Chukat begins with the law of the Red Heifer, judged by the Sages to be the most incomprehensible in the Torah. It became a classic example of a chok, a “statute,” often understood as a law that has no reason, or at least none we can understand. The text then shifts from law to narrative. After the death of Miriam…
…sound turned off. The mood eventually passed but while it lasted I made some of the worst mistakes of my life. I mention these things because they are the connecting thread of parshat Chukat. The most striking episode is the moment when the people complain about the lack of water. Moses does something wrong, and though God sends water from…
…with this people? Before long they will stone me!” God told him to go to a rock at Horeb, take his staff, and hit the rock. Moses did so, and water came out. There was drama, tension, but nothing like the emotional distress evident in this week’s parsha of Chukat. Surely Moses, by now almost forty years older, with a…
The Parsha in a Nutshell This summary is adapted from this week’s main Covenant & Conversation essay by Rabbi Sacks, available to read in full via the left sidebar (or below, if you are viewing this on your phone) The most striking episode in Chukat is the moment when the people complain about the lack of water. Moshe does something…
Video Transcript: On Habits of the Heart So this week we read parshat Chukat, which begins with the strangest ritual in Judaism, the most baffling, the one that is called zot chukat haTorah par excellence, it’s the chok, the statute, the thing we can’t understand. This is the prime example of it. It is the para aduma, the Red Heifer….
…for each. [1] For a deeper discussion on Moses’ actions at Kadesh and how the people’s need for a leader was evolving, see Covenant & Conversation essay on Chukat, ‘Why was Moses not destined to enter the land?’ https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/chukat/why-was-moses-not-destined-to-enter-the-land/. What do you think are the main differences between the leadership styles of Moshe and Yehoshua? Why do you think the…
…in the verses that follow. What is unusual about the story of Yiftach? Points to Ponder Read Judges 11:34-340 (included this week in Yemenite tradition). How do you feel about this ending of the story of Yiftach? Can you link this epilogue to the theme Rabbi Sacks explored in Parshat Chukat? Can you link it to an event in Avraham’s…
The Parsha in a Nutshell Chukat begins with the law of the red heifer, (the parah adamah) judged by the Sages to be the most incomprehensible mitzvah in the Torah. It is a classic example of a Chok, a “statute,” often understood as a law that has no reason, or at least none we can understand. The text then shifts…
The Parsha in a Nutshell Chukat begins with the law of the Red Heifer (a young female cow who can be used to purify us). The Sages thought the Red Heifer was the hardest of all the mitzvot in the Torah to understand, and it became the classic example of a chok – a mitzvah with no obvious explanation. The…
Chukat is about mortality. In it we read of the death of two of Israel’s three great leaders in the wilderness, Miriam and Aaron, and the sentence of death decreed against Moses, the greatest of them all. These were devastating losses. To counter that sense of loss and bereavement, the Torah employs one of Judaism’s great principles: The Holy One,…