Miriam & Standing Firm in Prophecy - Jeremy Gimpel: The Land of Israel Fellowship

Shalom Fellowship good morning from cold Manchester England as you can see behind me here I am in another country I'm in the United Kingdom I was invited here about five months ago by the Jewish community of Manchester tahila and I to kind of host a weekend a Shabbat together Sunday together we'll be coming back to Israel on Monday and uh it's freezing out here right now but um we've just been learning Torah teaching tour of the whole Shabbat the Jewish Community here is so warm and so wonderful but I couldn't miss our fellowship today so um I want to just share some of the Torah that teal and I were teaching here over Shabbat so I'm gonna find a nice place to sit down here you can see all of like the classic English uh architecture here and um I'm gonna sit down and we'll we'll get right to it all right so what do we see in this week's Parsha we see pretty much the greatest most cinematic miracle in Israel's history the splitting of the sea it's the climax of The Story of exodus in so many ways and the Sea splits the nation has saved Egypt is destroyed they burst out in song and that's really the only song of the Torah that the Jewish people continue to sing every single morning as a part of our morning prayers remembering our past with his hand he established already the Temple of the future just remembering all of the span of Jewish history and we sing that every day but at the end something really bizarre happens um the song ends and you'd think okay that's the win but if you read now in Exodus chapter 15 verses 20. Miriam the prophetess the sister of Aaron took her drum in her hand and all of the women went forth with her drums and with dances and it's like what didn't they just sing a second ago like what's happening here why is all of a sudden now devorah rising up with drums and a new song like what's what's happening and why does it also say Miriam the prophet is she's not devorah Miriam why does it say Miriam the prophetess and Rashi actually asks prophetess when did she prophesied and in fact it's the only person in the Torah that's called a prophet I mean God spoke to so many people into our Adam and spoke to Eve's book to Noah spoke to Abraham Isaac and Jacob spoke to Moses book to Aaron actually in the script of the Torah God never speaks to Miriam and she's the one person in the whole Torah that's called a prophetess why what's going on here so Rashi of course asked the question why is she called a prophet and the answer at the midrash is that before Moses was born she had a prophecy that her brother was going to be the savior of Israel and that's actually why it says the sister of Aaron because when the prophecy happened Moses wasn't alive yet um and so we know the story Miriam is the one that takes Moses and puts him in a wicker basket and sends him down the Nile and she's waiting to see is her prophecy going to come to pass parents are gone Aaron is gone and it says that she stood alone from afar alone is unique it only appears twice in the book of Exodus one is when Miriam is standing alone watching Moses and the second time is when Moses says stand here and watch the salvation of God and in both of those places comes from the word yet sieve which means stable to stand in place and watch the salvation of God and I was thinking that both of those scenarios Miriam and the people of Israel are really stuck between a rock and a hard place or a sea in a hard place meaning on one hand they have the decree of the Egyptians to kill every boy of Israel and on the other end they have the mile the baby's not going to be able to swim between the Nile and between the Egyptians between the water of death and the annihilation of the Egyptians and at the last minute Moses is saved by the daughter of pharaoh and here Miriam sort of is reliving this event reliving this prophecy where once again we hear the word tits Vu to stand firm and watch the salvation of God and once again Israel is standing before the Red Sea and then Annihilation from the Egyptians between the water and the hard place and Miriam has already gone out with her drums she's already expecting Victory she's already expecting the salvation of God you know she's not just you know that's like in her Attila said you know she's like put it in her carry-on she didn't have to go like looking through her luggage she was already going out of Egypt with all of the Empire behind them in chariots in their horses and she's already with her drums ready to sing you know as we learn this story of Salvation it's really Israel's first time the first Redemption of Israel it's teaching us not only about the Final Redemption of the end of days but it's teaching us about our own redemptions and salvation in our own life and it seems as there's a pattern here we will be brought to the edge of our abilities to the edge of our emotional stability to the edge of our psychological stability to the edge of our physical stability pushing us as far as we can go until we're stuck in between the sea and a hard place between rock and a hard place between Annihilation on one side and Death on the other side and at that moment we're meant to remember Miriam we're meant to remember to already pack our drums and know that the salvation of God is at hand and that one way or another just as he has saved us in the past he's going to save us now and he'll save us in the future and to pack our drums and be ready and it is to live with to stand firm and you know last week I was so sick in Israel and as the day was coming closer I had committed to coming to Manchester months in advance and I was like I just can't believe they've prepared so much I mean high schools and synagogues and I've been speaking of multiple times every day since arriving Thursday night and I'm gonna have to cancel and I said how is this gonna how is this all gonna work and I was just thinking lit yetsev to stand firm and just as I started getting well we got on the flight and then the first event Thursday night and then just everything happens not always in the right time but in enough time and so we should all be blessed with the blessings of Miriam to know to stand firm and to know that God's salvation is at hand whether we're in Jerusalem Manchester anywhere around the world that is the power of emuna bye guys