Parashat Chukat is one the most disappointing transitions in the entire Torah. In a single, ‘by the way’ sentence, Miriam the prophetess, one of the most important figure of the Exodus disappears from the stage of history:

“The Israelites, the whole congregation, arrived at the wilderness of Zin in the first month, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there.” (Numbers 20:1)

There is no national mourning period recorded.

No eulogies are delivered.

Instead, in the very next verse the Israelites are back reality:

“And there was no water for the congregation; so they gathered against Moses and Aaron.” (Numbers 20:2).

The Talmud (Ta’anit 9a) explains that the sudden thirst is not a coincidence:

“Three good sustainers arose for Israel: Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. And three precious gifts were given through them: the Well, the Cloud, and the Manna. The Well was given in the merit of Miriam.”

Upon her passing, Midrash Tanchuma (Chukat 21) tells us that the miraculous, rolling rock that had accompanied the nation through the arid wilderness simply dried up.

It is our tragic tendency to take the foundational, sustaining forces of our lives entirely for granted until they vanish. The Israelites did not weep for Miriam the prophetess, the woman who watched over Moses at the Nile and led the women in triumphant song at the Sea. They only noticed her absence when their throats burned with thirst. They experienced her death not as a personal loss of leadership, but as a plumbing failure.

Miriam represents the quiet, structural bedrock of our families and communities. The people whose steady care keeps us alive without fanfare.

Parashat Chukat is a call to look at our own lives today and learn to celebrate our “wells” while they are still flowing, ensuring we express gratitude for the quiet sustainers of our world before the water stops running.

(Yes – I know the original version is by Joni Mitchell…)