In Parshat Behaalotcha, Bamidbar 12:1, we read: “Miriam and Aharon spoke against Moshe because of the Kushite woman whom he had married: For he had married a Kushite woman.”

According to Yoseph Ibn Kaspi (Spain 1280-1340) in his book Mishneh Kesef, if you follow the pshat (the plain meaning of the text), Moshe, while still married to Tzipora married a second wife, an Ethiopian woman. We don’t know why or exactly when he married her, the Torah doesn’t give us any other details about it.

The rest of Miriam and Aharon’s conversation about Moshe is not recorded in the Torah.

In Biblical times, it was common for a man to have more than one wife. Avraham had two wives and Yaakov had four wives. Just because Aharon chose to have one wife (Elisheva) doesn’t mean that he had a right to criticize Moshe for taking a second wife.

Rabbeinu Bachya Ibn Pekuda in his book Chovot Ha Levavot describes human nature: Should one of your colleagues be superior to you in the service of God and his deeds be better than yours and he tries harder than you to draw nearer to God, your evil inclination will seduce you and say to you: His greater efforts to achieve moral perfection only throw into relief your faults. If not for him you would be considered by everyone the most righteous in your generation. Stir up opinion against him, envy him and hate him! Find fault with him and if you can spread an evil report of him to lessen his reputation, do so!

Unfortunately, people feel that they have to put down others in order to make themselves look better.

Aharon and Miriam were prophets who were on a high spiritual level. There was no reason for them to feel that they had to compete with Moshe.

We have to learn from Miriam and Aharon’s mistakes and rise above them.

We must concentrate on being the best that we can be without putting down others.