My favorite of Debbie Friedman’s songs emerges from this week’s Parsha.
Miriam the prophet died and was buried in a place called Kadesh. The Torah immediately says next that the people were without water. Rashi teaches that a well had followed the people as they wandered because of Miriam’s merit, so when she died, the well dried up and the people lacked water. They grumbled and complained and ended up with water from a rock as a short term solution (that’s another story), but they still lacked a true, sustaining and healing source of water that would nourish them.
They continue their journeying, and find themselves at a place called Be’er. God says to Moshe there, “Assemble the people, and I will give them water” (Numbers 21:16). Gathered around the spot, the Torah tells us next that all the people sang together, “Spring up, oh well, and sing unto it.” The water flowed, the people drank, and it was the first time since Miriam’s death that, in unity, they had water and were actually nourished.
The refrain in Friedman’s song goes: Oh the water in the well and the healing in the well The women and the water and the hope that’s in the well
The lack of water wasn’t just about thirst, it was also their grief in the aftermath of Miriam’s death. They longed for sustenance just as much as they longed for comfort; they were thirsty just as much as they were bereft. It was because they came together, assembled together and sang together, that they were able to sing the well into existence. And in doing so, they brought themselves a certain type of healing. The new well brought them hope in a time of loss.
The abundance of the well existed because the people came forth together to call it into existence. It was their collective efforts, manifested through their joyous communal song, that helped bring them the sustenance that they needed. Their story is a testament to what we can create when we communally work together to bring forth that which we need. What healing do we need, what hope can we find, that can be made possible by our assembling together? What song can we sing collectively that will nourish us?
