Sin 3 (Part B) - David Ifergan

During the seven days the Nation did not travel and waited for her because she waited for Moses while he was in the Nile and watched over him.

Moses is different from the other prophets; he was the highest level of all prophets. Moshe speaks to G-d mouth to mouth where other prophets get spoken through visions and dreams. Also Moses gets a direct message from G-d. Other prophets do not; they get unclear messages in dreams and visions that are very hard to understand. Also the other prophets had to prepare for G-d and purify themselves when they were going to receive a prophecy but Moses was always pure and always ready. Moses and G-d communicated at any time both ways. Moses could talk to G-d and get an answer immediately and G-d could talk to Moses and get an answer immediately, which was not possible with any other prophets. Also Moses was like G-d’s pen because he wrote the Torah, which no other prophet did. Overall Moshe was a very special exception

According to Rashi the Cushite woman that Miriam and Aaron are talking about is Tziporah, who was Moshe’s wife. They call her a Cushite because she is uniquely beautiful. The relation of Cushite and being uniquely beautiful is that a Cushite person is black meaning they are unique, and Tziporah was also unique, she was uniquely beautiful.

Rambam says the reason that G-ds starts talking about Moses being modest is because Moshe is the type of person that won’t defend himself (he is to modest and humble). If people criticize him then he won’t respond so G-d steps in and defends him.

The narrator of the Torah (G-d) then says that Moshe was a very humble man. In fact G-d (Narrator) says that he is the most humble person on the face of the Earth. "Now this man Moses was exceedingly humble, more so than any person on the face of the earth." Bamidbar, Perek 12, Pasuk 3

According to Rashi G-d calls Miriam and Aaron out of the tent because G-d does not want to complement Moses fully to his face. Rashi is trying to explain that G-d wants to compliment Moses about his humbleness in front of him but not do it fully, then call out Miriam and Aaron and continue to compliment him fully.

Moses prayed for her and she spent 7 days outside the camp, then returned fully healed.

Miriam then got Tza’rath (מְצֹרָעַת), which was a very harsh disease
Miriam was the one to receive the punishment because she was the one that was doing the talking and instigated the Lashon Horah.

Moshe says the word נָא (please) twice because when you ask someone for a favour you are supposed to use two words of supplication.

According to Rashbam she was called a Cushite because she was the queen of Cush. During the 60 mystery years of Moshe’s life after he disappears from Egypt and before the burning bush, he married Tziporah at the time who was the queen of Cush. If this is true then she is not Jewish, so Aaron and Miriam are just gossiping, no real purpose.