In Brief
Miriam is best known for helping to deliver Moses at the Nile River and leading the Hebrew women in singing, dancing, and playing drums after crossing the Red Sea. Later, she and her brother Aaron challenge the actions and authority of Moses. She understands leadership to embrace diverse voices, female and male. But the price of speaking out is severe; God punishes her, after which she never speaks, nor is she spoken to. Centuries later, prophecy remembers her as the equal of Moses and Aaron in representing God before the people, and as the inaugurator of a performance and composition tradition of song, drums, and dances in Israel.
