Miriam’s Story

29 Shevat

Today, we spent time with Hadassah preparing for Little Miriam’s party. But really, I want to tell you about Miriam.  I would never have guessed that life would take such an amazing turn when I accepted the commission to make that special robe for Rabbi Yeshua.

Miriam settled  herself comfortably and said to Shim’on “You’d better sit down. This is going to take some time.” Shim’on gave his mother a long look, but she waved for him to sit.

Once he was settled, she began. “Now you children, don’t interrupt. You are going to hear something I have never told anyone before except of course, your father. It all began at my fathers house in Natzaret when I was betrothed to Yosef.  I was alone in the garden, or so I thought. I was sitting under  the tree you all loved to climb. You remember the one, it gave such a lovely shade in the summer. I remember it was a sunny day in winter, we had just finished celebrating Dedication. I heard a man’s voice and it startled me.

He declared, “Rejoice, Highly favoured one,  HaShem is withyou, you are blessed above all  women!” All sorts of thoughts were going through my mind. How had this man got in here? He looked at me and continued to speak “Don’t be afraid Miriam: you have found favour with HaShem. You are going to conceive and bear a son and you shall call him Yeshua. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God and HaShem will give him the throne of his father David: he will reign over the house of Ya’akov for ever and of his kingdom there will be no end”

I had a feeling deep down that this must be an angel. But I did not understand so I said to him “how can this be I have never had relations with a man?”

He replied “the Ruach Ha Kodesh will come upon you and you will be overshadowed by the power of the Most High! And the holy child you carry will be called the Son of God.” He also told me that my cousin Elizabeth had conceived the son in her old age and she was six months into her pregnancy! He reminded me that everyone knew her to be barren.

I just knelt and said “I’m the maid servant of HaShem, let it happen to me just as you said” and then he just disappeared!”

Shim’on opened his mouth as if to speak, but his mother held up her hand and motioned him to remain silent.

She took a sip of tea and then continued “I decided to go and visit Elizabeth. I wasted no time in getting my things together and arranging to travel down to Yerushalayim. As I was coming up to the house I called out to greet her and I was totally surprised by what she said. She called me blessed among women. She said Blessed was the fruit of my womb! And she said how is it that the mother of her Lord should come and visit her? And then told me that when she heard my voice the child in her own womb leapt for joy. I had never heard of such a thing. She went on to say even more… that I was blessed because I believed and that all these things would happen because they had been spoken by HaShem! And then I just felt this song welling up within me and I had to let the words out! I’ll never forget them I knew from the bottom of my heart that HaShem had chosen me and that I did not feel worthy in any way of his favour.

‘My soul magnifies HaShem, My spirit has rejoiced in God, my Saviour… ‘

I often still sing this to myself, especially when things get tough. I thought about it a lot over the last two days. I returned home shortly before Elizabeth gave birth to her son, they called him Yohannan. I know from what I heard when I was here before that you’ve heard of him …yes …Yohannan the Immerser  is the son of my cousin Elizabeth!”

Nobody said a word. What could we say? I didn’t realise till later, but each one of us had a reason for knowing, amazing as all this sounded,  that what Miriam was saying was true!

Rabbi Moshe broke the silence, “I think this calls for another cup of that delicious herb tea, it’s rather a lot to take in!”

When I’d refilled everyone’s cup Miriam took up her story again. She told us amazing things,some of which must have  been very difficult at the time. Her betrothed Yosef almost divorced her when he found out. But that same angel came to him in a dream and told him what was happening. I remember my parents telling me about the census that have been ordered a few years before I was born. For them it was an inconvenience but at least they didn’t have to travel. Miriam told us that they had to travel from Natzaret BeitLechem, this was particularly difficult as her time the delivery was fast approaching. The place was very crowded, they were unable to make use of the family guest room. In fact they could only find very basic accommodation which they had to share with the animals, and it was there that she gave birth to Yeshua. She told us of visits from local shepherds who had also seen the angels telling them that the Saviour had come.

When it was time to fulfil the offerings of purification, they went up to the temple where they offered sacrifice of two young pigeons, as required by the Law. While they were there, an old man came up to them, and he told them that HaShem had promised him that he would not die until he had seen Meshiach. He took the baby in his arms and spoke wonderful things over him. And on top of that there was a prophetess called Hannah and she did the same thing!

At that Rabbi Moshe stopped the proceedings again and beckoned to Shmuel and whispered in his ear, my husband hurried out of the room. We all sat in stunned silence until he returned. He handed something to Rabbi Moshe, who in turn handed it to Miriam “I think you ought to read this,” he said “I have been waiting for this day for a long time. Up until now, I thought this person must have been the Immerser, but clearly that is not so!”

Miriam unrolled the letter that had been handed to her. I think everyone from KfarGanot knew what it contained. She looked at it and handed it to Shim’on. As he read it his sister Shlom’it looked over his shoulder. Their eyes widened. For there on that piece of parchment is confirmation of what Miriam had just said.

Her story did not finish there, she showed us the expensive gifts brought by foreign kings, which she knew she had to pass on to Yeshua now. She told us how she and Yosef fled to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod and so much more. It was so very late when she stopped speaking.

“So that explains the wine!” whispered Aunt Tirzah to her husband as we all began to get up.

“Why did you not tell any of us ?” asked Shim’on

“What would I have said? I wanted you to all to have a normal childhood. Yosef and I planned to tell you all one day, but when he died I did not know how to. At least telling you here, you have seen the Rabbi’s letter. You can see that these things happened. I have no idea what the future holds for any of us, but I do know that it will be hard.”

“I want you to know, Miriam, that you and all your family will find a welcome in KfarGanot,” Rabbi Moshe assured her, “ I am sure there will be difficult times ahead. What happened in Natzaret could happen again.”

It explained the incident with the wine for me, too. If this man is the promised Meshiach, what does that mean for us? Where do we go from here?

 

Tags: angels, Aunt Tirzah, BeitLechem, child, Dedication, Egypt, ethlehem, family, Hadassah, HaShem, herb tea, house, KfarGanot, Law, Little Miriam, Miriam, Natzaret, Rabbi Moshe, Rabbi Yeshua, robe, Ruach Ha Kodesh, Shmuel, wine, word, Yerushalayim, Yeshua, Yosef