Overview of the Weekly
Reading: Chukat
To be read on the Shabbat of 5 Tammuz, 5762 (June 15)
Torah: Numbers 19:1-22:1
Haftorah:
Judges 11:1-23 (Messengers
to Edom)
Pirkei Avot: Chapter
Five, (Chapter Four outside of Israel)
Stats: Chukkat contains 3 positive
mitzvot and 0 prohibitive mitzvot. Among the Weekly Readings,
Chukkat ranks 43 out of 54 in number of verses, 40 in
number of words, and 40 in number of letters
Chukat opens with G-d's command to slaughter a red heifer,
and to use its ashes to purify anyone who had become impure by contact
with corpses. The water that the Jews drank in the desert was miraculously
provided in merit of Miriam the prophetess, Moses' sister, whose passing
is described. When the Jews complained about the subsequent lack of
water, G-d tells Moses to speak to a certain rock. After Moses hits
the rock instead, Moses and Aaron are punished with a decree that they
will not merit to enter the Land. Next, the Jews seek passage through
the Land of Edom, but the Edomites refuse them entry, and the Jews must
go around. Following this, Aaron passes away on Hor Hahar. When the
Canaanite king of Arad hears that the Jews are nearing his land, he
wages war with them. G-d fulfills the Jews' appeal to allow them to
defeat the Canaanites and conquer their land, which they dedicate to
G-d in return for their victory. The Jews complain to Moses again, and
G-d sends poisonous snakes to punish them. Moses prays on behalf of
the Jews, and so G-d instructs him to make a figure of a snake. Moses
makes a copper snake, places it aloft on a pole, and those who were
bitten are cured by gazing up at the copper snake. Next, the Torah relates
the details concerning some of the places where the Jews traveled, and
also the Song of the Well. The Reading concludes relating the Jews'
defeat of Sichon and Og, two very powerful kings, and the conquest of
their lands.
FROM
THE CHASSIDIC REBBES (V:39-62/Chukat)
"And from the wilderness
to Matana [literally "gift"]." (21:18)
Our Sages commented: He who
makes himself a "wilderness," that is, works at refining his
character until his own ego is as ownerless as the unclaimed land of a
wilderness, will be truly worthy of receiving the precious gift of the
Torah.
(Degel Machane Efraim)
FROM THE MASTERS OF KABBALAH (O:39-62/Chukat)
Selected with
permission from the five-volume English edition of Ohr HaChaim: the
Torah Commentary of Rabbi Chaim Ben Attar, as translated and annotated
by Eliyahu Munk.
The holy Rabbi Chayim ben Moses Attar was born in Sale, Western Morocco,
on the Atlantic in 1696. His immortal commentary on the Five Books Of
Moses, Or Hachayim, was printed in Venice in 1741, while the author was
on his way to the Holy Land. He acquired a reputation as a miracle worker,
hence his title "the holy," although some apply this title only
to his Torah commentary.
"..and from Nachliel
to Bamot." (21:17)
Due to the fact that we have
become His inheritance He has turned us into bamot, someone on
a high elevation, i.e. higher than the angels. The Torah goes on "and
from Bamot to the valley which is in the field of Moav."
This whole line is a reminder that the principal reward for mitzvah
performance is not in this world, "in the valley," but in a
higher world and that in this world true spiritual wealth cannot be achieved.
As a result of the foregoing considerations it is essential that man must
be removed from this earth in order for him to receive the full reward
he is entitled to at the hands of G-d. When it appears to us that death
has been caused by sin, this means that but for sin man would live on
earth forever. If that were so, how could G-d pay man the reward due to
him for his good deeds, etc.?
Kabbalists answer that had it not been for sin, man would have ascended
to heaven and have been allocated appropriate accommodation there. The
prophet Elijah is an example of someone who had not died and who ascended
to heaven in order to receive the reward due to him. It is true that the
body finds it impossible to survive in those regions even after it had
been refined to the highest degree possible so that it had become comparable
to something spiritual. Still, such spirituality is as nothing when compared
to the higher degrees of spirituality.
Our sages in the Zohar, volume1, page 209 explain that as soon as Elijah
had reached the domain (galaxy) of the sun (in his ascent) he was stripped
of his body, leaving it behind in that domain. Whenever he has occasion
to descent to earth to fulfill his various assignments, he picks up his
body in the galgal chamah before completing his journey to earth.
An
essay from Rabbi Shaul Yosef Leiter
(W:39-62/Chukat)
The
week's reading opens: "This is the statute of the Torah which G-d
commanded..." (Numbers 19:2) and then goes on to describe the laws
of the red heifer and the purification process from defilement incurred
through contact with the dead. This mitzva is the classic supra-rational
command.
Rashi explains that
the specific wording in the verse addresses the taunts of the Adversary
and the Nations of the World who question us regarding the reason for
this mitzva. "This is the statute" answers that
the red heifer is a Divine decree that cannot be comprehended. Rebbe
Yechiel Michel notes that there is, in fact, a known Midrashic explanation
for the red heifer: Just as a mother must clean the mess of her child,
so, too, this heifer comes to repair the damage done through the sin of
her child, the golden calf. When scoffers approach the Jews asking about
the heifer, they are actually intending to remind us of our transgression.
This is what the verse answers them: "This is a statute...which
G-d commanded" and there is no reason for it. Nevertheless,
we must remind ourselves that we must still improve our relationship to
G-d.
The mitzva of the red
heifer is connected to the redemption. Exile causes 'impurity' on a spiritual
plane, impeding the proper service of G-d. This impurity comes from our
sins. The difference between mitzvot and sins is that mitzvot
connect us to G-d, eliciting positive spiritual energy. On the other hand,
sins occlude this spiritual channel to G-d. This spiritual disconnect
leads to the spiritual impurity of the exile. The ashes of the red heifer
and the redemption both purify the Jewish people. Sprinkling the ashes
of the red heifer on a defiled person purified him, enabling him to enter
the sanctuary. The redemption purifies everyone, even those who are technically
impure, from even a hint of disconnection with our Father in Heaven. The
prophet Ezekiel used the analogy of the red heifer when speaking about
the final redemption, "And I will throw upon you pure waters and
purify your impurities."
* * *
Wednesday night-Thursday day,
3rd Tammuz, is the sixth anniversary of the passing of the Lubavitcher
Rebbe. During his final years, he often challenged us: What have we
done until now to hasten the redemption? He would exhort his chasidim:
A person must ponder: when
was the last time I honestly thought about Mashiach in a way that was
personally meaningful; that all of the above is truly referring to me
and not to someone else; that, through Mashiach, the Holy One Blessed
Be He is about to take me out of this exile and I, with Mashiach, will
go together to the Land of Israel! We are not asking anyone to give an
account to someone else on when they last really thought about the redemption.
No. Only that a person should closet himself into an inner room, a place
where he will be alone and there make a true account.
Doing so honestly will lead
us to thoughts of returning to G-d (teshuva). Through this we will
effect the redemption immediately, since these sincere thoughts will bring
us, and the whole world, merit in the eyes of Heaven, and thereby precipitate
the redemption. If we accept upon ourselves to serve as 'illuminators',
to lead and to enlighten (20:27) all of those around us-and certainly
our family and immediate friends-then through our shining forth with the
"candle of the mitzvot and the light of the Torah" (Proverbs
6:23), we will dispel the darkness of exile and admit the light of the
redemption. This must be undertaken with genuine effort and self-sacrifice.
Shabbat Shalom!
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