Holy Scrollers Preview
Parashat Chukat
July 2, 2011
Rabbi Rachel Goldenberg
Shabbat Shalom everyone! It’s nice to be back teaching Scrollers this week. Thanks to David and Rick for your facilitation these past few weeks, and thanks to everyone for welcoming visiting students from my summer Introduction to Judaism class.
Themes of life and death permeate this week’s Parasha. It opens with the laws regarding the red heifer (or perfect brown heifer, according to the Etz Hayim commentary,) the ashes of which are mixed with water to purify anyone who has come into contact with a corpse. We’ll see in this section the paradox of purity and impurity, as these ashes can at the same time purify the impure and render impure the pure!
Next, Miriam dies, and immediately we learn that the community is without water. This leads to the story of Moses striking the rock to get water for the eternally kvetchy Israelites. As a result of this incident, Moses and Aaron are barred from entering the Promised Land. Before this Parasha is over, Aaron dies on Mount Hor.
The end of the Parasha is framed by a series of military engagements, which the Israelites win, and we read about their travels South of the land of Israel, from one battle to the next. During this section, the people are without water again, and they rebel not only against Moses, but against God as well. God sends serpents to bite and kill many Israelites, until Moses is able to create what seems like a fetish to ward off this plague.
Eventually, the Israelites finally come across a well. This time, in order to get water, all the people have to do is sing, and it springs up. Somehow, after all of these experiences of death, of Aaron and of Miriam, of their fellow Israelites in the plague of the serpents, the living waters are again accessible.
My question is, why? Why at this point in the story are the Israelites finally able to access life-giving water so easily? When we are surrounded by death and hopelessness, what is it that sustains us? What helps us to tap into the cool water beneath the dry surface?
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