This week we got a notice on the front of our building. It was a boil water notice. We didn’t find it until Friday. But it said we would not have any water until 11Pm on Thursday. However, we knew as soon as the water was turned off. No water to wash hands, to drink on a hot summer’s day or to flush the toilets. It was a water main break. Not the only one in Elgin this week.
As we watched water gushing from a hydrant, I was reminded of the poem:
“Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.” Coleridge, Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Water. It is an essential element. H20. We can’t live without it. We were born in it. 60% of our bodies are water. We are told to stay hydrated in the summer especially. Drink your water. TODAY. It will be very hot. They are saying it on all the news.
The recommendation is 64 ounces of water. Pure, clean, water. That’s a gallon. That’s a privilege.
Now imagine not having access to water. Maybe you are wandering in the desert, an ancient Israelite, like in our portion today. Maybe you visiting Israel. Lishdot, Lishdot, Lishdot. Drink, Drink, Drink, the madricim, the tour guides call out. Tepid water out of a hot canteen or a warm plastic bottle is not too appealing. Ice doesn’t exist much in the desert but drink you must. Maybe you live in Tucson, like Simon’s siblings. When we first started visiting them in Tucson, I didn’t like drinking water. But Simon’s mother was insistent. And iced tea doesn’t count.
Maybe you live in Flint. Five years after the crisis began, it may finally be getting better, NPR reports. The last pipe needing replacing has been. But the jury is out on whether the children have been permanently damaged by the lead and the unemployment is still sky high. https://www.npr.org/2019/04/25/717104335/5-years-after-flints-crisis-began-is-the-water-safe
Maybe you live in Guatemala.
Guatemala has been in the news a lot this weekend. Part of the reason we hear about the violence in Guatemala is a fight over land rights and water rights. It is part of what I learned about when I traveled to Guatemala as part of American Jewish World Service. It is part of what I spoke about last night at a Lights of Liberty event.
While Guatemala’s constitution guarantees the right to clean and safe water (The US Constitution does no such thing), Guatemala and El Salvador are the only two Central American countries to not have legislation to protect the right to water access or regulate its use. So big international mining companies come in and prevent access to water by the indigenous people. This causes an increase in violence. It also creates a huge issue with pollution. Lake Atilan, one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, is one of the most polluted, fresh water lakes. This impacts access to safe drinking water, and threatens the economy of the region.
Under the slogan, “Water is life”, thousands have marched from the border of Mexico to the coast, some 260 miles, to demand that the Guatemalan government protect the right and access to fresh water.
Yes, people fight. To the death over water. In Tucson there were two recent trials of people providing water to migrants. Leaving gallon jugs of bottled water out in the hot Sonoran desert sun. In one case, four were convicted in January. In the other, in June, the jury was deadlocked. When did it become a crime to give someone water? How does this fit with our Jewish values?
Yes, people fight. To the death over water. Abraham signed a treaty with Abimelech to guarantee access to wells. Isaac did too. Beersheva either means Seven Wells or Well of Oath, because the treaty was signed there. Water provides more than physical nourishment. It also provides spiritual nourishment. Who has not been refreshed by watching a sunset over a body of water? Wells are also where you might find your soulmate. Hagar found G-d. Rebecca was led to Isaac. Jacob found Rachel and Leah. Moses found Zipporah.
Water is life.
Bottled water may not be. Bottled water actually hurts the environment. The bottlers harm the environment by depleting aquifers and other groundwater sources. They have an impact on the local economies because they pay little, and in some cases nothing for the water they take. They can take the maximum amount they want, without regard for drought or water shortage or regard for the local needs of the people, like we discussed about Guatemala.
Plastic bottles are not sustainable. They require too much fossil fuels to manufacture, fill and ship. Nor are they biodegradable. 6 out of 7 plastic bottles in the US are “downcycled” and not recycled. Some bottled water is merely tap water at 10,000 times the cost. As much as 25% of bottled water may come from the tap. Bottled water may contain mold, microbes, benzene leached from the plastic and even more recently arsenic.
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-11193/7-reasons-to-never-drink-bottled-water-again.html
So what do we do at CKI.? We have taken steps to reduce the numbers of plastic bottles we use here. You have probably noticed the pretty decanters with ice water, usually one plain and one infused with fruit. Drink it. Enjoy it. Drink deeply from it.
Our portion today starts just after the death of Miriam. Miriam, whose name means bitter waters is very much associated with water. We know her as placing Baby Moses in the basket on the Nile, for singing at the shores of the sea and for finding water while the Israelites were wandering in the desert. But then she dies.
“And the children of Israel, the whole congregation, came into the wilderness of Zin on the first new moon and the people dwelled there at Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there. And there was not water for the community and they joined against Moses and Aaron.” (Numbers 20:1-2)
Once Miriam dies, the Israelite can no longer find water. “Spring up O Well.” They sing. Debbie Friedman, z’l gave us a lovely song using this very verse:
Lyrics:
Spring up a well, and sing ye unto it
Spring up a well, and sing ye unto it
CHORUS:
Oh the water in the well and the healing in the well
The women and the water and the hope that’s in the well (x2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jJXCpEqO54
The verses of Debbie Friedman’s song are actually based on the midrashim about Miriam. They explain that this well, Miriam’s Well, followed the Israelites and provided the water. With her death, the well disappeared. (Ta;anit 9A). Rashi comments, saying that the rock that “Moses struck with his rod, in verse 11, was actually the no longer functional Miriam’s Well. When the Israelites complained, yes, they were kvetching again, that there were “no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates (20:4), they were expressing their profound alarm that the mayyim hayyim, the living waters that had once watered their gardens, herbs, seeds and trees and dried up. (Sefer Ha’Aggadah)
Miriam, and her well, were the source of mayyim hayyim, that living water that we all need to live. That we can still access today, if only we know how to look. Some midrashim teach that Miriam’s Well was as old as the universe, created on the second day (Pirke de-Rabbi Eliezer 3) or on the eve of the very first Shabbat. (Avot 5:6). It may have looked like a beehive. Whenever the Israelites camped, the well rested close by on an elevated spot opposite the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. (Tosefta Sukkah 3:11-13 and Numbers Rabbah 1:2) http://www.jtsa.edu/miriams-legacy-of-leadership
Now let’s go back to the song, because we begin to understand how the water in the well provided hope and healing. For the Israelites and for us today:
When the world was created, there was heaven and dry land
And all the waters gathered, upon hearing God’s command
There was a bit of water, that was left or so they tell,
That was the water that became the water from the well
CHORUS:
It was in Miriam’s honor that the first well came to be,
To celebrate her music, her dance and prophecy,
The people came to Miriam when their spirits rose and fell
She nourished all their visions with the water from the well
CHORUS:
“Spring up a well!” the twelve tribes sang and the rushing waters flowed
High as pillars, into rivers to the oceans they would go
Surrounded by the trees and fruits so rich and bountiful
The Israelites were nourished by the waters from the well
CHORUS:
When Miriam dried, the well dried up, and Moses’ shed his tears
And God said, “Moses, touch this rock and water will appear”
Well Moses raised his staff in anger and upon the rock it fell
And out came springs of water, it was water from the well
CHORUS:
Bridge:
For the memory of the women, for the memory of the well
For the ones who came before us, their stories we must tell
We are searching for the water, where we wander, where we dwell
For Miriam and all of us, who thirst to find the well
CHORUS:
This is Miriam’s Cup, Kos Miriyam that many people have taken since the 70s to adding to their seder tables. This is how new liturgy is born. Recognizing the real role that Miriyam and her leadership played in allowing the Israelites to flee Egypt. Her rescuing Moses, her teaching the women to celebrate at the shores of the sea and her finding water in the wilderness, offering all of us hope.
This Kos Miriyam one that I purchased in Riverdale, NY with my chevruta partner, Rabbi Linda Shriner Cahn.
Because this is a “new custom” there is no fixed blessing yet. Let’s try this:
Zot Kos Miryam, Kos Mayyim Hayyim.
Zakheir l’tzi-at Mitzrayim.
This is the Cup of Miriam, the Cup of Living Waters.
Let us remember our going out from Egypt.
Barukh Atah Adonay, Eloheynu Melekh ha-Olam, she-ha-kol n’hi-ye bi-d’varo
Blessed are You Lordh our God, Ruler of the Universe, Creator of Time and Space, by Whose word everything is created.
And remember, this day and every day, drink your water. And fight so that all people have access to water. Water is life.