Why Miriam
Miriam was a prophet and a leader of the Israelites in their exodus from Egyptian bondage (Exodus 15).
Right after the Egyptians, who had pursued the Israelites fleeing Egypt into the Reed Sea in order to subdue and return them to slavery, are drowned in that effort, Exodus tells of Miriam taking
a timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her in dance with timbrels.
And Miriam chanted for them:
Sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously,
Horse and driver He has hurled into the sea.
The prophet, Micah (6:4) cites God reminding Israel:
I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
I redeemed you from the house of bondage,
and I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
There are many other references to Miriam in the Bible; you can easily find them by using a Biblical Concordance.
There are many rabbinic midrashim—tales—about her, too.
She comes down to us as a forceful leader, leading women out of bondage as part of Israelite destiny.
We choose this magnificent image of the Biblical Miriam by the artist, Anselm Feuerbach (1829-1880), as particularly appropriate for Project Miriam:​
In it, Miriam is not a lithe young woman but a solid, mature woman.
Her eyes are lined and she looks back over her shoulder—at the past, at bondage, at suffering she knows well.
But her gaze is forward- looking and her posture, determinedly moving ahead.
She is not celebrating wildly-- there has been too much pain, for too long; but neither is she mired in the past.
She is sober, determined—and has a timbrel in her hands, ready to greet the new future she is part of creating.
She leads women, who take liberation in their own hands with her.
It is the perfect visual image for
Project Miriam: Ending Jewish Marital Captivity,
Building Just Jewish Marriage and Divorce.