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.

Norah Jones
Jones at Bright Eyes at Town Hall, May 29, 2007
Background information
Birth name	Geethali Norah Jones Shankar
Born	(1979-03-30) March 30, 1979 (age 33) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Genres	Jazz, blues, pop, folk, country, vocal jazz, soul, roots rock, alternative rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician, actress
Instruments	Vocals, piano/keyboards, guitar, bass guitar, saxophone
Years active	2001–present
Labels	Blue Note
Associated acts	The Little Willies, El Madmo, Liberation Prophecy, Wax Poetic, Peter Malick, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Q-Tip, Peeping Tom
Website	norahjones.com

Norah Jones^[1] (born Geethali Norah Jones Shankar; March 30, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter, pianist, and actress. She is the daughter of Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar. She is also the paternal half-sister of Anoushka Shankar.^[2]

In 2002, she launched her solo music career with the release of the commercially successful and critically acclaimed album Come Away With Me, a fusion of jazz, pop, and country music, which was certified a diamond album in 2002, selling over 20 million copies.^[3][4][5] The record earned Jones five Grammy Awards, including the Album of the Year, Record of the Year, and Best New Artist.^[6] Her subsequent studio albums, Feels Like Home, released in 2004, Not Too Late, released in 2007, the same year she made her film debut in My Blueberry Nights, and her 2009 release The Fall all gained Platinum status after selling over a million copies^[4] and were generally well received by critics.^[3] Jones' fifth studio album, Little Broken Hearts was released on April 27, 2012.

Jones has won nine Grammy Awards and was Billboard magazine's 60th-best-selling music artist of the 2000–2009 decade.^[7] Throughout her career, Jones has won numerous awards and has sold over 40 million albums worldwide.^[8] Billboard named her the top jazz artist of the 2000–2009 decade, establishing herself as one of the best-selling artists of her time.

Early life[link]

Born in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York to Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and American concert producer Sue Jones.^[5] After her parents' separation in 1986, Jones spent her childhood with her mother in the Fort Worth suburb of Grapevine, Texas. She attended Colleyville Middle School and Grapevine High School before transferring to Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas. While in high school, Jones sang in the school choir, participated in band and played the alto saxophone. At the age of sixteen, with her parents' consent, she officially changed her name to Norah Jones.^[1][9]

Jones always had an affinity for the music of Bill Evans and Billie Holiday, among other 'oldies'. She once said, "My mom had this eight-album Billie Holiday set; I picked out one disc that I liked and played that over and over again."

She began singing in church choirs and took piano lessons as a child. She still attends church. She considers herself spiritual and appreciates the rituals of her church but does not consider herself the religious type.^[10]

She attended Interlochen Center for the Arts during the summers. While at high school, she won the DownBeat Student Music Awards for Best Jazz Vocalist (twice, in 1996 and 1997) and Best Original Composition (1996).^[11]

Jones attended the University of North Texas (UNT), where she majored in jazz piano and sang with the UNT Jazz Singers. During this time, she had a chance meeting with future collaborator Jesse Harris. She gave a ride to a band playing at the university whose members happened to be friends of Harris. He was on a cross-country road-trip with friend and future Little Willies member, Richard Julian, and stopped to see the band play. After meeting Jones, Harris started sending her lead sheets of his songs. In 1999, she left for New York City. Less than a year later, she started a band with Harris, which made her famous.^[12]

Musical career[link]

[edit] 2001–2004: First Sessions and Come Away with Me

Jones moved to New York City and signed to Blue Note Records, a label owned by EMI Group. The signing came as an indirect result of Jones performing background vocals for singer-songwriter Victoria Williams.^[13] Shell White, the wife of Williams' producer JC Hopkins, worked in Blue Note's royalties department and passed Jones's 3-track demo on to the label's president Bruce Lundvall and its A&R Brian Bacchus. The demo featured two jazz standards and a song by Jesse Harris.^[13] Lundvall and Bacchus immediately agreed Jones had great potential and although initially unsure about what direction her music would follow, particularly since Blue Note was a jazz label, they nevertheless decided to sign Jones. Bacchus told HitQuarters: "We let her find her own direction ... We knew that if she could develop her songwriting and we could find great songs, it would work."^[13]

Jones was first teamed up with experienced producer and engineer Jay Newland. Bacchus thought that Newland's experience in jazz, blues, rock, country and folk would give him a "feeling for her sound".^[13] Together they cut around nine demo tracks, of which six formed her debut Blue Note release, the sampler First Sessions, while the rest were set aside for her debut album.^[13] "First Sessions" was released in 2001.

Jones was a lounge singer before becoming a recording artist.^[14] Prior to releasing her first album, she performed with Wax Poetic, Peter Malick and jazz guitarist Charlie Hunter.^[15][16][17]

Released in February 2002 debut album, Jones' Come Away with Me, was celebrated for its blending of mellow, acoustic pop with soul and jazz. Debuting at #139, it reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard 200. The single "Don't Know Why" hit #1 on the Top 40 Adult Recurrents in 2003 and #30 in the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart.

In 2003, she won five Grammy Awards, which were Best New Artist, Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album for the album and Record of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the single "Don't Know Why" at the 45th Grammy Awards. This matched the record for most Grammy wins by a female artist in a single night (tying with Lauryn Hill and Alicia Keys). That night, Jesse Harris won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for composing "Don't Know Why", Arif Mardin won Producer of the Year, primarily for his work on Come Away With Me, and the album also received the Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical.^[5][6]

The album received platinum certification by the Recording Industry Association of America on August 22, 2002, and went on to become a diamond album on February 15, 2005.^[18] It remains Blue Note's biggest-selling album.^[5]

[edit] 2004–2006: Feels Like Home and collaboration with Ray Charles

Jones released her second album, Feels Like Home, on February 9, 2004. It was influenced by country music. Within a week of its release, Feels Like Home had sold over a million copies. It sold 4 million copies in the United States and reached quadruple Platinum status, selling ten million copies worldwide. Jones toured globally, promoting the album with the Handsome Band, and backing singer Daru Oda.

Time magazine included Jones on the Time 100, a list of the most influential people of 2004.^[19] The album debuted at number one in at least 16 countries around the world.^[20]

In 2005, at the 47th Grammy Awards, Feels Like Home was nominated for three Grammys. It won for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "Sunrise", and had nominations for Best Pop Vocal Album and Best Country Collaboration with Vocals for her duet with Dolly Parton, "Creepin 'In".^[21]