Img. ID: 789
  Illuminated Manuscripts  

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Fol. 22:

Miriam, playing the timbrel and a maiden playing the viol, are accompanied by a group of women and depicted in the lower margins. Inscribed beneath Miriam:

"ותקח מרים הנביאה/ ותאמ(ר) אשיר(ה) ליי' כי גאה גאה."

"And Miriam the prophetess took (the timbrel; Ex. 15:20) and said: 'I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously' (Ex. 15:1)."

Inscribed beneath the maiden:

"במחולות הנשים/ שמחים וששים."

"The women dance joyously and with mirth."

In the outer left margin, the well of Elim is depicted as a square fountain topped by fourteen cypresses, representing the seventy palm trees, inscribed:

"שבעים תמרים."

"Seventy palm trees (Ex. 15:27; 33:9)."

REMARKS:

The appearance of the well of Elim next to Miriam the prophetess, may attest to a midrashic interpretation attributing the miraculous wells in the desert during the exodus from Egypt to Miriam's well. According to the midrash (Toseftah, Sota, 11:1), the miraculous well appeared whenever the Israelites needed water, as long as Miriam was living. After her death the well dried up.