In Brief
The name of the Parshah, “Chukat,” means “Statute” and it is found in Numbers 19:2.
Moses is taught the laws of the red heifer, whose ashes purify a person who has been contaminated by contact with a dead body.
After forty years of journeying through the desert, the people of Israel arrive in the wilderness of Zin. Miriam dies, and the people thirst for water. G‑d tells Moses to speak to a rock and command it to give water. Moses gets angry at the rebellious Israelites and strikes the stone. Water issues forth, but Moses is told by G‑d that neither he nor Aaron will enter the Promised Land.
Aaron dies at Hor Hahar and is succeeded in the high priesthood by his son Elazar. Venomous snakes attack the Israelite camp after yet another eruption of discontent in which the people “speak against G‑d and Moses”; G‑d tells Moses to place a copper serpent upon a high pole, and all who will gaze heavenward will be healed. The people sing a song in honor of the miraculous well that provided them water in the desert.
Moses leads the people in battles against the Emorite kings Sichon and Og (who seek to prevent Israel’s passage through their territory) and conquers their lands, which lie east of the Jordan.
Chapter 19
פרה אדומה — The Red Cow
The law of the Red Cow is described as the quintessential (חקת התֹרַה) Decree of the Torah meaning that it is beyond human understanding. Because Satan and the nations taunt Israel saying, “What is the purpose of this commandment?” the Torah states that it is a decree of the One Who gave the Torah, and it is not for anyone to question it (Rashi). Ramban explains that this particular commandment invites the taunts of the heretics because it is performed outside the Temple, as if to propitiate the “demons” of the field. Tosafot (Avodah Zarah 35a) state that one should not try to explain this precept because G-d gave us His best and most secret commands in the form of a “Divine Kiss”, as it were, like the intimacy of a lover to his beloved.
It is axiomatic, however, that since all laws of the Torah are the product of G-d’s intelligence, any human inability to comprehend them indicates the limitation of the student, not the Teacher.
The underlying message is that the Supreme Intelligence has granted man a huge treasury of spiritual and intellectual gifts, but none is more precious than the knowledge that G-d is infinite, both in existence and in wisdom, while man is as limited in his ability to comprehend as he is in his physical existence. An essential component of wisdom is the knowledge that man’s failure to understand truth does not make it untrue. (abridged from R. Munk: The Call of the Torah).
However, even though we may be unable to understand this “eternal decree” (חֻקת עולם), as there are no longer any red cows, this decree can no longer be active — though we relate to it as though it is still present. Is this an expression of the cognitive dissonance that is most apparent at this time? Or is it rather an undying belief in these ordinances and commands that G-d has given us, knowing that our belief in them, and their guidance, will herald in a better world?
Seeking a deeper relevance to this decree, it must fall into the category of “certain things that stem from the mind of God are beyond our ken”, and this is a good example of that. For one of the most insidious tools of Satan is to instill us with arrogance, believing that we can unravel all the secrets of the universe.
n19:7] הַמַּֽחֲנֶ֑ה refers to the Tabernacle Courtyard, which is as the camp of the Shechina, or the Divine Presence.
n19:9] The ashes are divided into 3 parts:
- For future use
- For the 24 divisions of Kohanim…
[Who or what are the 24 divisions of Kohanim?] - Kept in the Chail for safekeeping.
n19:13] If an unclean person enters the courtyard, he will receive the punishment of karet, and be cut of from his people.
n19:14] Contamination spreads under a “tent” or any sort of cover. The roof over the corpse has the effect of spreading the contamination under the entire air space that it covers. Thus, if a dead body is in one room of a house or under part of a tree, any person or vessel anywhere in the house or under another part of the tree’s shelter becomes contaminated. []
It is as if the corpse becomes a potential conduit for the demonic realms to enter.
n19:15] An eathenware vessel can become contaminated only if a contaminated substance comes into its interior (Leviticus 11:33). The same principle applies if the vessel were under a roof, for in that case the contaminated air space is in the interior of the vessel (see n19-20). But if it has a cover seal onto it, thus insulating its interior, it cannot become contaminated. However, wood or metal vessels would become contaminated whether or not they were covered, because they can be contaminated from the outside (Rashi; Sifre)
n19:16] In an open field, one can only become contaminated through touching a corpse.
n19-20] If the tent is made of materials that can be defiled, it must be purified. Buildings that are anchored to the ground, cannot become contaminated, however.
Chapter 20
Miriam Dies
A new era was now beginning. Nearly 38 years had passed since the narrative in the previous chapter.
n20:1-2] Miriam’s death and the lack of water
From the fact that there was no water after she died, we see that it was in her merit that the miraculous well followed the people throughout their wanderings and provided a plentiful supply of fresh water.
I wonder about this “well” that followed us in the desert. Did it give water constantly? Did it only give water when we stopped? Did the “rock” that gave well need to be carried, or did it move on its own?
I would imagine that once it was connected to the earth, it would give water, and not when it was in motion.
n20:3-5] The people protest
G-d is indulgent of people who have a legitimate complaint even when they voice it more provocatively than they should (Or HaChaim).
n20:8] השׁלג — The Rock
The definite article the indicates that this was a known rock… This same rock accompanied the people throughout their wanderings as long as Miriam was alive. After her death, it ceased to yield water, and was hidden.
n20:9] ויקח משׁה אה המטה מלפני יהוה — Moses takes the staff
Moses takes the staff from its place in the Holy of Holies, before the Holy Ark (Ibn Ezra). This is the same staff that he had used to perform the miracles in Egypt, and which he had used to provide water for the people after they crossed the Sea of reeds.
n20:11] ויך את־הסלע במטהו פעמים — And struck the rock with his staff twice
G-d had commanded Moses to speak to the rock that had given water before, but he could not find it. He spoke to a different rock, but nothing happened. [Moses reasoned that if he had found the proper rock, speaking would have sufficed. But since he could not find that rock, he thought he would have to strike a different one, following the precedent of Exodus, when he performed the miracle by striking the stone; otherwise, he reasoned, why had G-d commanded him to take the staff with him? (Beer Mayim Chaim] He struck the rock, but since only a trickle of water emerged, so he struck it again, whereupon a torrent began to flow (Rashi). Apparently, Moses should have spoken to rock after rock until he came upon the right one, but the people’s intemperance provoked him to anger. (see Rashi to 31:21).
n20:13] Moses’ sin
Chiddushei HaRim finds the key to the shortcomings of Moses and Aaron in the word לעיניהם, before their eyes (v.8), implying that Moses had to speak to the rock in such a way that the people would see something, rather than merely know it. Similarly, at the transcendental Revelation at Sinai, the Sages say that the nation saw what is normally only heard (see Exodus 20:15), meaning that their understanding of that experience went beyond the normal limitations of human physicality. Here too, G-d wanted Israel to see – that G-d provides people with whatever they need to carry out His bidding. If they could achieve that perception, the barriers to belief would fall aways and the nation could rise to new heights.
It is more like a wand. It definitely contains some magical properties.
20:14] Edom refuses us passage
20:22] At Mt. Hor, Aaron “will not enter the land”, and dies.
20:22-29] Aaron’s death
20:26] Strip him of his vestments.
Ramban surmises that after Aaron performed the final Tabernacle service of the afternoon he was still clad in the vestments of the Kohen Gadol when Moses summoned him to the mountain…
* * * * *
On the first of Av, in the fortieth year of Israel’s wondering in the Wilderness, at the age of one hundred and twenty-three years, Aaron died.
Aaron died through מיתת נשׁיקה, death by a kiss of G-d, as it were, meaning that his soul became united with the holiness of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence). The Talmud describes this as the most exalted form of death, likening it to pulling a hair from mild, meaning that the soul leaves the body without resistance. R’ Gedaliah Schorr explains that to the extent that people sin in life and establish a bond between their souls and the pleasures of this world, it becomes difficult for them to part from physical life. For those who become totally attached to physicality, the Sages like death to pulling embedded thistles from sheep’s wool. (see Resisai Laylah 56)
I have difficulty with the ascetic detachment expressed here. I believe that we need to establish a bond between our souls and this world - though not necessarily the pleasures of this world exclusively. If I try and seduce the soul into abandoning its goal, and not obeying the will of G-d, but make it instead subservient to my own will, or the need to fulfil my desires, I have indeed fallen into sin. But if we dedicate our lives and the bond of the soul with this world - to which we have been sent - to G-d, then we are fulfilling our purpose and His Will.
Though the way this is expressed might sound somewhat strident to our modern ears, it might have been a way of expressing the handing over of office, through the removal of and donning of the robes of office.
20:29] The nation wept for 30 days.
We note here is that the nation did not weep after Miriam’s death.
Chapter 21
21:1] Canaanite king of Arad took a captive.
21:2] “Israel” made a vow.
Here the nation is referred to as Israel - which has not happened often. I suppose it is because they spoke with one voice, making as one a vow to HaShem.
How strange. They took a single captive - that was enough for them to make a vow. I wonder who the captive was? Although according to Rashi, it must have been a female slave. Even more so, why would a female slave’s capture be mentioned. Why was it of any importance to Israel?
21:4-9] Fiery serpents
n21:6] הנחשׁים השׂריפים — Fiery serpents. The poison in their fangs made their victims feel as if they were burning.
n21:7]
Once a natural force has been unleashed, special merit is needed to to remove it, or protect against it, even if the sin that caused it has been removed (Or HaChaim).
n21:8]
(Rosh Hashanah 29a) "Does a serpent cause death or life? Rather, when they looked upward and subjected their hearts to their Father in Heaven, they were healed, but if not, they died. (Rashi)
Trying to capture this strange occurrence. The translation says: G-d says to Moses: place a serpent on a pole… yet the Hebrew is far more complex than that. It says to place a Seraph (שָׂרָ֔ף) on a “pole” נֵ֑ס–which means, most often, “miracle”! {I need to compare the other references to נֵ֑ס, in Is 31:9; sf. נִסִּי Ex 17:15; Is 49:22, though the standard translation is for instance, standard, as rallying point; or as the name of altar conspicuously set on a hill–which is a symbol of solitariness; etc.} Now, the serpents which G-d sent amongst the people, were “fiery serpents” or הַנְּחָשִׁ֣ים הַשְּׂרָפִ֔ים, literally the seraphim serpents, or the serpents that burn (you). Moses then makes a copper snake, נְחַ֣שׁ נְח֔שֶׁת, and places it on a pole (נֵ֑ס).
And we have just been discussing the “fire” that took Nadav and Aviram.
n21:9] G-d had not specified what material Moses was to fashion the serpent from, but he chose נחושׁת, copper, because it contains the letters of נחשׁ, the snake that was attacking the sinners (Rashi). It was a miracle within a miracle; the source of the destruction was also the source of healing (Ramban).
Copper נְח֔שֶׁת is a conductor. What actually happened when someone looked at that snake? From what did they actually die? What is this “energy” which we call a flame, yet is name as Seraph–an angelic form? Perhaps it is an energy that overwhelms the person, and if he “gazes” upon the servant with the correct attitude, he is able to conduct the energy, i.e. receive the “message”, and thus live. Could it be the same as when we receive some information that is earth-shattering?
n21:10] Encamped at Oboth -> encamped in the ruins of the passes in the wilderness facing Moab towards the rising sun-> encamped in the valley of Zered -> encamped on the other side of Amon - which is in the wilderness that juts out from the border of the Amorite.
n21:14] It is said in the Book of Wars of Hashem: “The gift of [the Sea of] Reeds and the rivers of Amon; the outpouring of the rivers when it veered to dwell at Ar, and leaned against the border of Moab.”
n21:15] אשׁר הנחלים — The outpouring of the rivers. Rivers of blood signalled to Israel that G-d had performed a monumental miracle on their behalf. The Amorites had planned to ambush the Israelites as they passed through a deep gorge near the Moabite border. They had hidden in caves over a narrow pass, ready to push huge boulders down upon the Jews as they passed through helplessly. Miraculously the cliffs that formed the walls of the gorge moved together with stone outcroppings moving into the caves and crushing the hidden Amorites. All of this was unknown to the Israelites until they saw blood flowing down the gorge.
n21:15] אשׁר נטה — When it veered… The northern Amorite cliff moved southward toward Ar, until it “leaned” against it, crushing those waiting in ambush.
21:21] Sihon, king of the Amorite did not permit them to pass; arrived at Jahaz and waged war against Israel. Israel took possession of his lands, from Arnon to Jabbok to the children of Ammon. Israel settled in Amorite cities; in Heshbon, city of Sihon.
n21:27] המושׁלים — The poets. The ones who complete or fulfil the story with their words.
21:29] Sihon had taken it from Ar of Moab, people of Chimesh are lost from Dihon to Nopah to Medeba.
n21:29] אוי־לךֻ מואב — Woe to you, O Moab. This was the curse that led to Moab’s defeat. They referred to Moab as the people of Chemosh, their deity (Rashi).
n21:29] נתן — He made. “He” is the invader of Sihon, who made the son’s and daughter of Moab helpless fugitives and captives (Rashi); or it is the idol Chemosh, which abandoned its children in their time of distress (Ramban).
What stands out here, is that Ramban is relating to this idol Chemosh as if it is a living entity that could “abandon its children…”.
21:31-35] Israel settled in land of Amorite. Moses sent them to spy out Jazar. They conquered it. Turned by way of Bashan, Og, king of Bashan battled them at Edrei. They smote him, his sons and all his people, until there was no survivor left of him.
n33-35] Og does battle. Og was the last survivor of the huge giants of the generation of the Flood (see Deuteronomy 3:11). Og had a quality that transcended size and strength. He was the fugitive who had warned Abraham that Lot had been kidnapped (Genesis 14:13).