The Mishnah states:   Miriam waited for a short while for Moshe, as it is said, And his sister stood afar off; therefore Israel was delayed for her seven days in the wilderness, as it is said, And the people journeyed not until Mirirma was brought in again.  Sotah 9b

The mishnah explains the merit through which Miriam earned having the nation wait for her until she was healed from her tzaraas. She had waited alone in hiding in the bulrushes to watch over her brother, Moshe, who had been placed in the Nile by his mother to avoid the decree of Pharaoh. Miriam was rewarded measure for measure; since she waited alone for Moshe, the nation waited for her alone when she was required to leave the camp for seven days, due to her having spoken Lashon Hara about Moshe, as the Torah explains:

And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moshe because of the Cushite woman whom he had married; for he had married a Cushite woman.  And they said: ‘Has the LORD indeed spoken only with Moshe? has He not spoken also with us?’ And the LORD heard it.  Bamidbar 12:1-2   And Miriam was closed up without the camp seven days; and the people journeyed not till Miriam was brought in again. Bamidbar 12: 15

In both cases Miriam was alone. As a young girl of seven, she waited alone on the bank of the river to see what would happen to baby Moshe. She made sure Moshe was not left alone. She witnessed the daughter of Pharaoh discovering Moshe in the basket in the Nile and she intervened to offer assistance and effectively saved Moshe’s spiritual life by offering to bring Yocheved to nurse Moshe.  She bravely watched over Moshe, alone, and she was forced to be alone outside the camp, when she was punished.  Her aloneness of protecting Moshe atoned and served as an antidote to her aloneness for having spoken Lashon Hara about Moshe.

The Talmud elucidates the meaning of her aloneness: And his sister stood afar off. R. Yitzchok said: The whole of this verse is spoken with reference to the Shechinah: ‘and stood’, as it is written: And the Lord came and stood etc. ‘His sister’, as it is written: Say unto wisdom, you are my Sister. ‘Afar off, as it is written: The Lord appeared from afar unto me. ‘To know’, as it is written: For the Lord is a God of knowledge. ‘What’, as it is written: What does the Lord require of you? ‘Done’, as it is written: Surely the Lord God will do nothing. ‘To him’, as it is written: And called it Lord, is peace. Sotah 11a

Her watching over Moshe is called ותתצב which is parallel to how God’s shechinah watches over the nation, as the navi states:

 And the LORD came, and stood, and called, as at other times: ‘Shmuel, Shmuel.’ Then Samuel said: ‘Speak; for Your servant hears.‘

The Talmud equates Miriam’s standing over Moshe with God’s standing over the people.

The Talmud calls God’s standing over the people as שכינה—which means Divine Providence. When God stands alone over the people it means He supervises, and guides. When Miriam stood alone over Moshe it means that it was a proactive standing—to supervise, guide and intervene.

The Maharsha explains that the shechinah’s protection of the nation is hinted to in the words, אחותו—his sister, since the shechinah was with the nation in exile, and was with them from the very beginning of their exile, which is implied in the words, ותתצב אחותו—his sister stood over him.

When someone stands alone—it means that God is supervising, and is standing over the person, with His שכינה. In man’s aloneness, he is never truly alone. In order to merit God’s Providence over our aloneness, our aloneness must be a re-enactment of Miriam’s aloneness. Miriam’s aloneness is meant to be used as an opportunity to look after someone else. Aloneness is not meant for one to wallow in their aloneness, rather to use it to stand over, and to protect someone else.

Of course, there are unfortunate times when one experiences the emotional pain of lonelinesss. A person who is widowed, a widower, an orphan, a person who is single, or a couple who have not been blessed with children—are legitimately and understandably  prone to feeling sad, hurt and rejected. People need people—and these persons are feeling lonely.

The silence of an empty house without children and without a loved one is deafening and emotionally painful, beyond words. The pain can be unbearable. In the midst of our aloneness we feel despair—how can we go on?

And in such tragic circumstances, the words of King David echo in our hearts:  They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.  And they say: ‘The LORD will not see, neither will the God of Jacob give heed.‘ Consider, You brutish among the people; and You fools, when will You understand?     He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see? Tehillim 94:6-9

Rashi explains: Will He Who implants the ear: Is it possible that the Holy One, blessed be He, Who implanted the ear, should not hear the cry of His people and their affliction?

Malbim explains that this is the false claim of the philosophers who suggest that while God knows generally what happens in the world, He doesn’t have “eyes” to see the details—meaning He is not involved in the day to day affairs of life, though Divine Providence, hence there are widows, and orphans.

King David answers He that planted the ear, shall He not hear? He that formed the eye, shall He not see…

 The human eye and ear are symbolic of God’s omnipresence and omniscience. The Ultimate Eye and the Ultimate Ear are God’s “eye” and “ear”—for He Sees and Hears all; and He symbolically formed man with an an eye and an ear as a physical expression of His spiritual Eye and Ear—the Source of man’s ability to see and to hear.

 So why would a good God, who Sees and Hears everything allow people to become widows, widowers, and orphans, allow children to die, and allow Inquisitions, Holocausts, and terrorism, to happen? It would appear that God decides not to Hear, and not to See, and not to Pay Attention to the suffering of man.

The answer is that G-d does See, and He does Hear, and He does Pay Attention, and yet, sometimes, in His Wisdom, he Decides not to intervene.

One of the ways that God Sees, Hears and Intervenes  is through hester panim, Hiding His Face. This is clearly a great, if not the greatest test of our faith—and yet we cannot afford to fail this test. We must find, in our apparent loneliness, the strength to discover God’s Presence, in the midst of his apparent  absence.  We must find His Presence, His Divine Providence, in the meaning and growth that emerges from our aloneness.

It is a matter of faith to be able to say: I would not want to believe in a God, who I could understand, as the Rambam states:

Those who seek the truth, and admit what is true, must believe that nothing is hidden from God; that everything is revealed to His knowledge, which is identical with His essence; that this kind of knowledge cannot be comprehended by us; for if we knew its method, we would possess that intellect by which such knowledge could be acquired. Such intellect does not exist except in God, and is at the same time His essence.

 These sublime and profound themes admit of no proof whatever, neither according to our opinion who believe in the teaching of Torah, nor according to the philosophers who disagree and are much divided on this question. In all questions that cannot b

demonstrated, we must adopt the method which we have adopted in this question about God’s Omniscience.[1]

The Rambam also explains[2]: It is stated that the Lord withheld from Moses that perception which is termed “the seeing of the Divine face,” and substituted for it another gift, viz., the knowledge of the acts attributed to God, which, are considered to be different and separate attributes of the Supreme. In asserting that God withheld from Moses (the higher knowledge) I mean to say that this knowledge was unattainable, that by its nature it was inaccessible to Moses: for man, whilst able to gain perfection by applying his reasoning faculties to the attainment of what is within the reach of his intellect, either weakens his reason or loses it altogether as soon as he ventures to seek a higher degree of knowledge unless he be granted a special aid from heaven, as is described in the words,” And I will cover you with my hand until I pass by” (Shemos 23:23)

Rav Yaakov Weinberg, ztz’l, Rosh Yeshiva of Ner Yisrael, would teach his talmidim to say: In my faith, I am alone—and at the same time, I must say three things: “There is a God, I am in His hands, and that is a good place to be.”

[1] Moreh Nevuchim, Guide for the Perplexed, 3:21

[2] Moreh Nevuchim, Guide for the Perplexed, 1:21

This essay is an excerpt from Alone Against the World by Rabbi Yisroel Rollhttp://www.feldheim.com/authors/roll-rabbi-yisroel.html