Beshalach: Bitterness, rebelliousness, Miriam

A heteronym in the Torah appears in three contexts which have too many parallels to be ignored. The prophetess Miriam (M-R-Y-M) appears on the scene to sing about the splitting of the sea, and then we are immediately told that the people arrived in Marah to find that “Marim Hem” — the water (or, according to some, the people) were bitter. The Hebrew for bitter appears here as M-R-Y-M, spelled the same as “Miriam.”

If it was people who were bitter, one wonders if the water was really bitter, or if it was only perceived as bitter until Moshe put the stick in it.

Elsewhere in the Torah, in the chapter on sotah, the water-solution the accused adulteress is given to drink is called “Mei HaMarim (M-R-Y-M) Ha’Meor’r’im,” sometimes called the “bitter waters.”  (Bamidbar 5:18)

Finally, shortly after the death of Miriam (Bamidbar 20:1), when the people complain about lack of water, Moshe chastises them saying, “Shimu na HaMarim (M-R-Y-M)” – listen you rebels!

Miriam dances in celebration over a miracle with water, there is bitterness over water (twice), and people are rebels over lack of water. All these episodes present the M-R-Y-M heteronym in different forms.

Why? Is Miriam meant to be a representative of bitterness? Is there a tinge of rebelliousness in her? What is Miriam’s connection to water? Why is the sotah water called bitter, when perhaps the second adjective for the water – meor’r’im (revealing) is more important? Why do the people seem – at least in Moshe’s eyes – to be rebels when asking for water in Bamidbar, when they are clearly not rebels when they arrive in Marah and find nothing to drink? Is there a connection between bitterness, rebelliousness, water and Miriam; do they share a latent commonality?