The time has come for another dose of Torah.  This week’s parsha (weekly Torah portion) finds our intrepid heroes nearing the end of their journey to that land flowing with milk and honey.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, however.  The parsha is called Chukat which means, “Law of,” as in:  This is the law of the Torah (teachings) that haShem (god) commanded Moshe  (Moses) and Aharon to say to the children of Yisrael.  The law is everything relating to the red cow whose ashes have the power to remove the tamae (mixing) of souls that comes from touching dead people.  At the end of the details of this law, we read that everybody arrives at the wilderness of Tzin and the people stay in Kadesh, or holiness (kadesh in Hebrew means holy), and Miriam dies there.

There is no water, and the people complain to Moshe and Aharon, asking why they brought them to this place to die.  God tells Moshe and Aharon to take the staff and speak to the rock and water will come forth for the community and its livestock.  Moshe takes the staff from before god, as commanded, gathers everybody in front of the rock, and then hits the rock twice.  Water comes and everybody and their animals drink.  God, however tells Moshe and Aharon that they messed up and so they are not allowed to go into the promised land.

Moshe now sends messengers to the king of Edom asking for passage through their land, and Edom refuses.  The people now travel to mount Hor where Aharon dies and his son Elazar takes over as cohen gadol (high priest).  The people mourn for 30 days.

Then the king of the Canaanites attack and take a captive.  Yisrael makes a vow to god that if god gives the Canaanites to them, they will give god the cities.  Yisrael wipes out the Canaanites and their cities.

They leave mount Hor and pass by the Yam Soof (sea of reads of leaving Egypt fame), so as to avoid the land of Edom.  Along the way, the people become short-spirited and speak with Elokim (name for god meaning powers) and with Moshe, and again bring up leaving Egypt to die in the wilderness where there is nothing but spoiled bread to eat.  God answers with poisonous snakes, and the people realize they sinned and tell Moshe to pray on their behalf.  God tells Moshe to make his own snake and when the people look at Moshe’s snake, they will live, and that is what happens.

The children of Yisrael are back on the road and pass through Ovot and end up at the border of Moav and the Emorite.  Here Yisrael sends out messengers to the king of the Emorite asking to travel through his land.  The Emorite answer by attacking and of course Yisrael wins and takes over the land of the Emorites.  They also take on and defeat the giant Ohg and his people and we end up camping across the Jordan river from Jericho.

We cover a lot of ground in this week’s parsha, and I don’t mean in travels.  We basically jumped some 38 years in time.  The generation of the spies has all but died out (which we read about two weeks ago), and we are on the brink of entering the land promised to our forefathers by god.

So, how did we start?  We started with something that took place over 38 years ago!  How do I know?  Because the parsha begins telling us how to become tahor (pure) after being in contact with the dead.

If you recall, towards the beginning of our current book (B’midbar/Numbers, chapter 9), we talked about the people who could not join in for Pesach (Passover) because they had been in contact with the dead.  They were given a second Pesach.  However, for them to participate in the second Pesach, they needed to know about the rule given here regarding the red cow.  Somehow I get a sense that god is trying to tell us that time is not as linear as we commonly imagine it to be.

However, the red cow is not what I want to talk about today.  What got me excited as I read the parsha is the story of Moshe hitting the rock instead of talking to it.  What is going on here, and why does this prevent Moshe and Aharon from entering the land?

To understand this, I wish to share a little bit from our oral tradition.  I normally try to stick just to this text, but sometimes some background info is helpful.  Aharon is known in our tradition as the great peace maker.  It did not matter how much two people were upset with each other, he had a gift to bring them together.

Ok, back to our story.  God tells Moshe to take the staff, and Moshe takes the staff that is before god.  Whose staff is that?  It isn’t Moshe’s staff, because god would have told Moshe to, “Take your staff.”  The only staff in front of god, meaning in god’s house or the mishcan (tabernacle) is Aharon’s sprouted staff.  This is a staff of peace, not violence.

God tells them to talk as one to the stone.  Why is Aharon there?  Because he has the gift of bringing the best out of people, and Moshe doesn’t.  Aharon is there to help Moshe learn how to talk to a stone.  For if Moshe can talk to a stone, he will be able to talk to people who are like stone, a problem Moshe has had from the beginning.

They are to do this (talk to the stone) in front of the people.  Why?  On first glance, it appears so the people can see the miracle and get the water they so desperately want.  On another level, they are also seeing that even the highest and greatest of them (Moshe) has something to learn.  And if Moshe is willing to learn, then so too should everyone – even from a person who is not as great as you.

What is interesting is that we had an earlier episode where Moshe was to hit a stone to get water.  Here he is told to talk to it.  What is the difference?  The difference is that this is a new generation.  The old generation only understood violence – they were slaves.  The lesson for this generation is that sometimes you might need to use violence to get what you want out of a seemingly stone-hard person or situation.  And sometimes, if you know how to talk, the stone/person will willingly give up its precious water to you.

Unfortunately, Moshe did not understand the lessons he was to teach, and so he hit the stone instead.  And it is for this failure to teach such an important lesson, he is not allowed to lead the people into the land.

There is one more lesson I see god teaching us here.

One question that came to my mind is:   why did god allow the water to flow when Moshe didn’t do what he was supposed to do?  The answer is two-fold.  First, from this we learn that it is not good to embarrass a person in front of other people.  The second thing we can learn is that the needs of many come first over personal needs.  God had a need to chastise Moshe and Aharon, and to punish them.  However, the community needed water.  So, in deference to the community over his own needs, god gave the water to the people, and only later, in private, chastised and punished Moshe and Aharon.

To summarize this last bit:  one should always take care of the group first, even at his/her own expense.  And only then, in private, go to the person who has wronged you and explain/resolve the wrong that was done to you.

It is so easy to read/write/hear/say lessons like these.  It is another thing to take them to heart and follow them.  My hope in sharing these is that I will not only understand better the ways of haShem; I will also be able to put them into practice, and become a better person.

Blessings to all of you.

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.