Salvation Is Dance and Eyes

Abstract

After the miracle of the waters comes the great Song of the Sea. This grand hymn celebrating liberation ends with the song of Miriam, the prophetess and sister of Aaron. Once again, we see women return in the adventures of Moses. They were the protagonists in his first salvation from the waters of the Nile – the midwives, the mother and the sister of Moses and the pharaoh’s daughter –, and now we find them again, at the end of the liberation from slavery, beyond the sea, as he sees and experiences another salvation from other waters. This image of women celebrating is beautiful. How many times have we seen them dance, cry and sing at the end of wars and famines. After the great suffering of all, they were able to use their special friendship with life to start over again, to get us back, again, to hope. We carry the rhythm and singing in our souls because we danced in the amniotic fluid first, and then also in their arms and inside the crib. We have learned to walk and for many years we fell asleep dancing and listening to the songs of women – and perhaps we will also depart from this earth with a final dance of the soul. Miriam is the first dancer and singer of the Bible, and she is an elderly woman.

The Book of Exodus is full of kolòt, voices.... Kalòt is the word that indicates the sounds produced by a ram’s horn, the rattle of a priestly dress, or the sounds of thunder.... But in the poverty of a single word there is something to cherish: the sacred language recognizes that the creation speaks incessantly, from the crash of a thunderbolt to the tinkling of a bell. For reasons of humility and a nostalgia the same word is used, admitting to being unable to hear those voices and remembering the time when the word Adam meant created to the letter.

(Erri de Luca, Exodus/Names)