In this weeks parsha the children of Israel sing a song of praise to G-d after crossing the Red Sea. 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, and expresses Israel's desire that G-d lead them to their homeland and rest His presence amongst them in the Holy Temple. It concludes with a reference to the ultimate redemption, when "G-d will reign for all eternity." (Exodus 15)

Actually, there are two versions of the Song at the Sea - a male version and a female version. After Moses and the children of Israel sang their song, "Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the tambourine in her hand; and all the women followed her with tambourines and dances. And Miriam called to them: 'Sing to G-d, for He is most exalted; horse and rider He cast in the sea...'" (Ibid) The men sang, and then the women. The men sang, and then the women sang, danced and tambourined. The men sang - sang their joy over their deliverance, sang their yearning for a more perfect redemption - but something was lacking. Something that only a woman's song could complete.

Miriam, the elder sister of Moses and Aaron, presided over the female encore to the Song at the Sea. Miriam, named "Bitterness" because at the time of her birth the people of Israel entered the harshest phase of the Egyptian exile.(Midrash Rabbah) Miriam, who when the infant Moses was placed in a basket at the banks of the Nile, "stood watch from afar, to see what would become of him." (Exodus 2) It was Miriam, with her deep well of feminine feeling, who truly experienced the bitterness of galut (exile and persecution). And it was Miriam, with her woman's capacity for endurance, perseverance and hope, who stood lonely watch over the tender, fledging life in a basket at the edge of a mammoth river, whose vigilance over "what would become of him" and his mission to bring redemption to her people never faltered.

The scene of the young woman standing watch in the thicket of rushes at the edge of the Nile, the hope of redemption persevering against the bitterness of galut in her heart, evokes the image of another watching matriarch - Rachel. As the prophet Jeremiah describes, it is Rachel who, in her lonely grave on the road from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, weeps over her children's suffering in galut. It is she, more than the male patriarchs or leaders of Israel, who feels the depth of our pain; it is her intervention before G-d, after theirs has failed, which brings the redemption. (Jeremiah 31)

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 galut 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.

The great Kabbalist, Rabbi Yizchak Luria ("The Ari," 1534-

"And Moshe took the bones of Yosef with him." (13:19) The Gemara (Sotah 13a) says that while all the Jews were occupied with acquiring the gold and silver of the Egyptians, Moshe was occupied with the mitzvah of the "bones of Yosef." The Gemara connects this with the pasuk "chacham-leiv yikach mitzvot" -- "The wise-hearted takes mitzvot" (Proverbs 10:8). What wisdom did Moshe show here?

Tu B'Shevat, the 15th of Shevat, is the New Year for trees. On this day, it is customary to eat from the seven species for which the land of Israel is praised: "...a land of wheat and barley and (grape) vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and (date) honey." (Deuteronomy 8) Tu B'Shevat is the day when new sap starts to rise in the tree, when new life is starting to emerge. Even though we are still in the middle of winter and all looks bleak, cold and lifeless, Tu B'Shevat comes - a day of new life with the promise of rejuvenation.