Ziv: Parashat Hukkat

With this parasha, we make a leap of thirty-eight years in time. A time during which the children of Israel were in the wilderness until the wicked generation that came out of Egypt and produced the ten spies who spoke evil of the land flowing with milk and honey would die in the wilderness. Very little is known of these years in the wilderness. Indeed, as we come out of this period, we come out of a period of “formlessness and void” (Genesis 1:2) returning us to the time of nothingness before creation. The first event connected with the fortieth year is the offering of the red heifer whose sacrifice produces tremendous quantities of ashes - that last for centuries. According to the Rambam (Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon) there were nine such heifers offered since the time of Moses until the destruction of the second temple, and the tenth will be offered by the Messiah. These ashes that include cedar wood and hyssop are to be mixed with water to serve as purification from contact with death. As we have seen in Leviticus, the instructions regarding contact with the dead are always given in the context of the death of a priest (given for the first time after the death of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron), and indeed Aaron himself will die in chapter 20 of our parasha. The purification by the ashes of a red heifer symbolizes the dust of the earth from which man was created (earth in Hebrew is “adamah” and red is “adumah”), and his purification by water.

It is also in this context of creation that - when the Israelites complain about the lack of water - God tells Moses to speak to the rock so that water would flow out of it. This rock, according to tradition, followed the children of Israel and produced water for them during their forty years of wandering in the desert. Tradition also understands the fact that the lack of water began after the death of Miriam as a sign of grace to her by which water was provided to the children of Israel, as Rashi also confirms. It is now, that God asks Moses to speak water into existence - just as God Himself did at creation. However, Moses does not understand the context of the commandment : that it is time for a new creation of the Hebrew people before the entry into the promised land, and he chooses instead to strike the rock with his staff. God’s original commandment was designed to show the power of the word of God - and not of a physical act; it was designed to show that creation itself obeys the voice of God - and not the work of man. And it is through these that faith would have been restored and God would have been sanctified. However, since Moses and Aaron failed to realize the significance of the divine commandment, He says to them : ““Because you did not trust in me, to show my holiness before the eyes of the Israelites, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them” (Numbers 20:12) - Aaron shall die on the mountain nearby, and Moses on Mount Nebo, and the people of Israel will have to wait for a new creation that is to come. Shabbat Shalom.