Bamidbar 12: Gossip Girl and Boy

Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had taken [into his household as his wife]: ‘He took a Cushite woman!’וַתְּדַבֵּר מִרְיָם וְאַהֲרֹן בְּמֹשֶׁה עַל־אֹדוֹת הָאִשָּׁה הַכֻּשִׁית אֲשֶׁר לָקָח כִּי־אִשָּׁה כֻּשִׁית לָקָח׃ (Numbers 12:1)Why were Aaron and Miriam gossiping about Moshe’s wife? Rashi explains that the word Cushite does not mean that Moshe married someone from Cush, which is translated as Ethiopia. The numerical value of the word is the same as beauty and it means that everyone agreed that she was beautiful. They were gossiping about Moshe having divorced his beautiful wife. Rashi’s interpretation is motivated by the fact that the only wife we know about is Tziporah and she is a Mediante woman, not an Ethiopian, so the Cushite must not be referring to her birthland. Rashi’s interpretation has some issue. The Torah also does not say that Moshe divorced his wife. Rashi also does not explain why the Torah did not say outright that she was beautiful. Why use a code? Ibn Ezra takes the complete opposite approach. He explains that she is called a Cushite because she had a dark complexion similar to an Ethiopian. Their complaint was not that Moshe divorced a beautiful woman, but they believed that Moshe divorced her because she was not beautiful because she was foreign. Ibn Ezra also has the problem of the Torah not mentioning a divorce. It also seems odd that Aaron and Miriam would think that Moshe divorced his wife because he did not think she was pretty or due to her complexion if they had been married for this long and had two sons! The Midrash explains that they knew Moshe had separated from his wife because of the previous story of the 70 elders. When the 70 men began to prophesize Moshe’s wife commented that she feels bad for their wives because their husbands will no longer be with them assuming that marital separation was a requirement of leadership. This is why God tells Aaron and Miriam that he speaks to other prophets in a dream but Moshe is a “member of his household.” The idea is that God could appear to Moshe at any moment, so he needed to be constantly ready for God and so he needed to separate from his wife. Perhaps a connection could be to another story in a previous chapter- Yitro leaving. Yitro only arrived with Tzipporah and Moshe’s children around the time of the giving of the Torah. When Yitro refused to continue on with the Israelites, he returned to Midyan with is daughter. Moshe had abandoned his wife and children before and now seems to be doing it again. Ultimately, Moshe’s family life is in turmoil as the Midrash will explain later that a story of a man creating an idolatrous cult during the time of the Judges was in fact Gershon, one of Moshe’s sons. Moshe’s sons also do not have any leadership role in Israel, unlike Aaron’s sons or even Chur, Miriam’s son according the Midrash who helps Moshe at the time of the attack of Amalek. The gossip may have been that Moshe chose a wife who was not able to fully be by his side or that Moshe was just not a good family man. God’s anger at Aaron and Miriam may also have to do with their lack of sympathy. Moshe needed to be fully ready for God at any time. This meant he was not able to lead a “normal” lifestyle. Instead of supporting their brother with this hardship, Miriam and Aaron chose to gossip about it.