The Torah does not report though what it is exactly they took him to task for. Nor is the identity of the ‘Cushite’ woman revealed.

Some say that it refers to Tzippora. She was referred to as a Cushite, although she was from Midyan, to emphasize her unquestioned beauty, since just like the skin of a Cushite is unequivocally dark, so too was her greatness unmistakable.

They raised a concern after having observed Moshe refraining from family life with his otherwise ‘wonderful’ wife, suspecting that it was due to his desire to remain ritually pure so that he would always be in a state that G-d could appear to him instantly without any need to first undergo purification. They cast doubt on his presumptuous attitude expressing that G-d spoke regularly with them as well, yet they maintained intimacy with their spouses, nevertheless.

The Torah goes on to record G-d’s response to the effect that Moshe’s level of prophecy was on a much higher level that indeed warranted his constant state of preparedness at all times, and justified his decision to separate physically from Tzippora.

Yet, the ‘simple reading of the verse’ implies just the opposite, that they were challenging his very decision to marry a Cushite woman in the first place.

The twelfth century Tosafist, Rabbeinu Yitzchak ben Reb Yehuda HaLevi, in his manuscript, Paneach Raza, cites an earlier source that asserts a very startling interpretation of the verse and story.

Quoting in the name of ‘HaGan’, he says that Miriam and Aharon were wondering why Moshe would be so ‘arrogant’ as to not choose a bride from the many Jewish women available to him, why did he feel a need to marry ‘out’ and take a Cushite wife?

The Paneach Raza adds that this woman was not Tzippora, but a daughter of the king of Cush, that he took as his wife after Tzippora died.

They castigated Moshe, he alleges, because she was a descendant of Cham, the father of Cush, about whom the Torah records was cursed to be עבד עבדים, slave of slaves, and thus an inappropriate wife for him.

He also explains Miriam and Aharon’s self-reflecting on their own prophetic stature, as a further dig at Moshe, intimating that despite their levels of accomplishment it did not mislead them to see themselves superior to their fellow Jews.

This interpretation of the conflict certainly fits in more tightly with the literal meaning of the verse, without need to add details that is not evident in the words, but it is quite drastic in its portrayal of his siblings very painful accusation against Moshe of abandoning ‘his own people’.

More intriguing is how G-d’s response addresses their concern? Is G-d justifying Moshe’s ‘arrogance’ because he was indeed greater?

Obviously, there is more than meets the eye, especially since we are dealing with Miriam and Aharon whose accurate greatness of stature is unfathomable to us.

Their concern of Moshe involving himself with a mate who is a descendant of Cham, a slave of slaves, touches on a misconception I believe many of us have.

After Cham degrades his father Noach, by not only mocking his drunken stupor, but also abusing and sterilizing him, preventing his father from bringing other children into the world, thus minimizing the competition, his father reacts by saying “Cursed is Canaan,( the son who joined in the derision), slave of slaves shall he be...”

Many believe that this is an unretractable curse, and Cham’s descendants are forever doomed to be enslaved.

Rav Samson Raphael Hirsch explains otherwise.

There are three forces operative within man and society. חם, ‘hot’ sensuality and raw passion; יפת, a refined sense of feelings to all that is ‘beauty’; שם, having the ‘names’ and conception of things. Mind, body, and spirit.

The nations that would descend from these three would struggle through history until the perfect merger of these three forces would bring the world to its perfection.

In the early stages of history those who would embody ‘Cham’ would impose their will upon others to ingratiate their insatiable appetites with a total disregard for feelings, and certainly morals.

In Rav Hirsch’s words: The greatest ado in the world has been made by Cham, that sensuality, worldliness, which harnesses all that belongs to spirit and mind to their chariots of fame, and only allows intellect to be used or valued as far as it serves as a means of furthering the material side of life, nations that conquer, plunder and enjoy. Nations pass across the stage who represent hardly anything but raw force, sensuality, and bestiality. 

Rav Hirsch avers that it is not a curse upon Cham as much as it is the consequence. Cham’s attitude is ‘cursed’ in the sense that raw sensuality breeds a society that will impose its needs on its subjects, enslaving them, absent of the humanitarian right to freedom.

Only nations who are themselves enslaved have enslaved others. He who sets out to be a world-conqueror, to force other nations to obey his will, must first have abased his own people to act slavishly as the blind instruments of his lust for power and mastery. From Cham’s descendants, tyrants, mighty despots and ‘hunters of men’ went forth. Not freedom, slavery is begotten by passion.

This is the deeper meaning of becoming ‘slave of slaves’, the bacteria of slavery is homegrown in the soil comprised of those who themselves are enslaved to their own passions.

Perhaps Miriam and Aharon doubted the ability of even one so great as Moshe, to inspire the descendants of Cham at that juncture in history.

Moshe wasn’t abandoning his people, but seeking to shackle the forces of passion to a mindful existence that permits an enjoyable life with the nobility of freedom, propelling a world towards its inspired destiny, powered by the influence of a mind that expresses the ‘will’ of G-d in every facet.

The commentators all struggle in understanding the Torah’s initial assertion to Miriam’s plaint, where it simply states: והאיש משה עניו מאד מכל האדם, Now the man Moshe was exceedingly humble more than any other person...

How does Moshe’s humility answer their doubts?

The trademark of humility is the reduction of self. One who does not place his needs as primary is capable of being submissive to others. To the one who is truly humble, there is merely one will that defines his very being, that of the Almighty.

In the presence of Moshe - the epitome of humility, even beasts are humbled.

This is the key to quashing their doubts. Only those who are still struggling with their own enslavement to inner forces that drive them, must proceed with caution. Even when we have mastered our most base passions, we still must conquer others with the ‘need’ for recognition, the ‘thirst’ for power and control, and the ‘hunger’ for success. These forces, albeit more sophisticated, often compel us to ‘subjugate’ others to our wants.

Might this be the key to understanding this episode and its role to remind us of what happened to Miriam, and the pitfalls of slander.

Slander develops among people who look jealously over their shoulders, insecure in their own skins, desperately trying to gain supremacy over others by demeaning those who ‘threaten’ their poor perceptions of themselves. 

When we are freed from those chains, we can easily grant freedom to others, seeing and valuing them objectively, unblocked from the besmirched lens of selfishness.

באהבה,

צבי יהודה טייכמאן