When the Israelites refused to march into Canaan, God doomed them to remain in the wilderness for 40 years before they could try again.¹ In this week’s Torah portion, Chukat (Numbers 19:1-22:1), the 40 years are almost over. Moses leads the next generation of Israelites toward Canaan—but he takes a different route. Instead of heading due north into the Negev Desert again, he leads the people east to the border of Edom, hoping they can then travel north on the king’s highway that runs east of the Dead Sea, then cross the Jordan River into a different part of Canaan.

This route would take the Israelites through the heart of the kingdom of Edom, then through the kingdom of Moab, and finally through the Amorite kingdom of Cheshbon. After almost 40 years in the wilderness, they would walk through settled land with towns and governments.

The journey does not go the way Moses hoped. None of the first encounters between the kings and the Israelites result in cooperation. But the responses on both sides vary, depending on the degree of respect versus belligerence.

One definition of “respect” is due regard for the feelings and rights of others. The opposite of respect is contempt, the assumption that the other is not worth bothering to treat as an equal. Contempt can lead to condescension, but it can also lead to belligerence, since the contemptuous person considers the other an easy mark. 

Encounter with Edom

And Moses sent messengers from Kadeish to the king of Edom: “Thus says your brother Israel: You know all the hardship that found us: that our ancestors went down to Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians were bad to us and to our ancestors.”  (Numbers 20:14-15)

kadeish (קָדֵשׁ) = a place name from the adjective kadosh (קָדוֹשׁ) = holy (in the Israelite religion); a male cult prostitute (in other religions in the area).

Moses calls the people Israel the “brother” of the Edomites to remind the king that in the old Genesis story, Esau (a.k.a. Edom) and Jacob (a.k.a. Israel) are twin brothers.² Kinship alone suggests that the Israelites and the Edomites should be allies, treating one another with friendship and respect. Moses’ message continues:

“And we cried out to God, and [God] listened to our voice and sent a messenger, and we went out from Egypt. And hey, we are at Kadeish, a town on the edge of your territory.” (Numbers 20:16)

Moses is giving the king of Edom another reason to treat the Israelites respectfully: God pays attention to them and sends a divine messenger to help them. The name of their current location, Kadeish, implies that they are still under God’s protection.

Next comes Moses’ extremely respectful initial request:

“Please let us cross your land!  We will not cross through field or vineyard, and we will not drink well water. We will go on the derekh hamelekh.  We will not spread out to the right or left until we have passed through your territory.”  (Numbers 20:17)

derekh hamelekh (דֲֶּרֶךְ הַמֶּלֶךְ) = the king’s highway. (Derekh = way, road. Hamelekh = the king.)

The “king’s highway” in the Ancient Near East was not private property, but a public thoroughfare maintained by the king for efficient travel between countries, for trade or for war. If a king had the power to prevent troops belonging to one of his enemies from crossing his kingdom on the way to somewhere else, he would so. But kings would permit an ally’s troops to use their section of the highway in order to reach a common foe.

The king’s highway that Moses wants to use in this week’s Torah portion began at the Gulf of Aqaba and ran north through Egyptian territory to the border of Edom; then on through Edom, Moab, and a disputed territory called Cheshbon in the book of Numbers. This highway continued north through Ammon to Damascus before it veered toward northern Mesopotamia. It was by far the fastest route from the eastern Sinai Peninsula to the Jordan River.

But Edom said to him: “You may not cross through me, or else I will go out with the sword to move against you.”  (Numbers 20:18)

The king’s refusal includes a threat. He is less respectful than Moses, but still gives him fair warning, treating him as a peer rather than as someone beneath contempt.

The king of Edom uses the first person singular, as if he is synonymous with his country. Moses’ reply is framed first as the response of the Israelites, but then it switches to “I” as if Moses, in turn, is synonymous with the Israelite horde, whom God has promised to turn into a nation.

And the Israelites said to him: “We will go up on the mesilah, and if we drink your water, I or my livestock, then I will pay its price. [My request is] hardly anything!  Let me cross on foot.”  (Numbers 20:19)

mesilah (מְסִלָּה) = a wide road or highway of packed earth or stone.

Now Moses is proposing to take a different road through Edom. Most commentators propose that this second route went through the mountains, avoiding well-populated areas where the passage of hundreds of thousands of foreigners might spark conflict. Moses remains respectful, and even offers to pay for water from natural streams.

But he said: “You may not cross!” And Edom went out to meet him with a heavy troop and with a strong hand.  Thus Edom refused to allow them to cross through his territory, and Israel turned away from him.  (Numbers 20:20-21)

The king of Edom does not trust the Israelites, but he does respect them enough to keep his army on his side of the border, and not provoke a battle.

The Israelites also refrain from provoking a battle, though their population includes armed men. When the episode is retold in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses says that God told him:

“Do not oppose them! Because I will not give you of their land as much as the sole of a foot can tread on; because I have given the hills of Seir to Esau as a possession.” (Deuteronomy 2:5)

Edom and Israel do not become allies, but Moses respects the God-given right of the Edomites to their land.

Encounter with Sichon

The Israelites march around the kingdom of Edom through unclaimed wilderness and travel north, avoiding the kingdom of Moab as well. They cross the Arnon River and head west toward the Jordan, camping near the border of the Amorite kingdom, a cioty-state called Cheshbon.

And Israel sent messengers to Sichon, king of the Amorites, saying: “Let me pass through your land. We will not turn aside into field or vineyard. We will not drink water from wells. On the derekh hamelekh we will go until we have crossed your territory.” (Numbers 21:22)

The main “king’s highway” headed north to Damascus, but the Israelites could take it most of the way through Sichon’s kingdom—and probably past his capital, Cheshbon—before turning west and heading for the Jordan at Jericho.

Moses is again making a polite and respectful request. But Sichon has no reason to believe the Israelite horde would pass through his own capital peacefully.

And Sichon did not give Israel [permission] to cross his territory; and Sichon gathered all his [fighting] people and went out to meet Israel in the wilderness. And he came to Yahatz³ and he battled against Israel. (Numbers 21:23)

Unlike the king of Edom, who stopped at his own border, King Sichon leads his army into the wilderness and starts a battle with the Israelites. His belligerence reflects contempt; he believes the Israelites will crumble under attack. But he pays for his disrespect.

And Israel struck with the edge of the sword, and took possession of his land from Arnon up to Yabok [River], up to Ammon—since the territory of the Ammonites was strong. And Israel took all these towns, and Israel settled in all the towns of the Amorites, in Cheshbon and in all its dependent villages. (Numbers 21:24-25)

The story then gives a possible reason for Sichon’s contempt.

For Cheshbon was the town of Sichon, who was king of the Amorites. And he had made war against the previous king of Moab, and had taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon. (Numbers 21:26)

A man who had defeated the king of Moab and seized the northern part of his kingdom might well feel superior to a nomadic multitude consisting of the descendants of slaves.

And Israel settled in the land of the Amorites. And Moses sent [men] to scout out Yazeir, and they captured its dependent villages and dispossessed the Amorites who were there. (Numbers 21:31-32)

Now the Israelites own the land that used to be northern Moab. At this point, they could simply march west to the Jordan River and prepare to invade Canaan, the region God had promised would become their homeland. But they do not.

Encounter with Og

They turned their faces and went up the derekh of the Bashan. And King Og of the Bashan to meet them, he and all his [fighting] people, for war at Edre-i. (Numbers 21:33)

The Israelites (or perhaps only a large force of Israelite men) march north on a subsidiary highway into a different Amorite kingdom, Bashan. Moses does not send a message to King Og of Bashan; after all, the Israelite horde does not need to cross his country to reach their destination. The Israelites simply seize an opportunity to conquer more land.

Their action shows no respect for the people of Bashan. Encouraged by their conquest of Sichon’s kingdom, the Israelites now feel superior to Amorites in general, and their contempt makes them belligerent. Perhaps the Israelites only feel respect toward the peoples who have a historic tie of kinship with them.

And the God character in this week’s Torah portion approves.

And God said to Moses: “Do not be afraid of him, because into your hand I give him and all his people and his land. And you will do to him as you did to Sichon, king of the Amorites, who sat in Cheshbon.” (Numbers 21:34)

So the Israelites defeat King Og and take over his country, too.

Having taken possession of both of the small kingdoms surrounded by Ammon on the east, Moab on the south, and Canaan to the west and north,

The Israelites traveled on and camped on the plains of Moab, across from the Jordan of Jericho. (Numbers 22:1)

They camp where they can see across the river to Canaan, a big patchwork of city-states they will eventually conquer, like Bashan, without even warning the current residents. But they spend some time first on the “plains of Moab”, so-called because that land belonged to Moab before Sichon conquered it.

In the world of the Torah, and in the world today, conquest and lack of respect for national boundaries, or for the feelings and rights of the citizens within those nations, is the norm.

When so many nations treat one another with contempt and belligerence, we cannot be surprised to encounter bullying and condescension from individuals. Will we ever learn respect?

1. Numbers 13:30-14:45 . See my post Shelach-Lekha: Sticking Point.
2. Moses ignores the fact that in the Genesis story (Exodus 25:24-34, 27:1-45), Esau and Jacob are rivals for the rights of the firstborn in that story, and struggle with one another from birth to old age.
3. Yahatz is mentioned on the Mesha Stele erected in the 9^th century BCE by King Mesha of Moab. The stele records that Moab won a battle against the northern Kingdom of Israel and captured the town of Yahatz, which the Israelites had built up.

And the Israelites came, the whole congregation, to the wilderness of Tzin on the first new moon, and the people stayed at Kadeish, and Miriam died there and she was buried there. (Numbers/Bemidbar 20:1)

It is the first new moon of the fortieth year since the Israelites left Egypt, and almost all of the adults in that exodus have died. They spend their final year in the wilderness traveling from the desert of the northern Sinai peninsula to the Jordan River in this week’s Torah portion, Chukat (Numbers 19:1-22:1).

The men of the new generation were all under twenty when they left Egypt with their parents. They reached the southern border of Canaan about two years later (including a long layover at Mount Sinai). But then their fathers refused to cross the ridge and attack the natives.¹ God decreed that the Israelites would have to spend another 38 years in the wilderness, for a total of 40 years, while everyone who had refused to cross the border died—the entire older generation, except for Caleb and Joshua. Only then would God would let them conquer the land of Canaan.

During most of the waiting period they camped in the relative comfort of the oasis of Kadeish-Barnea in the northern Sinai peninsula.² But thirty-eight years is a long time to spend waiting, and the people got cranky and restless. So did Moses, who did not even want the job of leading the Israelites in the first place when God recruited him at the age of 80.³

Now it is finally time to head for Canaan again. But this time they must cross a different border. Instead of returning to the southern border, the nest generation of Israelites must march east to Edom, then north along the east side of the Dead Sea until they reach the Jordan River, and see Canaan on the other side.

They set off across the wilderness of Tzin. But even before they reach Edom, things start to go wrong. First Miriam dies (presumably of natural causes, since at this point she is more than 130 years old). The Torah gives no details about the people’s reaction, but Miriam was a prophet and a leader in her own right, not merely the sister of Moses and Aaron, so she must have been universally mourned.

Whining about water

Next they camp in a place where there is no water. This has not happened since Exodus 17:1, when the Israelites camped at Refidim, the last stop before Mount Sinai.⁴  At Refidim, the older generation of Israelites demanded water from Moses, and complained:

“Why this bringing us up from Egypt [only to] to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” (Exodus 17:3)

Now the younger generation makes a similar complaint.

And there was no water for the congregation; then they assembled against Moses and against Aaron. And the people quarreled with Moses, and they said: “If only we had expired when our kinsmen expired in front of God! Why have you brought God’s assembly to this wilderness to die there, we and our cattle? And why did you bring us up from Egypt to hand us over to this evil place, a place with no grain or figs or vines of pomegranates? And there is no water to drink!” (Numbers 20:2-5)

At least this generation of Israelites knows that it is God’s assembly. Yet the people complain against their human leaders, Moses and Aaron, who have no control over desert conditions. And 38 years after Refidim they still do not trust God to make sure they do not die of thirst.

At Refidim, back in the book of Exodus, God told Moses to take the staff he had used to initiate miracles in Egypt, and walk ahead to Mount Sinai with some of the Israelite elders.

“Here, I will be standing in front of you there on the rock at Chorev [Mount Sinai]. And you must strike the rock, and water will go out from it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did this before the eyes of the elders of Israel. (Exodus 17:6)

This time around, in the Torah portion Chukat, God gives Moses different instructions:

“Take the staff and assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron, and speak to the rock spur before their eyes, and it will give its water. And you will bring out water for them from the rock spur, and you will provide drink for the community and their beasts.” (Numbers 20:8)

The lack of water is real, and God calmly calls for a demonstration of divine compassion. But Moses is not listening carefully or thinking clearly—perhaps because he is still grieving for his sister. He takes the staff out of the sanctuary tent, where it has been kept “as a sign for recalcitrants”⁵ ever since God made it miraculously sprout and flower following the rebellions in the portion Korach. (See my post Korach: Quelling Rebellion, Part 2.)

Then in his emotional reaction to the current rebellion, Moses forgets that the flowering staff is supposed to remind rebels that God put Aaron and Moses in charge. He also forgets God’s command to speak to the rock, instead of hitting it like last time. Without thinking, Moses yells at the rebels and hits the rock with the staff.

And Moses and Aaron assembled the assembly in front of the rock spur, and he said to them: “Listen up, recalcitrants! Must we bring out water for you from this rock spur?” Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock spur twice with his staff. And abundant water came out, and the community and its beasts drank. (Numbers 20:10-11)

Thus God exercises compassion and gives the people water even though they did not trust God to provide for them. The whining Israelites are off the hook—for now. But Moses should have trusted and followed God’s instructions to the letter, and when he started to say the wrong thing, Aaron should have intervened.

And God said to Moses and to Aaron: “Since lo he-emantem bi, to treat me as holy in the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you will not bring this assembly to the land that I have given them.” (Numbers 20:12)

lo he-emantem bi (לֺא־הֶאֱמַנְתֶּם בִּי) = you did not exhibit trust in me; you did not rely upon me. (Lo (לֺא) = not. He-emantem (הֶאֱמַנְתֶּם) = you believed, you considered reliable, you relied upon, you put trust in, you had faith. Bi (בִּי) = in me, on me.)

Perhaps there had been a tacit understanding that Caleb and Joshua were not the only two men from the old generation who would survive to enter Canaan. After all, why would God exclude Moses and Aaron, who had been equally loyal to God’s agenda at the southern border of Canaan?

Now God explicitly dooms Moses and Aaron to die without entering Canaan, on the grounds that they disobeyed God’s orders about getting water out of this second rock in the desert. Although the most likely cause of their disobedience was the emotional exhaustion that follows the death of a close family member, God points out that nevertheless they should have relied entirely on God’s orders to them.

In the past, Moses and Aaron have sometimes had good ideas that went beyond God’s instructions. And Moses has successfully argued with God for a change in a divine decree. Perhaps the lesson this time is that when they are not able to think clearly, their job is to simply follow God’s instructions to the letter.

Moaning about manna

The next part of the journey toward Canaan does not go well, either. Moses asks the king of Edom permission to go through his land, and promises that the Israelites will stay on the king’s highway, leave the fields untouched, and refrain from using any water from the wells. But the king of Edom refuses. So the Israelites have to circle around Edom and head north through the wilderness beyond Edom, land unclaimed by any country.

Next Aaron dies, and all the Israelites stop and mourn for him for thirty days. When they continue their journey skirting the kingdom of Edom, they get short-tempered.

… and the nefesh of the people became too short on the way. And the people spoke against God and against Moses: “Why did you bring us up from Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread and there is no water, and this wretched food makes our nefesh gag!” (Numbers 21:4-5)

nefesh (נֶפֶשׁ) = throat, appetite, animating soul, life, personality, mood.

The people’s comment that there is no water seems to be an automatic reflex; there is no indication of an actual water shortage. And their complaint that there is no bread does not mean there is an actual food shortage; they still get daily rations of manna from heaven—which they now call “wretched food”.

The Israelites are not in any danger. They are simply tired of the conditions they have endured all these years while dreaming of a better life in Canaan. And now, just when they are finally heading to Canaan, they discover they have to take the long way around. They are like young children who missed their nap and, as they are being dragged along by their parents, moan: “When are we ever going to get there? I’m hungry! I’m thirsty! It’s too far!”

Except that these children have lost two of their three “parents”. Aaron’s son Elazar replaced him as high priest, but out of the original three siblings who led them out of Egypt, only Moses is left.

The Israelites have not complained about the manna for 37 years. The last time was a disaster.⁶ This time, Moses does not even react. He is grieving for his brother now, as well as his sister. And he may feel overwhelmed with guilt, or perhaps bitterness, because God punished him for hitting the rock. He is in no condition to make any decisions.

But God, who exercised forbearance when the people complained about the absence of water in the desert of Tzin, does not hesitate to punish them this time.

Then God sent burning-serpents against the people, and they bit the people, and many of the Israelites died. (Numbers 21: 6)

The sadder but wiser Israelites realize they blew it again. They come to Moses and say:

“We did wrong because we spoke against God and against you. Pray to God, and he might remove the serpent from upon us!” And Moses prayed for the benefit of the people. Then God said to Moses: “Make for yourself a burning-serpent and put it on a pole. And it will be that anyone who is bitten and sees it will live.” And Moses made a brass serpent and put it on the pole, and it happened: if a serpent bit a person and he looked at the brass serpent, he lived.  (Numbers 21:7-9)

Even in his deep depression, Moses responds when his “children”, the human beings he is shepherding through the wilderness and its hazards, admit their error and ask him for help. He prays for them, and then follows God’s instructions for saving their lives.

Even worn-out children can learn from their mistakes. And even worn-out parents with their own woes, who are too exhausted to think straight, can rush to help someone with an actual need.

May we all receive extra strength when we are sapped of energy, so we can rise to meet the most important needs for ourselves and others.

1. Numbers 13:31-14:35.
2. See my post Shelach Lekha: Courage and Kindness.
3. Exodus 3:11-18.
4. The 38 years without complaints about water (but with plenty of complaints about other things) led to a story in the midrash that a magical well of water traveled along with Miriam, and disappeared when she died. This popular legend was recorded as early as  the 2^nd century C.E., in Sefer Olam Rabbah.
5. Numbers 17:25.
6. Numbers 11:5-34.

Life-blood.  Dead ash.  Living water.  These three elements are necessary for the ritual that brings someone back into the community after encountering a human corpse.  (See Chukkat: Death and the Red Cow, Part 1.)

The one who touches any dead human being shall be tamei [for] seven days.  (Numbers/Bemidbar 19:11)

If a human being dies in a tent, everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is [already] in the tent shall be tamei [for] seven days.  (Numbers 19:14)

tamei (טָמֵא) = contaminated, ritually impure, in an unfit state for approaching God, not tahor.

tahor (טָהוֹר) = uncontaminated, ritually pure, in the correct state for approaching God, not tamei.

Anyone who is tamei is forbidden to enter the courtyard around the sanctuary, where the Israelites make offerings to God.  For a minor cause of tumah (טֻמְאָה, the state of being tamei), such as a seminal emission, one need only wash and wait until sunset to become tahor again.¹  But if the tumah is due to exposure to a dead human body, the tamei person must be sprinkled with a specific mixture of ash and water on the third and seventh days after the exposure.

Then he shall clean his clothing and wash in water, and he shall be tahor at sunset.  (Numbers 19:19)

At that point he or she can rejoin the community in worship.²  Meanwhile, the man who does the sprinkling becomes tamei by that very act.

And the one who sprinkles … he shall clean his clothing … and whoever touches the water … shall be tamei until sunset.  (Numbers 19:21)

What is this liquid that makes the tamei tahor and the tahor tamei?

From blood to ash to water

The process for making the ash that goes into the sprinkling water begins with the color of blood:

“Speak to the Israelites, and they shall bring to you a cow [that is] perfectly adumah, that has no blemish, that has not had a yoke upon her.”  (Numbers/Bemidbar 19:2)

adumah (אֲדֻמָּה) = red-brown, blood-colored.  (feminine of adom, אַדֺם.  From the same root as dam, דָּם = blood; adam,אָדָם  = humankind; and adamah,אֲדָמָה  = earth, dirt, ground.)

The blood of an animal slaughtered at the altar is sacred, reserved for splashing on the altar or inside the sanctuary.  But the blood of any other animal still belongs to God, because blood is its  life.  “The blood of any flesh you shall not eat, because the life of all flesh is its blood.”  (Leviticus 17:14)³  Thus the blood-red cow is the color of life.

And you shall give her [the cow] to Elazar the priest, and he shall take her outside the camp and [a man] shall slaughter her in front of him.  And Elazar the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger and flick some of her blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.  (Numbers 19:3-4)

We do not know the original purpose of flicking the blood toward the tent-sanctuary.  At the very least, the gesture emphasizes the connection between life and God.

Then [the man] shall burn the cow before his eyes; he shall burn her hide and her flesh and her blood over her intestinal contents.  And the priest shall take cedar wood and oregano and crimson yarn, and throw them down on the burning cow.  (Numbers 19:3-6)

The rest of the cow’s blood is burned along with the whole cow, the reddish wood of an evergreen tree, some yarn dyed bright red with shield-louse eggs—and oregano.

The oregano (a tall Syrian variety, origanum maru, traditionally but inaccurately translated as “hyssop”) is an aromatic herb used elsewhere in the Torah for ritual splashing and sprinkling with blood.⁴  All three of the items tossed on the burning cow are associated with blood, and therefore with life.

And a tahor man shall gather the afar of the cow and save them outside the camp in a tahor place.  (Numbers 19:9)

afar (עָפָר) = ash, dust.

Afar is a symbol of both birth and death.  God shapes the first human out of afar from the adamah (dust from the earth) and breathes life into it.⁵  Later, God tells Adam:

Afar you are, and to afar you will return.  (Genesis 3:19)

Thus the ash from the red cow signifies the border between life and non-existence, the border crossed by both birth and death.

When a person has become tamei by touching or being under the same roof as a dead human body, some of the ash from the ritual burning of a red cow is stirred into a vessel of “living water” or “water of life” (מַיִם חַיִּים): water from a naturally flowing source.⁶  This mixture is  sprinkled on the tamei person.

Thus the antidote for exposure to death follows a progression from the life-blood of the red cow (enhanced by other items evoking blood), to the ash of its death, to the living water.

From tahor to tamei to tahor

Humans who make or use the ash of the red cow also go through a three-stage progression in the Torah portion Chukkat.  They must be tahor to begin their work.  They become tamei during the work, and then return to a tahor state.

After the red cow has burned down to ash,

Then the priest shall clean his clothing and wash his flesh in water, and afterward he may come into the camp; but the priest will be tamei until sunset.  And the one burning her shall clean his clothing in water and wash his flesh in water, and he shall be tamei until sunset.  And a tahor man shall gather the ash of the cow and save it outside the camp in a tahor place …  And the gatherer of the ash of the cow shall clean his clothing, and he shall be tamei until sunset.   (Numbers/Bemidbar 19:7-8)

All three men must wash and wait until sunset before they are tahor again.

The Torah warns priests to be meticulous about avoiding tumah as much as possible, even if it means staying away from their own family members who die.⁷  After all, they must serve God both in the courtyard and inside the sanctuary, and all tamei persons are prohibited from entering the area.

Nevertheless, at least one, and possibly three, priests⁸ must become tamei until sunset on the day they burn the red cow—so that those who come close to the dead can become tahor again.

Similarly, the man who sprinkles the mixture of the ash and living water makes someone exposed to a dead human tahor again, but he becomes tamei just by touching the mixture.⁹

Chukkat hints that people who are exposed to the dead become tamei, unfit for communal worship, because they are in an altered state of consciousness.  (See Death and the Red Cow, Part 1, for my own experience.)  Perhaps sprinkling them with the mixture of ash and living water helps them to integrate their experiences of death and life.  After seven days, including two sprinklings, they might reach a tahor state of mind.

Then why does everyone involved in the creation or application of the red cow’s ash become tamei?   I suspect the ash is so spiritually powerful (or that what it represents is so psychologically powerful) that exposure to it causes a lesser version of the altered state of consciousness in someone exposed to a human corpse.  The ash-makers and the sprinkler need not be sprinkled or wait for seven days themselves, but they must still do some ritual washing and take the rest of the day off before they are once more in the correct frame of mind to engage in the ordinary religious life of the Israelites.

*

Today when we are in an altered state because we have witnessed death, we have a few mourning rituals to help us.  But although Jewish tradition calls for “sitting shiva” at home for seven days after the burial, we have nothing as dramatic as the ritual with the ashes of the red cow to snap us back into a state in which we are psychologically ready to participate in life with our community.  We can only wait for the shadow of death to slowly pass by.

May we be patient with ourselves, and with others, while we wait.

—

1. Leviticus 15:16-18.
2. Contamination through touch, and washing to eliminate the contamination, remind modern readers of the germ theory of disease, which was first proposed in the 16^th century C.E. and generally accepted by the end of the 19^th The ancient Israelites, however, were only concerned about an abstract state of fitness for worshiping God.  They considered physical diseases either mysteries, or punishments inflicted by God, which could be avoided only through prayer, not through quarantine or washing.
3. Later in the Torah, the people are given permission to slaughter and eat kosher livestock in their villages if God’s altar is too far away. Moses urges the Israelites: “Only be strong, so as not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life…”  (Deuteronomy 12:23)
4. The Israelites use this oregano (eizov, אֵזוֹב) to paint blood on the doorposts and lintels of their houses in Exodus 12:22, so the plague of the death of the firstborn would pass over them. Priests sprinkle blood using oregano branches in Leviticus 14:1-7 and 14:49-52 in order to convert both people and houses stricken with the disease of tzara-at from tamei to tahor.
5. Genesis 2:7.
6. Numbers 19:17. “Living water” includes water from a spring, a river, or a well; it excludes salt water or water from a cistern.
7. Leviticus 21:1-4, 21:11.
8. Leviticus 22:1-9.
9. Numbers 19:21, translated above.

This is the chukkah of the teaching that God has commanded, saying: “Speak to the Israelites, and they shall bring to you a cow [that is] perfectly red, that has no blemish, that has not had a yoke upon her.”  (Numbers 19:2)

chukkah (חֻקַּה) = decree, edict, prescription, obligation.  (Also chok, חֺק.)

This week’s Torah portion, Chukkat (“chukkah of”), opens by prescribing a unique ritual for those who have touched a human corpse, uncovered a grave, or been under the same roof as a corpse.  The essential ingredient for this ritual is ash saved from burning a perfect red cow that has never been yoked.  (See next week’s post, Chukkat: Death and the Red Cow, Part 2, for the details about how, where, and with what the cow is slaughtered and burned.)

The red cow’s ash is mixed into water whenever it is needed to decontaminate someone who has been exposed to a dead human body.

One who touches a corpse of any human being shall be tamei for seven days.  He must compensate for himself on the third day and the seventh day; [then] he shall be tahor.  If he does not compensate for himself on the third day and the seventh day, he shall not become tahor. (Numbers 19:11-12)

tamei (טָמֵא) = ritually impure, in an unfit state for approaching God; not pure, contaminated.

tahor (טָהוֹר) = ritually pure, in the correct state for approaching God; pure, clean, uncontaminated.

Until tamei people have become tahor, they are prohibited from entering the courtyard around the sanctuary, and thus excluded from the religious life of the community.¹

People who are tamei because they touched something else tamei, or had a genital discharge,  can become tahor by washing in water and/or waiting until evening.  A longer waiting period is required for a woman tamei because of childbirth, and an extra ritual is required for a person who has recovered from a skin disease.²  But people who are tamei because of a human corpse can only become tahor through the unique ritual described in the Torah portion Chukkat.

And they shall take for the tamei [person] some ash from the burning of the compensation-offering, and [a man] shall place it in living water in a vessel.  (Numbers 19:17)

A small amount of ash saved from the burning of the red cow is mixed into “living water”—water collected from a naturally flowing source rather than a well or cistern—and sprinkled on the tamei person. The same ritual is required whether someone stumbles upon an old unknown grave, or sits by the bedside of a dying family member.

Why is the mixture of red cow ash and living water the antidote to touching or being under the same roof as a human corpse?

An Inexplicable Decree

By the 12^th century C.E., some rabbis were citing the ritual of the red cow as a prime example of a God-given law that humans cannot understand rationally, but must merely accept.³

“Rabbi Yosei son of Rabbi Chanina said: ‘The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: To you I am revealing the reason for the cow, but for others it is a chukkah…’” (Numbers Rabbah 19:6)

Allegory

Other rabbis, including Rashi and Bachya ben Asher⁴, explained the chukkah of the red cow with a parable:  Just as a mother cleans up after her son makes a mess, the red cow corrects the sin of the golden calf.  Moses burned the golden calf, ground it into powder, added water, and made the Israelites drink it⁵—in order to purify them after they had defiled themselves by worshiping an idol, according to Rashi.  Similarly, the red cow is burned down to ash, water is added, and Israelites are sprinkled with it—in order to be purified after they have become defiled by proximity to a human corpse.

Rashi added that the cow must be red because sin is described as red.⁶  Its perfection is “an allusion to the Israelites, who were perfect, but became blemished. Let this come and atone for them so that they regain their perfection.”  The absence of a yoke reminds us that the Israelites cast off the yoke of Heaven.  The priest supervising the burning of the red cow is Elazar, not Aaron, because Aaron made the golden calf.

Psychology

On a psychological level, the ritual of the red cow’s ash might carry another meaning.

What happens when you watch a human being die?  I remember my father’s death at age 87, in the nursing facility where he went after the hospital could do no more for him.  One day he no longer spoke, no longer opened his eyes—but when I held his hand and talked to him, he smiled.  The next morning he did not respond, and his breath rasped.  When I came back that afternoon, there was no breath.  His body looked the same, and when I touched his face it was still warm.  But my father was gone.

I had to go through all the business that must be done when someone dies.  I spoke calmly with my stepmother, my sister, my husband, and the employees at the nursing facility, exchanging information and making practical plans.  I returned to the motel and ate and recited prayers and slept and woke up and went through another day.  And all the time I was conscious of myself as a single point in a dim and vast universe.  I was in an altered state.

I did not feel more distant from God; if anything, I was more in awe of the divine mystery.  But I did feel distant from ordinary human company.  I finally understood the Jewish custom of “sitting shiva”, not leaving the house for seven days after a close family member dies.  I wished I could seclude myself.  When I got home and I was finally able to go to a service and say kaddish for my father, I slipped out quietly afterward because I could not bear to enter a room full of chattering friends eager to express their sympathy.  I was unfit to join my community in the courtyard.  Gradually I became tahor again, through the passage of time.

According to the Torah, we must not stay in the altered state of immediate knowledge of death.  To become whole and tahor human beings, we must integrate life and death.

In next week’s post, Chukkat: Death and the Red Cow, Part 2, I will consider how other details in the red cow ritual describe how human consciousness can change as we focus on life, then on death, and finally on integrating the two states of mind.

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1. Numbers 19:13.
2. Leviticus 12:1-5 addresses becoming tahor after childbirth. Leviticus 14:1-7 describes the ritual for a human to become tahor after recovery from the skin disease tzara-at.
3. Also see Numbers Rabbah 19:8; Maimonides (12^th-century rabbi Moshe ben Maimon), Mishneh Torah, Trespass 8; Rabbi Bachya ben Asher, Torah Commentary, first published in 1492; and Rabbi Elie Munk, The Call of the Torah: Bamidbar, translated by E.S. Maser, Mesorah Publications, 1993, p. 220-222.
4. Rashi is the acronym for the French 11^th-century rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki. Rabbi Bachya ben Asher wrote circa 1300 C.E. in Spain.
5. Exodus 32:20.
6. If your sins are like crimson, they can turn white as snow … (Isaiah 1:18)