May Your Well Never Run Dry!
Parshat Behaalotecha ( Numbers 22, v.13) quotes Moses as having cried out or shouted to the Eternal, regarding Miriam,
* "God! Please, heal her, please!"
A short, urgent, emotional prayer, said by the one over whom Miriam had watched as he floated down the river to an uncertain fate, yet one that she had foreseen: that Moses would be the one, with the help of God, to save the Children of Israel from bondage.
Why was Miriam was struck with leprosy, when both she and Aaron had criticized Moses about his Cushite wife ( For ignoring her? For marrying her in the first place? Midrashim abound)? Other than it being a patriarchal society, making her brother the High Priest a bit more important than she, a mere prophetess (sarcasm intended), perhaps it was a backwards compliment: if even she, the sister of Moses, could be punished, what about the average person? As a witness to her importance, the people did not continue their journey in the wilderness until her healing was complete.
What would a week without their prophetess mean? If taken quasi-literally, it would mean a week with a limited supply of water, because she was said to have been accompanied by a mysterious well (which dried up when she died, years later). If expanded upon metaphorically, what would a week of the well running dry mean? A week without inspiration? Mundane, day-to-day living, lacking all hint of sublimity? Who wants to live like that?
So, here is my blessing for all of us: may the well of Miriam never run dry!
Here is the link to a ritual for healing Miriam (or someone you know/yourself):
https://ritualwell.org/ritual/healing-miriam-a-ritual-to-prepare-for-behaalotekha/
To view the Miriam headdress or any of the others inspired by women in the Torah, click here: https://renaissancewomankippot.org/collections/biblical-mothers
*( Punctuation suggested by the tropes, the musical accents)