The world is changing rapidly. Voices that were not allowed to be heard before are now resounding in our ears. We think it’s critical that we add the voices of women from the Hebrew Bible to this evolution.
IN THE VOICE OF MIRIAM:
“As a young girl I experienced prophetic visions. Messengers came to me in many forms. The wind swept around me and spoke; the birds perched on my outstretched fingers and sang so that I could understand their meaning; the waters of the great river swirled and reverberated with languages only I could hear.
A child would be born to my parents, a male child. With this birth, I saw into the future. My two brothers and I, going out of Egypt, leading our people in a heroic march that would free our souls and lead us out of this deadening place where all the light was dimmed by the exhausting labor of our hands, and where there was no room left for the songs of our hearts.
Yet I hardly dared tell the story of my revelation to my parents, who lived deep inside the fear of the newest and most terrible of edicts that had been handed down by the regime of the Pharaoh.“
The Tradition of Midrash
The Torah tells the story of the Israelites’ enslavement and redemption. The haggadah was compiled by rabbis in the second century of the Common Era to help us follow the command to remember and teach our children. Traditionally, the name and story of Moses was not part of the haggadah, so we would focus on the miracles and the Divine source
of our freedom.
It is human nature to read a story and say, “But what if…?” and “What were their names?” and “How did they feel about what happened?” We recognize missing elements and came up with our own stories to add to our understanding of the text.
This is called “making midrash,” and it is an ancient and ongoing practice. The women who made the midrash you see here felt different aspects of the stories calling to them, as they filled in the female voices usually absent from Torah. Everything in this haggadah that is “In the voice of… ” is a result of our questions being answered. We imagined conversations, thoughts,
and feelings of the women in the story, and even some who aren’t, but might have been.
Jewish tradition embraces storytelling about our stories. We offer you our midrash, and ask, “What questions did we leave unanswered for you? What new midrash will you make?”
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Rabbi Ellen K. Triebwasser