This Shabbat, we will read Parashat Balak, which features—among other things—a talking donkey. According to rabbinic legend, that donkey was one of ten magical items created at twilight before the first Shabbat. For some summer fun this week, we’ll explore some of those symbols and what they might teach us today.

Today is the [[DATE REDACTED]] anniversary of my bat mitzvah. Just a couple of years ago, I ascended the bimah at Temple Shaaray Tefila in New York City, and chanted the words not of Balak, which we’ll read this Shabbat, but of Chukat, which we read this past Shabbat. As some of our b’nai mitzvah students can surely imagine, I remember complaining to my rabbi that there really was nothing in this Torah portion that I found interesting…somehow I missed some key plot points.

Another of the items created at twilight, the rabbis teach, is the well of water which sustained the Israelites in the desert. You would think that as a budding feminist, I would have noticed the juxtaposition of Miriam’s death, immediately followed by the Israelites complaining about the lack of water. Long before feminist Torah commentary was a thing, our tradition taught that the well of water followed the Israelites on Miriam’s merit. Just as her brothers were accompanied by a particular Divine gift—Moses, the manna from Heaven that feeds the Israelites and Aaron, the pillar of cloud and fire that guides the Israelites through the wilderness—the well of water is tangible proof of Miriam’s leadership. Through water, she claims her role amongst the community of Israel.

Professor Carol Ochs writes about the leadership role lost when Miriam dies, and unlike Moses and Aaron, no successor is named. She writes:

But it did not die, although it became obscured. Miriam’s legacy, which we are just beginning to retrieve, models our capacity to care for those more vulnerable than ourselves (as she did for her infant brother), to intervene in history regardless of our position (as she did when she approached the princess and when she challenged Moses’ conduct and leadership), and to dance as well as to sing publicly as a form of worship.

While the well was created as a miracle, there is nothing supernatural about our ability to fill our communal well, continuing Miriam’s legacy of sustaining and nurturing our community.

— Rabbi Sari Laufer