Shalom. So we've been studying about the generation of the desert and now this
week we're reading Parashat Chukat and you know 6 Torah portions into the Book
of Numbers we've been speaking so much about this incorrigible generation and
after the trauma of the incident of the spies after last week's confrontation
with Korach that unbridled hubris we really have a bad taste in our mouths we
may really have the impression that this generation was that incorrigible that
this generation was just so contradictory and so full of missed
opportunities and we may have, G-d forbid, a very negative impression of them again
especially after Parashat Shelach, the difficult of the spies Parashat Korach
with that confrontation the overall impression that we have is of a
generation that was unappreciative that was constantly trying god that was
constantly failing in tests of faith but we mustn't forget that this generation
was the highest of the high literally described as human angels there were
people on such a sublime level of spiritual perception and closeness to
G-d it takes a real man to eat the manna which is called 'man.' It takes a real
accomplished powerful personality to be able to digest that spiritual food and
remain on your feet. It was a constant test these are the
people that drank from the well the water of the well of Miriam these are
the people that heard G-d's voice is seen I these people were
massive staggering personalities. Intellects. Souls. Yes they had many many
faults as do we all and this is one of the incredible ideas
that the Torah is conveying to us by recording the details of the failings of
this generation especially when we realize that it's really up to us to fix
that generation and to be the ones who come into Eretz Yisrael with our arms
open wide to embrace the precious land that G-d is giving us and to overcome
all of the trials so it's not so simple yes we've seen the dark underbelly of
that generation we've seen the dark side we've seen a lot of the failings but we
also know and we mustn't ever forget that they were truly great this is what
a person is up down high as the stars as low as the sand on the sea and if
anything when we come to this point six partial into the Book of Numbers trying
to put a finger on this tremendous force the generation of the desert and
following through their ups and downs now I mean can you imagine what they've
gone through now they were at the pinnacle of the potential of possibility
they were ready to pass into the promised land when they rose to the
miserable failure of accepting the tale-bearing the evil speech against the
Land of Israel and so the decree was made and they're going to be wandering
around for another 38 years in the desert what was everyday life then what
was it like knowing these great men great men and women the women actually
were greater because the women did go into the Land of Israel, excuse me, the
women were not included in the decree but these great men because these women
were so high that they did not accept so how they did not believe it so the
women who were older they went in with a younger generation of men but again I
digress that generation they received that decree they knew that they would be
dying in the desert and they're just living out their lives still in
closeness to HaShem they're still receiving the manna they're still living
out their lives they're like totally connected to the Torah from Sinai and if
anything this Torah portion Parashat Chukat really teaches us that we don't
know anything and that takes a lot of humility to be able to admit what do we
know anyway there's a verse in Psalms that tells us the beginning of knowledge
is the fear of G-d and that actually is parallel to another statement that our
sages make that the goal of all knowledge is for us to know for us to
realize that really we don't know anything and those concepts are really
totally epitomized by the concepts of the Parah Adumah the statute of the red
heifer which introduces this week's Torah portion Parashat Chukat, chapter 19
of the book of numbers deals with the mystery of the red heifer we call it a
mystery because it is acknowledged by the sages of Israel to be the very
embodiment of the concept of a commandment that G-d gives over to
Israel which is beyond the scope of the possibility of human comprehension
something that we have to accept because G-d commands it but the workings of
which is considered to be a Chok that's the category of the commandments which
G-d commands us without our being entitled to an explanation we can still
seek an explanation we can
engage in all sorts of speculation and commentary which is all very beautiful
and which were actually commanded to do to beautify our understanding of Torah
but ultimately we have to understand that no human being can really
comprehend the principles behind that the structure of the reasoning of and
the dynamics of the commandment of the red heifer which essentially is the
single universal exclusive antidote to the restoration of purity that can
circumvent the impurity and these are again terms that don't that don't allude
to any sort of physical soiling or any sort of sort of actual tangible impurity
but these are spiritual concepts of imbalance and we're talking about the
tuma, the level of spiritual impurity that is brought about by exposure to
death and the only recipe to counter that strong invading and invasive all
pervading type of impurity is the process described here in chapter 19 of
the book of numbers the beginning of Parashat Chukat process of purification
through the sprinkling of the ashes of the red heifer with all the details that
are involved there and this idea of how this works why should such a thing the
the slaughtering and the burning of this particular animal which is so unusual to
come by this perfectly red cow of three years of age without even two hairs of
any other color that can't have any of these blemishes that can never been used
for work how that works and how its slaughtering and burning and its ashes
mixed with live water fresh water brings about this paradigm shift of reality
back to the side of purity about this King Solomon who was considered to be
the wisest of all men dedicated a verse in the book of the scroll of qohelet
Ecclesiastes chapter 7 verse 23 where he said I thought I said I would become why
but I see that it is far from me. Yet there is a tradition that Moshe Rabbenu,
that Moses he did understand the secret of the parah adumah and there's also
an idea that in the future in the rectified world Israel will be
collectively the entire nation on the level of understanding that we to every
single person will eventually understand the chok, the ordinance, the mystery of
the red heifer but all now that we really know about it they said it's
somehow connected to the stain of a death of spiritual deaths which was
brought about through the golden calf there's some sort of connection and we
also know that the red heifer is the symbol of humility in that it is the
symbol of self nullification and it's the opposite of a person who is self
aggrandizing like Moshe Rabbenu for example who drops the aleph when he
says nachnu mah, what are we. Moshe Rabbenu, who back in Exodus in the
incident of the golden calf was able to say to HaShem if you don't forgive the
people of Israel not only do I not want you to make a new nation from me but
erase my name from your book I want it to be as if I was never even here
because I can't face life I don't want to be here I don't want to
have been thought of without my precious nation of Israel. So he was able to say
erase my name from your book this is the ultimate idea of humility as G-d Himself
testified back in the end of Parashat Baha'alotcha, where he said to Aharon and to
Miriam how could you talk about Moshe don't you know that he is faithful
completely everywhere in my house and that's where Hashem actually said that
Moshe was the humblest man on the face of the earth
so this is part of the another aspect of the mystery of the red heifer which is
actually speaking of how we don't even know anything and how this Torah portion
really if the embodiment of the concept that we
really don't understand anything why is it even mentioned here because actually
the precept again the ordinance the hoch of the red heifer was given to Israel
back at the place called Mara we are the bitter waters were sweetened in Parashat
Beshallach in chapter 15 of the book of Exodus this is one of the commandments
which according to our tradition was given to Israel back then and yet for
some reason it only appears here in Parashat Chukat it's completely out of
place that doesn't surprise us because we all know that there is not
necessarily any chronological order whatsoever in the Torah the Torah is not
a book of history and therefore there isn't any chronological order and one of
the reasons why Parah Auumah the red heifer appears where it does
right here following prophets kora is because it was only Moshe who was able
to understand the secret of the red heifer in fact there's a certain kind of
eternal connection between Moshe and their a heifer indeed the verse tells us
HaShem spoke to Moshe and I'm saying this is the ordinance the decree of the
Torah which I shown has commanded saying speak to the children Israel and they
shall take to you a completely red red cow there is a personal association
between the red heifer and Moshe and that's because he had this deep
comprehension that even Shlomo hemelech, even King Solomon who according to the
testimony of Torah was privy to every secret of creation every secret of the
universe every nuance of every natural phenomena every language the language of
the birds the constellations there's nothing no no wisdom no discipline that
he didn't understand but yet he was not able to fathom the mystery of the red
heifer but Moshe he did understand and why is that so the timing again the
chronology is is very beautiful because some of our
rabbis point out that's why this parashah appears where it does in the Torah
because it's following Parashat Korach even though it's natural place is back in
chapter 15 of the book of Exodus the idea of being that you know Korach as we
mentioned last week he was all about himself his whole perception was leave
it where does everything fit in in the grand scheme of the universe that is me
and it was all about himself it wasn't able to put himself aside and in order
to be a leader and in order to really stand in for the nation and say erase me
from your book you have to be in a place where you're able to put yourself aside
completely correct looked at Moshe and he said how could one person be so many
things you're the Prophet you're the king
you're the Kohenb, you're everything all together because Korach looked at himself
and said I know if I was all of those things if I were all of those hats
I'd be so full of myself that I would burst, and the pieces would be on all the
walls, but he looked at Moshe and saw that that wasn't the case and this is
the answer, HaShem's answer as it were through the telling of the Torah HaShem's
answered to Korach if this is why he is who he is and you are who you are
because he is able to understand this secret because he thinks nothing of
himself and that's really part we know part of the secret of the red heifer is
this concept of be tool of self nullification of which Moshe was the
master and then in itself is such a beautiful thought that the secret of
purity and the secret of undoing the damaging the delivered debilitating
illusion of death is to realize that we are nothing and we have nothing that's
the secret of purity so now that the children of Israel are preparing to go
in Parah Adumah is recorded here and this red heifer is a symbol of the endless
depth of knowledge which hovers all around us
which is at our fingertips and yet the beginning of knowledge is the fear of
G-d that's all we really have and the knowledge that we really don't know
anything that's really the paradigm of this week's Torah portion because there
are so many things that are unseen and we don't really understand and what a
beautiful beginning of this parashah the decree of the red heifer which is beyond
our understanding and this parsha seems to be full of death in a way because it
begins with the concept of the purification from death which is the
concept of the red heifer and then of course we have the debacle of the
mistake that Moshe Rabbenu made with hitting this rock instead of speaking to
it so we have the death of our own the death of Miriam and the understanding of
Moshe's finite future that he too will die that he will not enter into the Land
of Israel but of course you know the death is not the end and the sages teach
us indeed that ultimately Moshe will bring the children of Israel into the
land of Israel but not that generation so parah adumah not only is the symbol
of endless depth of knowledge but it's also the instrument of purity and we
need to parallel to new life it's a parallel to Eden to Gan Eden which of
course this is the whole goal to fix that which came about from the original
mistake as it were which was actually Adam harishon's choice that he made
because he wanted to know how to serve G-d with the evil inclination as well
and so now the children of Israel are looking to make the tikkun the
rectification of all of this of all a history to go into the Land of Israel
parallel to Gan Eden and to make this world into the Garden of Eden and so
all these unseen factors in partial who cuts the celebration of the unseen the
celebration of purity the secret of Moshe's choice that we learn about the
well of water which accompany the children of Israel throughout their
desert wanderings was in the merit of Miriam now in this week's Torah portion
with the passing of Miriam the well disappears the well dries up and this is
the background of what happened with Moshe and all the commentaries are all
torn up about how could Moshe have made a mistake and then full of all sorts of
different ideas that we've the wrong rock that he thought it was one rocky
sea because the way that the well of Miriam worked was that it was hidden
inside a particular rock which moved about with the congregation as a travel
throughout the desert and this is a tremendous concept this hidden well of
Miriam and the way that it worked when Miriam was alive is that the rock stood
in the encampment of Israel and all the princes the Nesi'im, all the princes of
all the tribes would stand around and they would sing a certain song and the
water would rush forth from the rock and it would form little tributaries or
little side streams that would encompass the entire encampment and every tribe of
Israel had a stream running by its particular camp and from the stream came
forth all sorts of delicacies in addition to sweet water and all sorts of
fruit bearing trees would spring up around these this distributary of water
and now all of that disappeared and so there's a question know where where is
the stone and perhaps Moshe thought that it was one stone perhaps he thought for
some reason that it was better for certain reasons that he had certain
logic to do this instead of to do that perhaps he was put into a certain
situation or perhaps he didn't understand and this is not
place to go into all of that speculation because it's it's quite involved suffice
it to say no she did not make a mistake he knew exactly what he was doing and
just as Adam and Chava really made a choice in the Garden of Eden
so to Moshe made a choice and he knew ultimately and this was his ultimate
sacrifice because there's nothing that he wanted as much as going into the Land
of Israel he knew that for the sake of the children of Israel's future for
certain reasons it was necessary for him to take this dive and to make sure that
there would be a reason for him not to be able to go into the Land of Israel
but it seems that he made some sort of cosmic mistake and so the irony of
parshat who cut is that in a very same torah portion that begins with a
testimony from G-d Himself as to the greatness of Moshe Rabbenu and he was
the only person who was able to fathom in' and plumb the depths of the secret
of parah adumah of the red heifer because he had such tremendous humility the very
same Torah portion immediately thereafter records the greatest single
mistake of his career which cost him entering into the land of israel what a
contrast from the greatest testimony to his greatness to an open record of his
failure unless of course it was not a failure but it was part of his
understanding of how to ensure the future of the children of Israel this is
a very complex notion but in short there are so many adventures that this
generation went through that are all in the background of these Torah portions
between the lines and they're not even recorded from the time that the spies
were sent forth from Kadesh Barnea until the death of Miriam is a span of 38
years what happened during those years the Torah only bothers to record those
incidents incidents of eternal importance and we are really
left to our own imagination to understand the tremendous detail of
everything that passed over them during those years by the time that the decree
was made against that generation the decree of deaths every year on the eve
of Tish'a b'Av. The entire nation would dig graves the Midrash tells us that after
the decree of death was made against that generation people didn't die just
on any day they didn't die just in the middle of a Wednesday in February but
those who are going to be dying that year would pass away on the night of
Tish'a b'Av, the day of the decree and so every year on the eve of Tish'a b'Av
the entire nation dug graves and that night the night of Tish'a b'Av, of the
destruction of the temple all the males that were of age that were involved in
that terrible sin of speaking Lashon Hara against the Land of Israel would
sleep in the grave and in the morning Moshe would pass through the camp
and make an announcement that all those who are still alive should rise up and
join the rest of the nation and the others were buried there in the very own
graves of they dug which they had already dug when they accepted that
terrible speech against the Land of Israel imagine what goes into this
imagine the scene every year of all of those tzadikim parting from their
families imagine the paperwork of seeing to it that all of their affairs were in
order and then saying goodbye and then the next morning saying hello again and
having a wonderful reunion for maybe another year or more for those that
whose time had not yet come my point being there's so much between the lines
in these 38 years in the desert of all the experiences that this great
generation had this generation that was so close to holiness and so close to G-d
and only those aspects that are of import to us that we are
able to to grow from and to even affect a change for are those that are recorded
the Parashat Chukat, with the parah adumah with the decree that was made against Moshe
because of the incident of the rock which frankly no one really understands
adequately what that really truly is conveying and the death of Miriam and
the disappearance of the well and and the passing of the mantle of the of the
priesthood from our on to his son and the wars that are described all of these
speak more of what we don't know then really what we do know they are an
allusion to the impenetrable endless depth of knowledge of this generation
which is passed on to us thus the pressure begins with the parah adumah
Moshe's not going into the Land of Israel his first order of business after
he's told that is his message to the nation of Edom and he does not shirk his
responsibility to the nation I learned this Miriam's death all of these unseen
elements that are celebrated by the parsha are perhaps most beautifully
summarized in the song of the well that we find when Israel sang the song in
verse 17: "come up oh well call out to its well that the princes
dug that the nobles of the people excavated to a lawgiver and their staffs
a gift from the wilderness the gift went to the valley and from the valley to the
heights and from the heights to the valley in the field of Moav, at the top
of the peak overlooking the surface of the wilderness." The song of the well is
another great mystery and even more mysterious is the fact that
this is the song that was sung by the nesi'im, by the princes of all of the tribes
every time the camp would settle under Miriam's jurisdiction and her
supervision the well which was in her merit the water would spring forth at
the song of the princes and yet this song is not recorded for 39 years this
is taking place in the 39th year that the well which moves about with the camp
mysteriously in this rock now after Miriam has departed after 39 years the
song is finally recorded by the Torah and what's more here in a departure the
nesi'im, the princes are not singing the song but here all of Israel singing the
song and not the princes why this is a great testimony and witness to the
greatness of Miriam because Miriam taught the nesi'im, the princes who
taught the people this song and by teaching them the song she was really
teaching them the nature of HaShem greatness and how HaShem is relating to
them and how everything is really coming from G-d and what the water is really
all about and during her lifetime the song was not sung by Israel because it
was her responsibility and it was responsibility that she gave over to the
princes but after Miraim departed the greatest testimony to her teaching to
her influence on the people to what she gave over to them is the fact that now
without the princes all of Israel were able to sing that song and summon forth
the water from the well and all of these elements in Parashat Chukat are part of
the great ongoing tikkun, fixing that the Jewish people are involved in as we
move in our history from one stage to another rectifying all the aspects of
the generation of the desert, remembering the nahash, the great snake
that was hoisted by Moshe Rabbenu for all to look at
again a symbol of the entrance to the Garden of Eden parallel to the purity
from death this is our opportunity to see to it that we transform the Land of
Israel into the Garden of Eden for the whole world that we learn from the
recorded mistakes of this fabulous magnificent holy generation and that we
understand the illusions of all of those things that are not recorded throughout
all of those years so that we can bring to a beautiful climax in our generation
the true legacy the inheritance for all the people of Israel... the Land of Israel.
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