This week we start the beginning of the end of our 40 year desert sojourn.  The parsha (weekly Torah portion) is called Chukat.  People normally think it refers to the disciplines in the Torah that do not make sense.  However, a closer look at the word gives us a hint of the purpose of these disciplines.

The root of the word means, “To engrave.”  Hence the purpose of these rules is to engrave or make grooves in our soul; to help shape our essential being in ways that laws which follow common sense cannot do.   With this idea in mind, let’s take a quick overview of our parsha and see what has been engraved.

Our parsha starts with the details of how a red heifer can be used to purify a person who had touched a dead body.   The children of Israel then arrive in the Tzin Desert where Miriam dies.  After her death, the people immediate complain about a lack of water and god tells Moshe (Moses) and Aharon to talk to the rock and it will produce water.  Moshe, in a fit of anger, hits the rock instead.  Water gushes out, however, god is not happy with Moshe and Aharon and tell them that by their actions, they have forfeited the chance to lead the people into the promised land.

Moshe then makes a request of Edom to travel through their land, and the request is denied.  Instead the children of Yisrael have to travel around the land of Edom, and on the way they stop at Mt. Hor where Aharon dies and his son Elazar takes over as high priest.

A Canaanite king attacks and takes a hostage, and the people promise to give this king’s cities to god if god will help them defeat this king in war.  The children of Israel are successful, and it is time to travel again.  And it is time to complain again.  This time the complaint leads to snakes whose bite is deadly.  The people repent, god tells Moshe to make a snake for the people to see, Moshe makes a copper snake and puts it on a pole, and the people are saved.

Finally we get to the border of Moav and the Emorites.  They ask Sichon, the king of the Emorites for safe passage through his land.  Instead, he attacks and gets destroyed and the children of Yisrael take over his land and cities.  The people then move towards Bashan, the capital city of the Giant Og.  God promises Moshe victory, and Og and his people are also wiped out.   The parsha ends with us travelling and camping across the Jordan from Jericho.

So, what is our parsha trying to tell us?  A lot of things.  However, I want to keep this short, so I will keep this to one or two things I found in reading it this year.

The parsha goes from the death of Miriam, straight into a lack of water and the story of Moshe hitting the rock to produce water (an act done in anger and leads to Moshe and Aharon to not being allowed to enter the promised land).  What is the connection?

A second question I heard asked at a Torah discussion this week was:  why do we read about the people mourning for Aharon, but not for Miriam?

I think the answers to these 2 questions are related.

The Torah is know for being sparce.  It does not waste words on things that are obvious.  So, my answer to the second question is that Miriam was so beloved, of course the people mourned her loss.  Aharon, on the other hand…  Well, let’s just say that people complained about him a lot.  So, perhaps he was not so well liked.  Hence the Torah had to tell us the people mourned for him because we might have thought they wouldn’t have.

Ok, I hear some grumbles on this answer.  However, all we need to look at is last week’s parsha to see a great example of the people complaining about Aharon.  And we have a midrash to support how beloved Miriam.

This midrash states that the people were never lacking for water while Miriam was alive because while she lived, a well of water followed the people around in the desert.  It disappeared with her death; we learn this from the verse immediately following Miriam’s death that states the people had no water.  It never stated that before. Why?  Because of the well they had due to the merit of Miriam.

Now how did Miriam merit to be the provider of water for the people?

I propose it is because she was the one who kept Moshe’s emotions regarding the people pointing towards love and not anger, and water is symbolic of emotion.  In other words, she was the emotional support for the people in general, and Moshe in particular.

How do I come to suggest this?  Well, because it is right after her death that we read of a lack of water that leads to the people compaining that leads to Moshe getting angry and hitting the rock instead of talking to it.  She is the missing piece.  Without her, the healthy flow of emotion, represented by the well in the midrash, is gone from both the people and Moshe, and they get emotinally stuck and angry.  Rebbe Nachman says that when one is angry, one is cut off from god.  Hence Moshe, angry and cut off from god, hits the stone to release the water/emotions with violence, instead of talking the the rock as god wanted, and releasing the emotions/water by gentle and loving communication, which is what Miriam would have counciled.

As I said at the top of this, the name of our parsha, Chukat, means to engrave.  A constant flow of water can create (engrave) a groove or hole in the hardest of rocks.  This is the power of emotion.  And this is what Miriam was able to do:  help make emotions flow in a positive way, allowing the people to love her so obviously, that not only do we never need to be told of the people’s love for her, there is no need to mention the people mourning her – of course they did.

Such is the power of helping others express their emotions in a postive way.  May all of us be like Miriam and help each other express our emotions in a healthy way, and also may each of us find healthy and positive ways to express our emotions.

If you care to read what I wrote about this parsha last year, click here.

About the Author

Shmuel Shalom Cohen spent 10 years studying Torah in Jerusalem. Six years ago, he started Conscious Torah to help Jews connect to their tradition in ways they didn’t think possible. Shmuel also started, and is the executive directory of Jewish Events Willamette-valley, a non-profit whose mission is to build Jewish community, pride, and learning. In his free time, Shmuel likes walks in nature, playing music, writing poetry, and time with good friends.