Parshas Chukas From Talya Wolfson

Hi all! I hope everyone had a good week!!

This Shabbat we read Parshat Chukat, which opens with the following words: Vayidaber Hashem el Moshe ve’el Aharon: zot chukat hatorah asher tziva hashem - Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon saying: This is the statute of the Torah, which the Lord commanded (19:1-2). The Torah goes on to explain the confusing, even paradoxical instructions for the Jewish people regarding the function of the parah adumah (red heifer) as atonement.Chazal ask why is that the Torah introduces this practice by telling us that it is the chukat hatorah, the statute of the entire Torah? These striking words suggest that there is a fundamental lesson to be learned from the nature of the parah adumah.The parah adumah is the paradigmatic chok (a law that we do not fully understand) in the Torah - as the entire process is mysterious and its reasoning unknown. What is the most puzzling part of the process is that while the one who is impure is purified, the one who is pure becomes impure.

Later in the parsha, there is another seemingly paradoxical incident that we must grapple with. When the Jews once again, complain to Moshe about the water in the desert, Hashem sends a plague in which serpents swarm the area and many Jews are killed. In order to stop the plague, Hashem instructed Moshe to place a serpent made of copper on a pole suspended for all to see. When the Jewish people looked up and saw this serpent they were saved from the fatal bite of the deadly serpents that were in their midst. Similar to what we find with the parah adumah, we see that the very thing that saved the Jewish people was what had caused the problem in the first place! The paradox of the serpent is summed up best in the Gomorrah (Rosh Hashana 29a) that Rashi quotes in our parsha: Does the serpent kill or give life? Rather, when Israel looked towards the heavens and subjugated their hearts to their Father in Heaven they would be saved, and if not they would wither.

In order to understand the meaning of this irony, let us understand why the serpent was both the source of punishment and the salvation for the Jewish people at this time. The serpent symbolizes the yetzer hara, most specifically our desire to disobey the command of Hashem—as we recall it was the serpent that first introduced this desire into the psyche of humankind in the Garden of Eden. The Netivot Shalom points out that throughout the desert experience, the Jewish people were not lacking the necessities of survival, as Hashem miraculously provided manna and water for them. The Jews of the desert constantly complained because they were unable to fulfill their desires - they always wanted more.

The Mishnah in Pirkei Avot tells us: Who is rich? One who is satisfied with his portion. In other words, when we desire things in the physical world - we are never truly satisfied. The Jews in the desert were so focused on their physical desires that they never felt complete or content - they always wanted more. This is why the consequence for their complaints came in the form of the serpents - symbolizing that the people had been overcome by their own desires - and this is what led them to sin time and again.But why then did the salvation come in the form of the serpent, as well? We know that our drives and desires are not inherently bad - after all, we could not reproduce and continue to populate the world without them. In fact the word yetzer actually means to create – this drive can be used for evil (yetzer ra) or for good (yetzer tov). The fact that the serpent both caused and ended the plague came to teach us that our desires could also be used for the positive.

I think that with our understanding, we can take the words of Rashi a step further. By looking up in the serpent suspended above them, the Jews would be reminded that their desires, their constant craving for more, could and should be directed upward to Hashem. In this light, we can also understand what the rabbis meant when they wrote that the parah adumah served as atonement for the sin of the Golden Calf. It is the same calf that both led the Jews to one of their gravest sins and provided them with atonement. And perhaps this is the deeper explanation of why it is during this process of the parah adumah that the one who is the purifier becomes impure.Our desires have the potential to lead us down a path of never being fully satisfied with what we have (for the Jews of the desert it was food and water, perhaps for us it is money, honor, and other physical pleasures). At the same time, Hashem reminds the Jewish people that when channeled and directed in the proper way, the same desires can inspire us and drive us to grow in our avodat Hashem. We find the answer of how to accomplish this in our very parsha. It is the thirst for water that brings about the plague in this weeks parsha. The Gemorrah(Baba Kama 82a) tells us: There is no water except Torah. If only the Jewish people were thirsting for Torah and spiritual sustenance and trusted that Hashem would continue to provide for them physical sustenance as He had for the past 40 years - the Jews would not have to suffer the plague. If only they channeled their desires for the right things - in the right direction.The rabbis explain this idea further, as they tell us that the Torah is the only antidote to the yetzer hara:I created the yetzer hara, and I created the Torah as its remedy (Baba Basra 16a).By following the guidelines prescribed by the Torah that we are able to channel our drives and desires for the good and to avoid sin. It is in this parsha that we see the transition that the Jews must make from the miraculous life of the desert to the more natural way of life in the land of Israel. It is in this parsha the Jews learn that they will not be accompanied by Moshe, Aharon, or Miriam into the land - they would no longer have the miraculous manna in the merit of Moshe, the endless supply of water in the merit of Miriam, or the clouds that guided them in the merit of Aharon. It is at this very crucial turning point in our history - as they would enter the land and it would be more difficult for the Jews to recognize Hashem's presence in the world and in their lives - that they had to internalize chukat hatorah - the fundamental truth that the Torah, with all its intricacies, that at times seem incomprehensible, are actually what purify us and help guide us in our spiritual growth.It is the perplexing incidents in the Torah and in our lives that allow for an endless amount of learning and discovery - and this allows for an endless amount of growing. Let us all take comfort in knowing that every part of us has the potential for good and feel overjoyed that Hashem has provided us with the Torah as a means in which we can purify ourselves and channel our drives for the good. Let us appreciate what we do have and thirst for Torah, which we know gives us true sustenance, strength, and satisfaction! May we all be zocheh to be able to use all that Hashem gives us to better ourselves and to strengthen our relationship with Hashem!


Shabbat Shalom!!