partner Heather^[9] for over 40 years.^[1] She described herself as "gay" rather than as lesbian and mentioned her relationships with women on several occasions when she appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs in September 2008.^[13] She is a campaigner for a respite care charity, Crossroads.^[14]

She appeared on the British television quiz University Challenge in 1963, whilst at Cambridge University. As part of a BBC documentary University Challenge: The Story so Far she claimed that during her appearance, she swore after getting a question wrong, although the actual word was bleeped out of the recording.^[15][16]

She would like to become an Australian citizen.^[14]

Margolyes regularly attends the annual Dickens Universe scholarly conference, held each summer at the University of California, Santa Cruz.^{[citation needed]}

Margolyes is a Palestinian human rights activist, having been a member of the British-based ENOUGH! coalition that seeks to end the "Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank."^[17]

Margolyes lives in Tuscany, Italy and Robertson, New South Wales.^{[citation needed]}

Filmography[link]

Notes[link]

• The Thief and the Cobbler (1993) – the voice of the Maiden from Mombasa (original version only; the character was never heard at all in the re-edited versions and another actor was never available all in the re-edited versions).
• The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004) – Peg Sellers -note this film was shown in movie theatres in the UK and Australia – it aired on cable television on the HBO network in the US.

Theatre[link]

• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow)
• Me and My Girl (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield) – The Duchess
• The Importance of Being Earnest (BAM Harvey Theatre, New York) – Miss Prism
• Wicked (Apollo Victoria, London / Gershwin Theatre, New York) – Madame Morrible
• The Way of the World (Sydney Theatre Company)
• The Vagina Monologues (Arts Theatre, London)
• Romeo and Juliet (Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles)
• Fiddler on the Roof (Number One Tour) – Matchmaker
• Canterbury Tales (Bristol Old Vic) – Wife of Bath
• Kennedy's Children (Arts Theatre, London)
• Threepenny Opera (Piccadilly Theatre, London) – Whore
• The White Devil (Old Vic, London)
• Cloud Nine (Joint Stock / Royal Court)
• Flaming Bodies (ICA) – Psychiatrist
• 84 Charing Cross Road (Colchester) – Helen Hanff
• Gertrude Stein and a Companion (International Tour) – Gertrude Stein
• Man Equals Man (Almeida Theatre, London) – Widow Begbick
• Orpheus Descending (Haymarket Theatre, London) – Vee Talbot
• Dickens' Women (Duke of York's Theatre and Hampstead Theatre, London)
• Blithe Spirit (Melbourne Theatre Company, Australia)
• Realism (Melbourne Theatre Company, Australia) – 2009
• Endgame (Duchess Theatre, London) – 2009 – Nell

Documentary[link]

• Dickens in America – writer/presenter

Awards and nominations[link]

• Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for Services to Drama 2001^[19]
• Winner: Theatregoer's Choice Awards 2007 Best Supporting Actress in a Musical for Madam Morrible in Wicked
• Winner: Audiofile's Earphones Award 2001 for A Christmas Carol
• Winner: Prix Jeunesse Best Children's Programme (0–6 fiction) 2000 for The First Snow of Winter
• Winner: The Talkies Performer Of The Year 1997 for Oliver Twist
• Winner: Sony Radio Awards Best Actress On Radio 1993 for The Queen and I
• Winner: BAFTA Best Supporting Actress 1993 for The Age of Innocence
• Nominated: Olivier Award for Best Entertainment 1991 for Dickens' Women
• Winner: LA Critics Circle 1989 Best Supporting Actress for Little Dorrit (shared with Geneviève Bujold)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Miriam Margolyes at the Internet Movie Database
• Miriam Margolyes at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Miriam Margolyes personal website
• Dickens' Women Tour Website
• Women in Comedy