Chukat: Sapped

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.

The Israelites refused to cross from Kadeish Barnea to Chormah, then change their minds and lose the battle (Numbers 13). 37 years later they travel to the Jordan River (Numbers 19-21).

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.⁴At 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.)

Moses Strikes the Rock, by James Tissot, circa 1900

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:

Moses and the Brazen Serpent, Bible card by Providence Lithograph Co.,1907

“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.

Numbers 13:31-14:35.
See my post Shelach Lekha: Courage and Kindness.
Exodus 3:11-18.
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.
Numbers 17:25.
Numbers 11:5-34.

Balak & Micah: Divine Favor

How does a community know that God is on their side?

In the Hebrew Bible, God rewards people with food, fertility, long life, and success in war. God determines the winner of a battle. If an enemy attacks a group of Israelites and wins, God is punishing the Israelites. If the Israelites attack and win, God is giving them the victory because they have found favor in God’s eyes.

Lion attacking, Persepolis, circa 5th c. BCE

Both this week’s Torah portion, Balak, and the accompanying haftarah reading, Micah 5:6-6:8, predict that when the Israelites please God, they will conquer other countries like a lion devouring its prey.

What can people do to get God on their side?

In Balak, the blessings that the prophet Bilam pronounces for the Israelites include two hints about why God is on their side. But in the haftarah, the prophet Micah directly states what God wants.

A sign of divine favor

The Israelites traveling from the Reed Sea to Mount Sinai defeat an attack of Amalekite nomads in the desert, with God’s help.¹ Their next military engagement is on the southern border of Canaan, where the Israelites alienate God and are condemned to forty years in the wilderness. They march north anyway, even though Moses warns them that God is no longer on their side, and this time the Amalekites defeat them.²

After that the Israelites avoid combat until their forty-year sentence is almost completed. Then, instead of approaching Canaan from the south, they circle east and north around the kingdoms of Edom and Moab.

When they finally head toward the Jordan River and Canaan (in last week’s Torah portion, Chukat) they ask the Amorite king Sichon for permission to pass through his territory. He attacks them instead. The Israelites win and conquer all of his land, from Arnon River to the Yabok River.³

… he was Sichon, king of the Amorites, and he had made war against the first king of Moab and taken all his land from his hand, as far as the Arnon. (Numbers/Bemidbar 21:26)

The next Torah portion, Balak, opens with the current king of Moab’s fear of the hordes of Israelite invaders camping across the Arnon in what used to be Moabite land. King Balak hires a Mesopotamian prophet to come and curse the Israelites, so he can defeat them. But each time the prophet Bilam prepares to do so, God makes him speak a blessing instead.⁴

Two of Bilam’s blessings compare the Israelites to lions. The lion was the top predator among non-human animals in the Ancient Near East, an apt metaphor for a human nation that is the top predator among the nations in the region—the nation that wins wars and cannot be conquered.

In the first of his two blessings mentioning lions, Bilam says:

Hey, a people like a lioness rises,

And like the lion it rears up.

It does not lie down until it devours prey

And drinks the blood of the slain. (Numbers 23:24)

Later in the portion Balak some Midianites living in Sichon’s former territory seduce many of the Israelite men into disobeying God and worshiping Baal Pe-or.⁵ After the apostasy has been squelched, God orders the Israelites to attack the Midianites.⁶ Like ravenous lions, the Israelite men kill every Midianite male and burn down all their villages.⁷

Bilam refers to lions in another blessing when he says of the Israelite people:

It kneels, lies down like a lion

And like a lioness, who [dares to] impose on it? (Numbers 24:9)

When the Israelites cross the Jordan River they have a reputation for conquering two Amorite kingdoms, both Sichon’s kingdom of Cheshbon and the Og’s kingdom of Bashan. In the book of Joshua, they conquer large parts of Canaan. Bilam’s blessing indicates that in the future (perhaps in the time of King Solomon) their new nation “relies on its reputation and does not fear attack even when lying down.”⁸

Micah makes a similar prediction in this week’s haftarah. The book of Micah begins with a denunciation of the northern Israelite kingdom, Samaria, which the Assyrian Empire had recently conquered. Micah’s prophecies for the southern kingdom of Judah alternate between catastrophe if the Judahites offend God and good fortune if they retain God’s favor. In the haftarah for Balak, Micah prophecies:

And the remainder of Jacob⁹ will be among the nations,

In the midst of many peoples,

Like a lion among beasts of the forest,

Like a young lion among flocks of sheep

That passes through and tramples

And tears apart, and there is none to rescue them.

Your hand will be high over your adversary

And all your enemies will be cut down. (Micah 5:7-8)

How to earn divine favor

Bilam passes on God’s blessings for the people who already have favor in God’s eyes. In his very first blessing, he says:

Who has counted the dust of Jacob,

Or numbered [even] a fourth of Israel?

May my soul die the death of the upright,

And may my end be like theirs! (Numbers 23:10)

Here dust is a metaphor for fertility, as in Genesis when God promises to make Abraham’s descendants “like the dust of the earth, so that if a man is able to count the dust of the earth, he can also count your descendants”¹⁰.

This verse in Balak implies that the Israelites have been rewarded with fertility (another sign of divine favor) because they are upright. But we do not learn God thinks of them that way.

In his third blessing, Bilam says:

Mah tovu your tents, Jacob,

And your dwellings, Israel! (Numbers 24:5)

mah tovu (נַה־טֺּווּ) = How good they are. (Mah = what, how + tovu = they are good, from the same root as tov, טוֹב = good: desirable, useful, beautiful, kind, or virtuous.)

How are they good? All shelters are desirable and useful. Are the tents or future dwellings of the Israelites beautiful? Probably not; the rest of the Torah waxes lyrical about nature and about the sanctuaries the Israelites build for God, but not about their personal habitations. So does Bilam mean that Israelite houses, i.e. families, are good in the ethical sense?

According to the Talmud, Bilam sees that the entrances of the tents are not aligned so that they face each other, thereby giving each family more privacy—and this makes them worthy of God’s presence.¹¹ Subsequent commentators, including Rashi, interpreted this privacy as a form of sexual morality.

But the haftarah goes much farther than the Talmudic speculation that Bilam was referring to a narrow area of morality.

Micah, after comparing the Israelites to a lion, delivers a different prophecy in which God will destroy Judah, presumably through a foreign army, as a punishment for worshiping idols.

Then he quotes God as bringing as case against the Israelites for turning toward idols despite all the help God gave them in the past: bringing them up from Egypt; giving them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam as leaders; and making Bilam answer Balak with blessings.¹²

Next Micah imagines the Israelites asking what they can give God to get back into favor—thousands of rams as burnt offerings? Streams of oil? Their own firstborn sons?¹³ He replies:

It was told to you, human, mah tov

And what God is demanding from you:

Only to do justice

And to love kindness

And to live carefully, walking with your God. (Micah 6:8)

mah tov (מַה־טּוֹב) = what is good.

Here tov clearly means “good” in the ethical sense, and it is not limited to sexual morality. God wants us to treat other human beings with both justice and kindness. God also wants religious observance that is not ostentatious or immoral, like the sacrifices the Israelites suggest, but part of a careful, mindful life.

Even when we are not looking for divine favor to vanquish our enemies or give us happy lives, Micah’s statement of what God wants is a valuable guide to being morally upright. May we all learn to pay attention to where we walk, and correct our course as needed so that we treat our fellow humans with both justice and kindness.

—

Exodus 17:8-13.
Numbers 14:39-45.
Numbers 21:21-25.
Numbers 23:11-12, 23:25-26, 24:1, 24:10. In the Hebrew Bible a prophecy is usually a conditional prediction; it forecasts what will happen if a person or nation makes a certain choice. A blessing, such as Isaac’s blessings of his sons in Genesis 27, is an unconditional prediction.
Numbers 25:1-9. See my post Balak: Being Open.
Numbers 25:16-18, 31:2.
Numbers 31:3-18.
18^th-century Moroccan rabbi Chayim ben Mosheh ibn Attar, Or HaChayim, translated in sefaria.com.
The “remainder of Jacob” probably refers to the kingdom of Judah, since the Assyrians had deported thousands of Israelites from the other Israelite kingdom, Samaria.
Genesis 13:16.
Talmud Bavli, Bava Batra.
Micah 5:9-6:5.
Micah 6:6-7.

Pesach, Metzora, & Chukat: Blood and Oregano

Jews will gather around tables all over the world this Friday evening for the Passover seder, a ritual and story about God liberating the Israelites from Egypt. One highlight is when we chant the names of the ten plagues God inflicted on Egypt. After the name of each plague, we use one finger to remove a drop from the second of our four ceremonial cups of wine.¹

Death of the Firstborn, Spanish Haggadah c. 1490

The tenth and final plague is makat bechorot, death of the firstborn; God takes the life of every firstborn in every family in Egypt—except for the Israelites who mark their doors so that God skips, or passes over, them.

Before the final plague, God tells Moses that each Israelite family must slaughter a lamb or goat kid on the fourteenth day of the month.

“Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel, on the houses in which they will eat it. And they shall eat the meat that night, roasted in fire, and unleavened flatbread; on bitter herbs they shall eat it.” (Exodus/Shemot 12:7-8)

After describing how the Israelites should eat standing up with their loins girded, ready to leave, God says:“… It is a Pesach for God.” (Exodus 12:11)

Pesach (פֶּסַח) = the sacrifice mandated in Exodus 12; the annual spring pilgrimage festival in the Torah; the annual observance of Passover. (From the root verb pasach, פָּסַח = limp, skip.)

“And the blood will be a sign on the houses where you are, and I will see the blood ufasachti over you, and you will not be afflicted with destruction when I strike in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 12:13)

ufasachti (וּפָסַחְתִּי) = and I will skip over you. (A form of the verb pasach.)

The animal blood both signals an escape from death and brings the recipient close to God—in these instructions and in two other rituals in the Torah in which the blood of slaughtered animal is applied with branches of oregano.

**1) Bo in Exodus (Pesach)**

Moses adds oregano when he transmits God’s instructions to the Israelites.

Preparing for the Plague of the Firstborn, History Bible, Paris, c. 1390

“Then you shall take a bundle of eizov and you shall dip it into the blood that is in the basin, and touch some of the blood that is in the basin to the lintel and to the two doorposts. And you must not let anyone go out from the door of his house until morning. Upasach, God, to strike dead the Egyptians, and [God] will see the blood on the lintel and on the two doorposts, upasach, God, the door and not let the destruction enter your houses to strike dead [your firstborn]. (Exodus 12:21-23)

eizov (אֵזֺב) = Syrian oregano, an aromatic perennial herb. (Traditionally translated as “hyssop”, although true hyssop does not grow in the Middle East.) Eizov grows in stony ground to a height of 3-4 feet; its stems are the longest in the oregano branch of the mint family.

upasach (וּפָסַח) = and he will pass over, skip over. (Another form of the verb pasach.)

In the above passage, the first upasach means that God will pass over Egypt, and the second upasach means that God will skip over the houses whose doorframes are painted with blood.

An omniscient god would already know which houses to skip. Either the God-character in this story is not omniscient, or God includes the blood painting for its emotional impact.

Up to this point in the book of Exodus, the Israelite slaves find it hard to believe that God is on their side. But when they discover that God has killed every firstborn in every house except theirs, they are (temporarily) reassured that God is indeed rescuing them, and they march out of Egypt into freedom “with a high hand”.²

Why does Moses specify that the Israelites should use a bunch of eizov to paint the blood? The only herbs God mentioned to him were generic bitter herbs, to be eaten with the roast lamb or goat. Oregano is savory, but not bitter. Perhaps Moses is afraid that the Israelites will find it eerie to paint with blood, and he hopes to comfort them with the good smell of oregano.

2) Metzora in Leviticus

Last week’s Torah portion, Metzora, describes four steps of purification for someone who has recovered from the skin disease tzara-at. Although this disease does not seem to be contagious, the white and scaly patches of skin are a reminder of death. If the tzara-at clears up, ritual purification is necessary so that the healed person can return to the community and to God’s sanctuary. (See my post Metzora: Time to Learn, Part 2.)

The first step is a ritual requiring two wild birds.

And the priest shall slaughter one bird in an earthenware vessel [held] over living water. The live bird he shall take, along with the cedar wood and the crimson dye and the eizov, and he shall dip them and the live bird into the blood of the bird [that was] slaughtered over living water. Then he shall sprinkle it on the one being purified from tzara-at seven times and purify him. And he shall send the live bird out over the open field. (Leviticus 14:5-6)

The ancient Israelites identified blood with the life-force (nefesh, נֶפֶשׁ) in a person or animal.³ Here the priest kills one bird and catches its lifeblood in a bowl held over fresh water, which is called “living water” in the bible. The priest dips the other bird into the blood of life and sets it free. The healed person who is watching knows deep down that God has rescued them and given them new life.

The cedar and crimson dye (made from shield-louse eggs) have no apparent purpose except to emphasize the red color of the blood.

The eizov is used to sprinkle blood on the person being purified. A bunch of branches covered with soft leaves can be used to paint blood on something, and also be shaken to sprinkle blood on someone. And shaking a bunch of eizov branches would release the good smell of oregano, a reminder that life will be savory again.

3) Chukat in Numbers

A purification ritual in the book of Numbers/Bemidbar uses blood and eizov to make a transition for someone who has been exposed to a human death, so that the person can return to the right state for worshiping God with the community.

First a perfect, unblemished red cow that has never carried a yoke is slaughtered outside the camp as a chatat (חַטָּאת), an offering to compensate for an inadvertent sin or lapse. Usually someone offers a chatat after realizing they have made an error in observance that separates them from God. The chatat in this Torah portion is unique because the offering is slaughtered and burned ahead of time, so that future people who find they have become separated from the divine through exposure to human death can make a virtual chatat.

Then Elazar the high priest shall take some of her [the cow’s] blood with his finger, and he shall flick some of the blood seven times in the direction of the front of the Tent of Meeting. (Numbers/Bemidbar 19:4)

This connects the cow’s life with God’s holy place. Next, Elazar watches while someone burns the entire cow, even its blood and dung.

And the priest shall take cedar wood and eizov and crimson dye, and throw them into the middle of the burning cow. (Numbers 19:6)

The ashes of the red cow in Chukat are gathered and stored in a ritually pure place, to be used to purify the following:

1) Anyone who is inside a tent where a human dies, and anyone who enters the tent for the next seven days (Numbers 19:14).

2) Anyone who touches a human corpse (even on a battlefield), or who touches a human bone, or who touches a grave (Numbers 19:16).

Then some of the ashes of the burning of the chatat will be taken and mixed with living water in a vessel. Then a ritually pure man shall take eizov and dip it in the water, and he shall sprinkle it over the tent and on all the vessels and on the souls who were there; or on the one who touched the bones, or the killed person, or the person who died [of natural causes], or the grave. And the ritually pure one shall sprinkle it on the third day and on the seventh day. Vechito on the seventh day. And he shall clean his clothes and he shall wash in water, and he will be ritually pure in the evening. (Numbers 19:17-19)

vechito (וְחִטּאוֹ) = and he will become free of his lapse. (From the same root as chatat.)

Anyone exposed to death who does not go through this process is excluded or “cut off” from the community. If they were not excluded, “the holy place of God would become impure”. (Numbers 19: 20)

Today we have no ritual to free us from the feeling of alienation that accompanies contact with death; there has been no ash from a pure red cow for two thousand years. Neither do we have a ritual to reintegrate with the community when we recover from a disfiguring condition that isolates us as tzara-at once did.

And today very few Jews in the world observe Passover by slaughtering a lamb and painting its blood on their doorframes with bunches of giant oregano—even during the current plague of Covid. The long ritual seder developed over the past millennium and a half focuses on freedom from slavery, not on fear that God will kill us.

Nevertheless, this Passover I am going to put a sprig of oregano on my seder plate, next to the bitter herbs. Even during times when we are crushed by the bitterness of physical or psychological slavery, life has savory moments.

—

The custom of removing drops of wine is first mentioned in a Pesach sermon written by Rabbi Eleazer of Worms (1176–1238). The idea that we do it in sympathy for the Egyptians is based on Proverbs 24:17 and first appeared in commentary by Rabbi Yirmiyahu Löw (1812-1874).
Numbers 33:3.
Leviticus 17:14, Deuteronomy 12:23.

Chukat & Vayishlach: Israel vs. Edom

The Israelites are getting ready to enter Canaan again in the Torah portion Chukat (“decree of”).

The first time, they marched up to Canaan’s southern border and then refused to cross.¹ God decreed they must spend forty years in the wilderness, and then their children could try again. This time, the new generation of Israelites plans to travel through Edom and north along the east side of the Dead Sea, then enter Canaan by crossing the Jordan River near Jericho.

And Moses sent messengers from Kadeish to the king of Edom, [who said]: “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/Bemidbar 20:14-15)

Edom (אֱדוֹם) = a country also called Sei-ir, southeast of the Dead Sea. The name comes from the country’s founder in Genesis/Bereishit: Esau, who is also called Edom, i.e. Red.² (Edom comes from the same root as adam, אָדָם = humankind, adamah, אֲדָמָה = earth, and adom, אָדֺם = red-brown.)

Moses introduces the Israelites as the “brother” of the Edomites to remind the king of Edom that in the old Genesis story, Esau (a.k.a. Edom) and Jacob (a.k.a. Israel) are brothers. The descendants of brothers should be at peace.

Yet Esau and Jacob, twins and rivals for the rights of the firstborn, struggle from birth to middle age. And the countries of Edom and Israel never do become allies.³

Nevertheless, Moses calls Edom Israel’s brother, and reminds the king that God rescued the Israelites and led them out of Egypt. Then he asks for a favor.

“… and hey, we are in Kadeish, a town on the edge of your territory. 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 king’s road. We will not spread out to the right or left until we have crossed your territory.” (Numbers 20:16-17)

The Israelites are asking only for safe passage from the southern border of Edom to its northern border. They promise that neither they nor their herds and flocks will eat, drink, or damage anything in the land.

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)

Here the king of Edom is called by the name of his country, and identifies with the land he rules. Moses responds as if he is synonymous with the Israelites.

And the Children of Israel said to him: “We will go up on the highway, and if we drink your water, I or my livestock, then I will give [you] its price. [My request] is hardly anything! Let me cross on foot.” 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 (Israel) to cross through his territory, and Israel swung away from him. (Numbers 20:19-21)

In this story, the king of Edom does not trust the leader of Israel. So the people of Israel make a long detour around Edom through the wilderness, instead of taking the highway north.⁴

In the book of Genesis, Jacob (a.k.a. Israel) does not trust his brother Esau (a.k.a. Edom) when he is traveling from Charan to their father’s house. So he makes a long detour through northern Canaan, instead of taking the highway south through Edom.

Twenty years before, Jacob fled to his uncle’s house in Charan because Esau was threatening to kill him as soon as their father, Isaac, had died.⁵ Now Jacob has a large family, scores of slaves, and a tremendous wealth of livestock. The last he knew, his parents were living at an oasis in the Negev Desert to the south, either in Beir-sheva or Beir-lachai-roi.⁶ The best route for such a large party would be the highway through Edom.

And Jacob sent messengers ahead of himself to Esau, his brother, to the land of Seir, the region of Edom. (Genesis 32:4)

The wording of this sentence at the beginning of the Torah portion Vayishlach (“and he sent”) implies that Jacob is hoping to follow those messengers to Esau’s home, taking advantage of the highway. Yet he camps on the Yabok River at Machanayim, one day’s journey west of that highway, and sends his messengers to Esau from there. He is already nervous about a reunion with the brother who once threatened to kill him.

His messengers return with the news that Esau is coming north with 400 men to meet him. Alarmed, Jacob sends a series of gifts of livestock down the highway toward Esau. When Esau reaches Jacob’s camp, Jacob bows down to the ground seven times as he walks toward his brother. Esau embraces him, and Jacob persuades his brother to keep the gifts. Then Esau says:

“Break camp, and let’s go! I will go alongside you.” But [Jacob] said to him: “My lord knows that the children are tender and the flocks and herds, suckling, are upon me, and driving them hard [for even] one day will kill all the flocks. Please, let my lord pass in front of me, his servant. And I, I will move along slowly at the pace of the animals and at the pace of the children, until I come to my lord at Seir.” (Genesis 33:12-14)

Esau then offers to leave some of his men behind as an escort, but Jacob refuses. He has realized that he still does not trust Esau enough to risk entering his country. As soon as Esau and his men have left, Jacob heads in the opposite direction, northwest to Sukkot, where he stays so long that he builds a house for his family and sheds for his animals.⁷ His next stop is Shekhem, farther northwest. Jacob is willing to wait a few more years to see his ancient father, Isaac, again.

Eventually he journeys south through Canaan, where he discovers that his father has moved to Mamrei near the burial site his grandfather Abraham bought in Canaan.⁸ Jacob never does enter the land of Edom.

Should Jacob/Israel have trusted his brother Esau/Edom in Genesis? Should the Edomites have trusted their brothers the Israelites in Numbers? In both cases, trust would have enabled the people of Israel to take a faster route on a good road.

But if Esau’s change of heart had proven temporary, he could have wiped out Jacob and all his household while they were in Edom. And if the Israelites had rebelled against Moses again, this time by straying from the highway, there would have been war inside Edom.

Thanks to the wariness of Jacob in Genesis, and of the king of Edom in Numbers, there is no bloodshed in either story. Perhaps a long detour is a small price to pay for peace.

See my blog post Shelach-Lekha: Courage and Kindness.
Genesis 25:25, 25:30.
Israel’s first king, Saul, defeats the Edomites in battle (1 Samuel 14:47). Its second king, David, defeats them again and makes the kingdom of Edom a vassal of Israel (2 Samuel 8:13-14). In the 9^th century B.C.E. the Edomites rebel against King Yoram of Judah and set up their own king, who is no longer subject to the king of Israel (2 Kings 8:20). King Amatziyahu of Judah makes war against Edom in 838 B.C.E. and captures one of its cities, Sela, but the rest of Edom remains independent.
A highway in the Ancient Near East was a wide road of packed earth that could be used by caravans and troops.
Genesis 27:41-45.
Beir-lachai-roi in Genesis 25:11, Beir-sheva in Genesis 28:10.
Genesis 33:17.
Genesis 34:27.

Chukkat & Ecclesiastes: Accounting for Cheshbon

Moses asks two foreign kings to let the Israelites cross through their land in this week’s Torah portion, Chukkat (“decree of”). Both refuse, even though Moses promises they will stay on the road, leave fields and vineyards untouched, and pay for any water they and their livestock drink.

The king of Edom says no and sends an army to the border to bar the way.¹ Apparently he does not trust the Israelites, but he prefers not to attack them. So the Israelites circle around Edom and continue north through the unpopulated wilderness east of Moab until they reach the Arnon River. Then Moses sends the same message to King Sichon of Cheshbon. Sichon also refuses to let the Israelites pass through, but he attacks them at his border. The Israelites win and conquer Sichon’s land.

And Israel took all these towns, and Israel settled in all the towns of the Amorites, in Cheshbon and in all its daughter-villages. For Cheshbon was the town of Sichon; a king of the Amorites he was, and he had battled against the first king of Moab, and he had taken all his land from his hand as far as the Arnon. (Numbers 21:25-26)

Cheshbon (חֶשְׁבּוֹן) =

a town about 14 miles (23 km) east of where the Jordan River enters the Dead Sea.
accounting, reckoning. (From the root verb chashav, חָשַׁב = evaluate, consider, calculate, think out.)

After explaining that Sichon’s land used to be northern Moab, the Torah portion Chukkat quotes part of an Amorite poem celebrating Sichon’s earlier victory, translating it into Hebrew.

Therefore the epic poem says:

“Come to Cheshbon! It was built

and firmly established, the town of Sichon.

Because fire went out from Cheshbon;

Flame from the city of Sichon.

It consumed Ar of Moab,

The local gods of the high places of Arnon … (Numbers 21:27-28)

Ironically, this week’s Torah portion shows that Cheshbon is not firmly established as the town of Sichon, since the Israelites conquer it on their way to the Jordan River.

The image of fire going out of a town is often used in the Hebrew Bible for an army going out to battle, consuming enemy soldiers. Since the Amorites spoke a Semitic language closely related to ancient Hebrew, it is not surprising that the two peoples employed the same metaphor.

Perhaps King Sichon decides to attack the Israelite travelers because his victory against Moab has convinced him that his people are stronger than anyone else. Look at the fortified town they built!

Cheshbon contested

If Sichon cannot hang on to Cheshbon, however firmly built, can the Israelites do any better?

They go on to conquer the Amorite kingdom north of Cheshbon, then camp on the east side of the Jordan River while Moses delivers the book of Deuteronomy/Devarim. After Joshua leads the conquest Canaan west of the Jordan, he assigns the land east of the river, now called Gilead, to the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and Menashe. Gad gets the Cheshbon area.²

Gilead changes hands twice in the book of Judges, and is attacked a third time. In one story, King Eglon of Moab captures the territory and holds it for 18 years until the Israelite hero Ehud brings him tribute, then assassinates him and escapes to lead the charge against the army of Moab.³

In another story, the king of Ammon (or possibly Moab)⁴ makes war on Gilead for 18 years.⁵ The territory’s new hero, Yiftach (Jepthah in English), sends the king a message explaining that the Israelites took Gilead from Amorite kings, not from Ammon (or Moab). He adds that even if the enemy did have a claim to the land,

When Israel dwelled in Cheshbon and her daughter-villages, and in Aroer and her daughter-villages, and in all the towns that are along the Arnon, for 300 years, then why did you not recover them during this time? (Judges 11:26)

The king sends no reply. Yiftach captures twenty towns and villages, and Gilead remains in the hands of Israelites.⁶

Gilead becomes part of David’s kingdom in the second book of Samuel. His son Solomon assigns a governor to administer “the land of Gilead: the land of Sichon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of the Bashan.” (1 Kings 4:19)

But after King Solomon’s death, Cheshbon and the rest of Gilead secede from Judah along with the territories of the other northern tribes. They found the northern kingdom of Israel (also called Samaria), with Jereboam as its first king.⁷

When Tiglath-Pileser III (745–727 BC), king of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, decided to conquer Israel, he started by capturing Gilead and deporting people in the tribes of Reuven, Gad, and Menasheh.⁸ The conquest of the northern kingdom continued under the next two Assyrian kings, with Sargon II capturing the capital city of Samaria in 722 BCE.

Israelites never ruled over Cheshbon again.

Taking account

The book of Ecclesiastes/Kohelet opens with the declaration that everything is futile, because nothing a human does can make a permanent change. The same things happen over and over again, so there is nothing new under the sun.

Kohelet, the narrator, explores this idea at length, analyzing the activities of humankind.

Myself, I turned [it] around in my mind to know and to scout out and seek wisdom and cheshbon. … See, this I found, said Kohelet, one by one finding a cheshbon. I sought further in my soul … (Ecclesiastes 7:25, 7:27)

Only see this: I found that God made humankind upright, but they themselves sought many chishbonot. (Ecclesiastes 7:27, 7:29)

chishvonot (חִשְּׁבֺנוֹת) = plans, inventions. (Also from the root verb chashav.)

Here Kohelet states that humans are naturally good but they invent too much. I suspect Kohelet means inventing reasons for doing what we want. A true cheshbon, an inner accounting and reckoning, is the means to gaining self-knowledge and wisdom, which are good for their own sake.

Everything that you find you are able to go and do, do it! Because there is no doing nor cheshbon nor knowledge nor wisdom in Sheol, where you are going. (Ecclesiastes/Kohelet 9:10)

Sheol is where the spirits of the dead go. Ecclesiastes affirms that after death no action or thought is possible; there is no afterlife in heaven or Gehenna. You can only acquire wisdom by conducting a personal accounting while you are alive.

Today the place called Cheshbon is the site of an archaeological dig in Jordan. But many Jews follow the mussar⁹ practice of Cheshbon Hanefesh (“Accounting of the Soul”), keeping a daily record of good and bad deeds in order to improve one’s behavior.

Cheshbon as a practice of self-examination is lasting longer than Cheshbon as a town fortified for war.

—

Numbers 20:14-21.
Joshua 22:36-37.
Judges 3:12-30.
Most modern scholars argue that the negotiations between Yiftach and the attacking king in Judges 11:12-28 came from another source. This explains why the two leaders discuss what happened after King Sichon took the land from Moab, and Yiftach refers to Kemosh, the god of Moab rather than Ammon. The compiler of Judges inserted Ammon to make the story fit the battle between the Israelites of Gilead and the Ammonite army. (Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible, Vol. 2, W. Norton & Co., New York, 2019)
Judges 10:5.
Judges 11:29-33. Also see my post Haftarat Chukkat—Judges: A Peculiar Vow.
1 Kings 12:1-24.
2 Kings 15:29.
Mussar (מוּסַר), “moral instruction”, is a system of self-improvement developed in the 19^th century CE from classic ethical texts dating back to the 11^th century CE.

Devarim: In God We Trust?

Why does Moses die on the wrong side of the Jordan River, where he can see but not enter God’s “promised land”?

The Torah offers two conflicting reasons—and a hidden clue.

Moses blames the fathers of the Israelites he is addressing in this week’s Torah portion, Devarim (“Words”—the first portion in the book of Deuteronomy/Devarim). He retells the story of the scouts who toured Canaan in the book of Numbers/Bemidbar, 38 years before. When ten out of the twelve returning scouts reported that the land was full of giants and well-fortified cities, the frightened Israelites refused to cross the border.¹

Who told them to trust God?

Someone argued with them. In the book of Numbers, Moses and Aaron fell on their faces but said nothing. It was Caleb and Joshua, the two scouts who gave the minority report in favor of crossing the border, who reminded the people that God would fight for them.² (See my post Shelach-Lekha: Too Late.) But in this week’s Torah portion, Moses claims he was the one who argued with the Israelites.

And I said to you: “You should not be terrified of them, and you should not be overawed by them. God, your God who walks before you, [God] will fight for you, like everything that [God] did for you in Egypt, before your eyes, and in the wilderness … Yet in this matter you have no ma-aminim in God, your God.” (Deuteronomy/Devarim 1:29-32)

ma-aminim (מַאֲמִינִים) = relying upon, trusting, having faith; reliance upon, trust, faith. (A participle from the same root as ne-eman (נֶאֱמַן) = trustworthy, reliable; and amen (אָמֵן).)

Moses might be excused for misremembering who told the Israelites they should trust God to help them. He is, after all, 120 years old.³ The difference between the two stories of the scouts can also be explained by the theory that Numbers and Deuteronomy were written by different authors, in different centuries.⁴

The result is the same in both accounts: despite hearing someone argue that they can rely on God to help them, the Israelites refuse to cross the border. Then God decides the people must wait until 40 years after their exodus from Egypt before they get another chance to enter Canaan. By that time, God says, all the men over 20 (i.e. the generation that refused to enter Canaan) will be dead—except for the two optimistic scouts, Caleb and Joshua.

But what about Moses and Aaron? In the original story of the scouts, while Caleb and Joshua tell the people to trust God, they fall on their faces, waiting to hear God’s orders. Surely they do not deserve the same fate as the rebellious Israelites. And God’s first reaction implies that Moses will be spared.

And God said to Moses: “How long will this community treat me disrespectfully, and how long lo ya-aminu in me, despite all the signs that I have made in their midst? I will strike them dead with the pestilence and disown them, and I will make you into a nation greater and mightier than they!” (Numbers 14:11-12)

lo ya-aminu (יַאֲמִינוּ) = will they not have faith? lo = not + ya-aminu = they will have faith in, trust, rely upon. (Also from the same root as ne-eman and amen.)

At this point, God wants Moses to populate Canaan. Moses talks God out of killing everyone but him, and God settles on the 40-year plan.

Both Numbers and Deuteronomy note that the first time the Israelites approach the border of Canaan, from Kadeish-Barnea to the south, there is a lack of faith or trust. The men who refuse to cross do not believe God is ne-eman (reliable); when God gives an order, they do not say amen.

In both Numbers and Deuteronomy, God decrees that Moses and Aaron will also die without entering Canaan. But the two books give different reasons for this decree.

Numbers: The talk at the rock

Moses Striking the Rock,
by James Tissot

The people set off from Kadeish-Barnea after Miriam’s death, and the first place they camp has no water. God tells Moses and Aaron to take their staff and speak to the rock, and it will yield water. They assemble the Israelites in front of the rock. Then Moses says:

“Listen up, mutineers! Shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?” (Numbers 20:10)

Moses makes it sound as if he and Aaron can get water from rock with no help from God. Then he hits the rock with the staff, instead of speaking to it. And water gushes out. Aaron stands by, doing nothing to correct his brother Moses. (See my post Chukkat: The Price of Silence.)

But God said to Moses and to Aaron: “Because lo he-emantam on me, [you were not] treating me as holy in the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not lead this congregation into the land that I have given them.” (Numbers 20:12)

lo he-emantam (הֶאֱמַנְתֶּם) = you did not rely. lo = not + he-emantam = you had faith, trusted, relied upon. (Also from the same root as ne-eman and amen.)

The Israelites continue traveling east through the wilderness, and God says:

Let Aaron be gathered to his people, since he may not enter the land that I have given to the Israelites, because you [plural] mutinied against my word concerning the water… (Numbers 20:24)

Aaron dies on top of Mt. Hor, and his son Elazar takes over as high priest.⁵ Moses continues to lead the Israelites all the way to the Jordan River, but he knows he, too, will die without crossing it.

Deuteronomy: The blame is the same

The book of Deuteronomy mentions the episode of the water-bearing rock only near the end, when God tells Moses to climb Mount Nevo, where he will die, just as Aaron died on Mount Hor—

—because you both betrayed me in the midst of the Israelites at the water of Meribat-Kadeish in the wilderness of Tzin, because you did not treat me as holy in the midst of the Israelites. (Deuteronomy 32:51)

But in this week’s portion, Moses tells a different story. He says God decreed that Caleb, Joshua, and everyone who was a child at the time would live to enter Canaan, but “these men of this bad generation” would die before the 40 years were up (Deuteronomy 1:35-39).

Also God felt angry against me on your account, saying: “Even you shall not enter there!” (Deuteronomy 1:37)

When Moses says “on your account” he does not distinguish between the new generation of Israelites listening to his speech and the old, bad generation. His book-length speech in Deuteronomy does not mention that the new generation did anything to offend God; but in Numbers, when the Israelites first camp on the east bank of the Jordan, they worship the local god, Ba-al Peor. (See my post Balak: Carnal Appetites.) Instead of reaffirming their reliance on God, the new adults act as if God is not enough for them. Like their fathers, they fail when it comes to ma-aminim in God.

Moses implies that their failure to rely on God is the reason why God will not let him cross into Canaan before he dies. Ramban⁶ wrote that Moses wanted to demonstrate that the whole community is responsible for and suffers from any lack of faith in God. As the leader of all the Israelites, Moses had the most responsibility.

This week’s Torah portion, Devarim, implies that God decreed Moses’ death on the east bank of the Jordan because Moses had failed to instill enough ma-aminim in the Israelites by the time they reached the southern border of Canaan.

In the book of Numbers, God decreed Moses’ death on the east bank because he failed to instill enough ma-aminim in the Israelites when he neglected to give God credit for the water gushing from the rock.

The timing is different in these two explanations of God’s decree, but the underlying cause is the same. And the Torah gives us the clue by repeatedly using the same verb when someone fails to rely on God.

At the burning bush, God chose Moses because no one else could serve as God’s prophet before Pharaoh and also hold the Israelites together no matter how long it took to get them to Canaan. For more than 40 years, Moses devoted his whole strength to the nearly impossible job of transforming a huge and motley collection of ex-slaves and camp followers into a single people dedicated to a new religion. When Moses addresses the survivors in Deuteronomy, they are finally unified, optimistic, and ready to cross into their promised land.⁷

But can they keep their faith in God? Can they trust God, who over the years delivered punishments as well as miraculous rescues? Can they rely upon their God, and no other?

Can any of us?

(An earlier version of this essay was published in July 2010.)

—

Numbers 13:1-14:4. At that time the Israelites are camped on the southern border of Canaan, near Kadeish-Barnea.
Numbers 14:5-10.
Though when Moses does die at the end of Deuteronomy, the Torah says “…his eye had not clouded and his vigor had not waned.” (Deuteronomy 34:7)
Modern scholars examine differences in vocabulary, syntax, and style to assign parts of the Torah to different (unknown) authors writing in different eras. Although they disagree about many details, most agree that the first 11 chapters of Deuteronomy were written during the reign of King Josiah of Judah in the 7^th century B.C.E. The story of the scouts in the book of Numbers appears to be a composite of several texts written during different centuries.
Numbers 20:22-29. Aaron is older than his 120-year-old brother Moses, but the Torah insists that he dies in the wilderness because of disobedience, not old age.
13^th-century Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman, also called Nachmanides as well as the acronym RaMBaN.
The Israelites cross the Jordan River, the northeastern border of Canaan, in Joshua 3:1-17.

Chukkat: Death and the Red Cow, Part 2

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.

—

Leviticus 15:16-18.
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.
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)
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.
Genesis 2:7.
Numbers 19:17. “Living water” includes water from a spring, a river, or a well; it excludes salt water or water from a cistern.
Leviticus 21:1-4, 21:11.
Leviticus 22:1-9.
Numbers 19:21, translated above.

Chukkat: Death and the Red Cow, Part 1

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.

—

Numbers 19:13.
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.
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.
Rashi is the acronym for the French 11^th-century rabbi Shlomoh Yitzchaki. Rabbi Bachya ben Asher wrote circa 1300 C.E. in Spain.
Exodus 32:20.
If your sins are like crimson, they can turn white as snow … (Isaiah 1:18)

Chukkat: The Price of Silence

Miriam dies while the Israelites are camped in the wilderness of Tzin in this week’s Torah portion, Chukkat (Law). Then the people complain, once again, that Moses brought them from Egypt into the wilderness only so they and their livestock would die of hunger and thirst.¹ Moses and Aaron both throw themselves on their faces. (See last week’s post, Korach: Face Down.)

And God spoke to Moses, saying: “Take the staff and assemble the community, you and your brother Aaron. Vedibartem to the rock, before their eyes, and it will give its water. Vehotzeita for them water from the rock, vehishkita the community and their livestock.” (Numbers/Bemidbar 20:7-8)

vedibartem (וְדִבַּרְתֶּם) = and you (plural) shall speak (i.e. both Moses and Aaron shall speak).

vehotzeita (וְהוֹצֵאתָ) = and you (singular) shall bring forth (i.e. Moses shall bring forth).

vehishkita (וְהִשְׁקִיתָ) = and you (singular) shall provide drink to.

God apparently wants Moses and Aaron to use the staff only to assemble the community, not to trigger the miracle—unlike 39 years before, when God told Moses to bring water from a rock by striking it with his staff.²

Once the people are assembled, (both) Moses and Aaron are supposed to speak to the rock. As a result, Moses (alone) will bring forth water. Did a careless scribe mix up the plural and singular verb suffixes? Or is God making a deliberate distinction between what both brothers should do and what only Moses is responsible for?

And Moses took the staff from in front of God, as [God] had commanded him. (Numbers 20:9)

Only Moses takes the staff “from in front of God”, i.e. out of the Tent of Meeting. This is the staff with Aaron’s name written on it. In the previous Torah portion, Korach, the leader of each tribe lends his staff to Moses, who writes the leader’s name on it.³ Moses leaves the twelve staffs in the Tent of Meeting overnight (Numbers 17:17-21). In the morning, Aaron’s staff has bloomed and produced almonds, proving that God has chosen him (Numbers 17:22-23). (See my post Korach: Early and Late Bloomers.)

Moses returns the unaltered staffs to the tribe leaders, but follows God’s instructions to put Aaron’s staff back in the Tent as a sign for the “children of mutineers”—the next generation. (Numbers 17:25). Showing the complainers this staff would remind them that God gave authority to the tribe of Levi, whose leaders are Aaron and Moses.

And Moses and Aaron assembled the assembly in front of the rock, and he said to them: “Listen up, mutineers! Shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?” (Numbers 20:10)

Moses brings out the staff, but both Moses and Aaron assemble the Israelites, as instructed. Next both Moses and Aaron are supposed to speak to the rock. Instead, Moses speaks to the Israelites. Losing his patience, he implies that he and Aaron have the power to bring water out of the rock. He does not mention God.

Moses Striking the Rock,
by Marc Chagall

And Moses raised his hand and he struck the rock twice with his staff. And abundant water came forth, and the community and their livestock drank. (Numbers 20:11)

Instead of speaking to the rock, Moses hits it with the staff—just as he did at another waterless camp 39 years earlier, following God’s directions.⁴ Now God has changed the directions, but Moses does what worked last time. The Torah now says it is his staff.

Why does the miracle occur anyway? Maybe the staff retains some power from its miraculous blossoming in the Torah portion Korach. 12^th-century rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra suggested that Moses has become able to do small miracles by himself. Or maybe God is covering for Moses, so the people will continue to follow him.

But will the people follow Moses because he is God’s prophet, or because they believe he has power of his own? Even though God let the miracle proceed, God is not amused.

And God said to Moses and to Aaron: “Because lo he-emantem in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Israelites, therefore lo taviyu this assembly to the land that I have given to them.” (Numbers/Bemidbar 20:12)

lo he-emantem (לֺא הֶאֱמַנְתֶּם) = you (plural) did not believe, have faith, put trust.

lo taviyu (לֺא תָבִיאוּ) = you (plural) shall not lead.

Only Moses hits the rock, yet God accuses both men of failing to trust God and therefore failing to increase the Israelites’ awe of God. So God decrees the same punishment for both Moses and Aaron.

Commentators have generated many different reasons why God decides to punish Moses. (David Kasher presented 18 of them in his ParshaNut post on Chukkat in 2015.) But why does God also punish Aaron?

Here is what we know about Aaron’s actions during this episode:

1) When the Israelites complain, both Moses and Aaron throw themselves on their faces. Although God addresses Moses, commentators assume that Aaron also heard God’s instructions.

2) After Moses brings the staff with Aaron’s name on it out of the Tent of Meeting, both Moses and Aaron assemble the people in front of the rock, as instructed.

3) Aaron stands by silently as Moses says: “Listen up, mutineers! Shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?” Unlike Moses, Aaron does not lose his temper. He does not say that he and Moses will make a miracle. On the other hand, he fails to mention God’s name after Moses omits it.

4) Aaron watches silently while Moses strikes the rock twice with Aaron’s staff. He does not try to stop Moses. He does not speak to the rock himself, even though God asked him, as well as Moses, to do so.

Apparently God blames him for his silence and inaction. God refrained from punishing Aaron after he made the Golden Calf ⁵, but now God punishes him for doing nothing.

God announces Aaron’s immanent death later in this week’s Torah portion:

God said to Moses and to Aaron at Mount Hor, on the border of the land of Edom: “Aaron will be gathered to his people [here]; for he will not come into the land that I have given to the Israelites, because meritem My word concerning the water at Merivah.” (Numbers 20:23-24)

meritem (מְרִיתֶם) = you (plural) mutinied against, rebelled against. (A form of the word that Moses called the Israelites: morim, מֺרִים = mutineers, rebels.)

Moses mutinies through his speech to the Israelites and through his action in hitting the rock. Aaron mutinies through silence and inaction.

Who can blame Aaron for letting the great prophet Moses take the lead, as usual, and making no effort to correct him?

God can, and does.

In my own life, I often wonder when to speak up and when to be silent. Writing a letter to your congressman is not like sitting next to a person in authority who is doing the wrong thing—perhaps while holding a staff with your name on it. This Torah portion demonstrates that if you know what is right, then you must speak up, or you are equally guilty.

But how and when to speak is seldom clear.

May all of us be blessed with the ability to know when the situation is so urgent and important we must speak immediately, in public; when it is better to wait and speak in private or at another time; and when it is better to be silent.

(An earlier version of this essay was published in June, 2010.)

—

¹ When the Israelites camp at Refidim, between the Reed Sea and Mount Sinai, they complain that there is no water, and that Moses brought them from Egypt into the wilderness only so they and their livestock would die of thirst (Exodus/Shemot 17:1-3).

² At Refidim, when the Israelites complain about the lack of water, God tells Moses to hit a rock, using “your staff with which you struck the Nile” (Exodus 17:5). This is also the staff God uses to perform a demonstration miracle at the burning bush (Exodus 4:2-4), and both Moses and Aaron use to trigger God’s miracles in Egypt (Exodus 7:9-10:13) and the parting of the Reed Sea (Exodus 14:16).

After everyone drinks the water from the rock at Refidim, the people name the spot Massah-u-Merivah, “Trial and Strife” (Exodus 17:7). In this week’s Torah portion, Chukkat, God identifies the new spot where Moses hits the rock as Merivah, “strife” (Numbers 20:13, 20:24).

³ After Refidim (Exodus 17:5), no staff is mentioned until the Torah portion Korach. The Torah does not say whether Aaron’s staff in the portion Korach is the same as the staff both brothers used in the book of Exodus.

⁴ Exodus 17:6.

⁵ Exodus 32:1-6.

Chukat: The Price of Silence