Woman’s Song

The song at the sea praises G-d for His miraculous redemption of Israel when He split the Red Sea for them and drowned the pursuing Egyptians in it. Actually, there are two versions of the Song at the Sea - a male version and a female version. Moses presided over the male song, and his sister, Miriam, over the female encore.

Miriam and her chorus brought to the Song at the Sea the intensity of feeling and depth of faith unique to womankind. Their experience of the bitterness of exile had been far more intense than that of their menfolk, yet their faith had been stronger and more enduring. So their yearning for redemption had been that much more poignant, as was their joy over its realization and their striving towards its greater fulfillment.

Today, as we stand at the threshold of the ultimate redemption, it is once again the woman whose song is the most poignant, whose tambourine is the most hopeful, whose dance is the most joyous. Today, as then, the redemption will be realized "in the merit of righteous women."

Today, as then, the woman’s yearning for Moshiach - a yearning which runs deeper than that of the man, and inspires and uplifts it - forms the dominant strain in the melody of redemption.