Miriam and Agam: Women of War and Water
BY RABBANIT SHANI TARAGIN
The Ariza”l explains that the final generation of exile will remarkably resemble the generation of the Egyptian exile on the eve of redemption. Just as Bnei Yisrael were redeemed from Egypt in the merit of righteous women1 (e.g. midwives, Yocheved, Miriam, Bat-Pharaoh), we will be redeemed once more through righteous women.2 Though separated by millennia, we find striking parallels between Jewish heroines of the past and the present, such as Miriam HaNeviah and Agam Berger. Both experienced brutal warfare, witnessed death and destruction firsthand, and yet maintained not only their will to survive but an unwavering commitment to their faith amidst chaos and despair.
Miriam’s Egypt was a place of crushing oppression. She witnessed the systematic drowning of Hebrew infants and experienced the bitter taste of slavery. Yet even in this darkness, Miriam possessed extraordinary conviction; her prophetic confidence that redemption would come never wavered, even as she watched her infant brother floating on the Nile.
In our own era of oppression, Agam Berger reflected a similar spiritual resilience as she endured 482 days in Hamas captivity – a modern slavery in the tunnels of Gaza. Like Miriam, she witnessed unspeakable cruelty yet maintained her spiritual integrity. Even in captivity, she observed whatever mitzvot she could, keeping track of Shabbat and holidays, observing kashrut, and tefillah.
The connection of both women to water reveals a profound spiritual metaphor. Miriam’s very name contains the Hebrew root for bitterness (mar), yet she transforms bitter waters (yam) to sweet ones. We first encounter her by the reeds of the Nile and then again singing a song by the Sea of Reeds. The Midrash3 teaches that her merit sustained the miraculous well that followed the Israelites through the wilderness, providing physical and spiritual waters for her nation in a place of thirst and desolation.
Agam’s name means “lake” in Hebrew, directly connecting her to water. In Tehillim 114:8, we read “הַהֹפְכִי הַצּוּר אֲגַם מָיִם, He turned the rock into a pool of water” – referring to the miraculous waters springing from stones in the wilderness, perhaps even the “well” of Miriam.4 As Miriam stood by waters of destruction, anticipating salvation amidst the reeds, Agam braided reeds of hair for her fellow captives, providing strength and support. During Agam’s captivity, her mother Meirav (also a name of water – i.e. many waters or waters of strife) encouraged women throughout Israel to immerse in the mikvah as a spiritual merit for her daughter’s release. The personalities of Miriam, Agam, and Meirav are intrinsically linked to water – the element of salvation and renewal in Jewish tradition.
The Maharal notes5 that women and wells share similar qualities – “the well represents the elevation of the lower realms, as the waters below the earth spring upward.” It was through Miriam’s merit – through her embodiment of this yearning for spiritual elevation – that the well existed, “for it is a source that rises and yearns upward.” Both Miriam and Agam exemplify the capacity to draw from deep internal wellsprings of faith. Like water striving to break upward as a spring, their spiritual resilience flows against the natural gravity of despair, rising toward redemption.
Miriam and Agam are both also women of song, playing their respective tambourine/violin as a tribute to Hashem for national salvation. The Midrash6 reveals that the women followed Miriam’s lead in song and dance with tambourines they had taken from Egypt. While still enslaved, confident they would one day sing praises to Hashem after their deliverance, they prepared for eventual salvation and celebration. Miriam took her tambourine, reminding them of their trust in divine redemption even while they were still shackled in bondage. Similarly, Agam’s mother reported how her daughter prepared for her own liberation through spiritual steadfastness. Her commitment to maintain Jewish observance despite her horrific circumstances was itself a declaration of faith that her situation was temporary, that redemption would come, and she would play her violin once again.
Today’s Jewish women draw inspiration from both Miriam and Agam – women who maintained dignity and faith during unimaginable trials. As we navigate our own challenging times, these women of war and water remind us that Jewish history moves inexorably toward salvation. Like water that always unifies and never separates into individual particles, like the well that constantly strives upward against the pull of gravity, their faith teaches us to persist, to maintain our observance, and to prepare our tambourines – for redemption surely comes to those who await and prepare for it faithfully.
1 Sotah 11b
2 Sichot of Lubavitcher Rebbe Vaera, Shvat 1990
3 Tosefta Sotah 11:8
4 Ramban, Bamidbar 20:2
5 Netzach Yisrael, c.54
6 Mechilta Shira, 10
Rabbani Shani Taragin is the Educational Director of Mizrachi, Mizrachi-Lapidot and Matan Eshkolot Programs for Educators, and the Rosh Women’s Beit Midrash for Yeshiva University in Israel.