Miriam מרים הנביאה
prophetess, sister of Moshe and Aharon
Miriam was born around 2362, in the worst years of the bondage; her name is linked to the word for bitterness. Midrash says that as a girl she prophesied that her mother would bear Israel's saviour, and made her father take back the wife he had divorced over Pharaoh's decree.
She stands by the river «at a distance, to know what would happen to him», and at the right moment offers Pharaoh's daughter a nurse. The Talmud identifies her with Puah, the midwife who with Yocheved kept Hebrew infants alive.
After the splitting of the sea she takes a timbrel and leads the women: «Sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted.» The sages note that the women brought timbrels out of Egypt — they expected a miracle.
One episode darkens her life: her words about Moshe's wife, for which she spends seven days outside the camp while all Israel waits.
Tradition says the well that followed Israel through the desert was given in her merit: she died on 10 Nisan 2487, and the water vanished at once.