TORAH SPARKS ניצוצות תורה
פרשת חקת – שבת ראש חדש
PARASHAT HUKKAT – SHABBAT ROSH HODESH
July 2, 2011 – 30 Sivan 5771 – ל’ סיון תשע"א
Annual: Numbers: 19:1 – 22:1 (Etz Hayim, p. 880; Hertz p. 652)
Triennial: Numbers: 19:1 – 20:21 (Etz Hayim, p. 880; Hertz p. 652)
Haftarah: Isaiah 66:1 – 24 (Etz Hayim, p. 1220; Hertz p. 944)
Prepared by Rabbi Joseph Prouser
Baldwin, New York
Parashat Chukat opens with one of the most inscrutable passages in the Torah, about the parah adumah – the red heifer. The ashes of an entirely red cow are mixed with the other significantly red ingredients with which it is to be burned, for use in a ritual that purifies someone who has been in contact with a corpse. (A dead body is a primary source of ritual impurity.) The ashes, which render the affected Israelite pure, render the officiating priest impure. )This seeming contradiction has been aptly referred to as a “parah-dox” by Diana Lipton, a lecturer in Hebrew Bible and Jewish studies at King’s College in London.)
When the Israelites arrive at Kadesh, a series of significant events take place. Miriam dies and is buried. Immediately after her death, we learn that Israel is without water – the juxtaposition providing the impetus for the midrashic link between Miriam and the Israelites’ miraculous access to water in the wilderness. The Israelites quarrel with Moses about their potentially lethal lack of water. God tells Moses and Aaron to equip themselves with Moses’ staff, and then to order a rock to produce water for the Israelites. Moses, inexplicably departing from these precise instructions, instead twice strikes the rock, which nevertheless does produce sufficient water for the Israelites and their livestock. God responds to the prophetic breach of discipline harshly: because they “did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelites,” Moses and Aaron are told they will not be permitted to accompany the people into the Promised Land.
Also at Kadesh, speaking in the protracted and florid language of diplomacy, Moses appeals to the King of Edom to allow the Israelites to pass through his territory, invoking Israel’s history of suffering and promising not to use any of Edom’s natural resources. Edom responds tersely: “You shall not pass” – adding a threat of military enforcement to his refusal.
Moses, no doubt disappointed by Edom and grieving for Miriam, is further bereaved: Aaron dies on Mount Hor. Moses transfers priestly leadership, as well as
Aaron’s vestments, to his brother’s son Eleazar. The nation mourns its founding priest for 30 days.
Following a battle in which Israel defeats the Canaanite king of Arad, God punishes a typically disgruntled Israelite community with lethally poisonous snakes. Moses is
instructed to construct a copper serpent, which will be displayed on a pike. Afflicted
Israelites are cured by looking at the metal snake.
Citing a lost “Book of the Wars of the Lord,” the route through Transjordan is detailed, culminating in a battle against the Amorite King Sichon, whose land the victorious Israelites conquer. A similar victory and conquest follow the Israelites’ battle with Og, king of Bashan. Both these victories are celebrated in Psalm 136, familiar to Jewish worshipers from Ki l’Olam Chasdo.”
The parashah concludes with the wandering Israelites “encamped in the steppes of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho.”
Theme #1: “Two Called Strikes”
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: ‘You and your brother Aaron take the rod and
assemble the community, and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water. And Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Out came copious water, and the community and their beasts drank. But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, ‘Because you did not trust Me enough to affirm My sanctity in the sight of the Israelite people, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.” Numbers 20:7-12
Study: Derash
“The Jewish people were at the critical juncture of transitioning from desert life to Israel. At the rock, God’s instructions to Moses are carefully chosen to reflect this
transition. Forty years earlier, when Moses was told to hit the rock, the people had just come out of brutal slavery in Egypt, and hitting was a language they understood.
But this time, Moses was called upon to lead a generation who’d grown up in freedom; a generation that required the softer approach of speaking.” Rabbi Shraga
Simmons
“This is really one of the saddest passages in the Torah. Moses, the longtime leader of the Israelites and the greatest teacher and prophet our tradition has ever
known, loses control of himself, and is punished in a particularly harsh way (from his point of view) by God. If anyone else had done the same, they surely would have
been given a second chance. However, for all the same reasons that we may feel that
Moses should have received some compassion, he was held to the highest accountability for his actions. As the leader of the people, he was expected to be the
paragon of faith and virtue. In positions of high leadership, the tough decisions and
constancy of action are expected even during times of weakness. That’s what separates a great leader from a good leader. Moses was great leader, but had his moments of weakness. For that, he was held accountable.” Rabbi Jordan D. Cohen
“Can it really be that the towering figure of Moshe, liberator and lawgiver, parent and prophet, is to be done away with in the blink of an eye, over a fit of justifiable
temper? But it is a public moment, and there the answer may lie. The Bible
consistently takes a stringent view of leadership: that leaders must be above reproach, and that they must not lose sight of the fact that it is God whom they represent.” Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses
“For desert dwellers the water supply is a matter of life and death, and the forty- year sojourn of Israel in the desert is punctuated by many references to water, notably the story of Moses’ striking a rock and bringing water from it, which he did with so much arrogance as to be prevented from entering the Promised Land.” Northrop Frye, The Great Code
Questions for Discussion
What was Moses’ sin? A variety of answers are offered: arrogance, weakness,
temper, inattention, imprecision, public malfeasance, an outmoded form of leadership. Which of these sins are the most serious? In Moses’ leadership? In our own personal, spiritual, and moral lives?
Is it accurate to say that “the Bible consistently takes a stringent view of leadership: that leaders must be above reproach”? Where else in the Bible to we see
this principle reflected or contradicted? Is it reasonable – or possible – to apply so
lofty a standard to our leaders? Or is “above reproach” an ideal toward which leaders (or all of us) are to aspire while knowing the goal is never to be attained?
Are there single sins or personal transgressions that outweigh long lives of goodness, service, leadership and piety led by otherwise “towering figures” in our
own time? What makes a single sin, or, for that matter, a single act of virtue, so very defining?
If Moses was under no circumstances to strike the rock, why did God instruct him to bring along his staff? Was Moses set up?
Is the “life and death” nature of water critical to this narrative? Did Moses imperil the Israelites physically, by improperly seeking water, or spiritually, by improperly serving God? Or perhaps these two themes combine to suggest that
properly serving God – with total submission and detailed precision – is a matter of life and death?
Theme #2: “Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood”
“From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to the king of Edom: ‘Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardships that have befallen us; that our ancestors
went down to Egypt, that we dwelt in Egypt a long time, and that the Egyptians dealt harshly with us and our ancestors. We cried to the Lord and He heard our plea, and
He sent a messenger who freed us from Egypt. Now we are in Kadesh, the town on the border of your territory. Allow us then to cross your country… But Edom
answered him, ‘You shall not pass through us, else we will go out against you with the sword.’” Numbers 20:14-18
Study: Derash
“The bitter enmity of the Edomites to Israel was particularly inexcusable because
of their common ancestry. The Edomites were descendants of Esau, the twin brother of Jacob. The sufferings that the Israelites had undergone should have filled the Edomites with brotherly sympathy and induced them to help their kinfolk.” Rabbi Joseph H. Hertz
“Israel’s most cherished ideal is the universal brotherhood of mankind.” Rabbi
Samson Raphael Hirsch
“Our skill and ingenuity may have made of the world a single neighborhood, but we have thus far singularly failed to make of it a single brotherhood.” Rabbi Theodore Friedman
“When you deal with your brother, be pleasant, but get a witness.” Hesiod
“When you are confronted with terrible hardships and no one offers you any support, when your friends turn into enemies and even your relatives have deserted
you, and when all support has given way and all hope has been lost – if you then come to remember the Supreme Lord God, even the hot wind will not touch you.” Sri Guru Granth Sahib
“Do you know what astonished me most in the world? The inability of the sword to create anything. In the long run, the sword is always beaten by the spirit.” Napoleon Bonaparte
Questions for Discussion
Why did Moses frame the Israelite national narrative as a history of suffering? Why did he
omit, for example, any mention of God’s covenant or the Promised Land? Were these elements of Jewish identity irrelevant (or counterproductive) in his interaction with Edom? Or was Moses simply (albeit unsuccessfully) manipulating the king’s emotions? How does Moses’ emphasis on Israelite national suffering resemble the image (that is, the self-image as well as the perception by others) of the Jewish people today?
If you had to summarize Jewish history in, say, four or five sentences, what would you include?
Was Moses’ description of Israel as a “brother” of Edom sincere? What nations and peoples do Israel’s twenty-first century leaders think of as brothers?
Rabbi Theodore Friedman was a leading Conservative rabbi in the United States, and later
in Israel. What technological and political factors today are especially relevant to his insight?
Judging from their statements quoted here, what positive meaning might Napoleon and Sri
Guru Granth Sahib derive from Edom’s rebuff of Moses?
Historic Note
On July 2, 2011, we read that despite Moses’ appeal to the King of Edom as a brother,
Edom’s army deployed against the Israelites “in heavy force, strongly armed.” On July 2,
1863, the battle of Gettysburg – in America’s most fratricidal war – raged for a second day. It was on the same date in 1776 that the Continental Congress had resolved that “these United
Colonies are and of right ought to be Free and Independent States.”
Halachah L’Maaseh
When, in parashat Chukat, the Israelites in the wilderness are afflicted by an infestation of
poisonous snakes, God tells Moses to place a copper snake on a pole. This metallic serpent is the biblical forbear of the caduceus, the snake-wrapped staff that is the familiar symbol of the
medical profession. Snakebite victims were instructed to look at the copper snake, and thereby be healed. Mishnah Rosh Hashanah 3:8 explicitly stipulates that the copper snake had no inherent power to heal: healing was effected by God alone, to whom the stricken Israelites
“turned their hearts.” Jewish law obligates the physician to heal and deems his refusal to do so as “the shedding of blood.” Nevertheless, when it is appropriate a physician is expected to refer patients to more accomplished experts and specialists (Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 336:1).
The patient her- or himself is obligated to seek treatment from the most capable practitioner available (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch 192:3). Rabbi Moshe Isserles (the Rema) writes that it is also proper to arrange for a Torah scholar to pray for a household member who is ill, and in extremis, formally to change afflicted person’s name (Shulchan Aruch Yoreh Deah 335:10 ad
loc.)!