D’var Torah
Chukat

Howard J. Warner DDS

7th of Tamuz 5784
July 13, 2024

Parsha Chukat: 
Can we relate this parsha to leadership in our life?

Chukat (literally “Law Of” or “statute”) opens by describing the process of burning the red heifer and using its ashes for purification. It also tells the stories of the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ striking of a rock to bring forth water, a plague of venomous snakes, and battles against the Amorite kings Sihon and Og.

I have wondered how the rabbis chose to divide Parashat and unite differing issues.  Ritual purity after exposure to death is required with the impending loss of their leaders.  There are additional issues of anger, leadership, generational power, hubris, and time.  The people reach Kadesh after 40 years in the wilderness since the exodus from Egypt.  Then Miriam dies and is buried.  

The Torah is the story of the establishment of the Israelite nation.  It is a sociological description of humankind in moral terms.  The Book of Numbers prepares the nascent nation for entry into Canaan and includes a reckoning of the failures of these people.  A free people must overcome their dependency under slavery. What is the wilderness?  It is wondering as youngster until wisdom allows the children of Israel to reach adult responsibility.  Further the generational memory of the pagan life in Egypt must be erased. New leadership is required.  But voluntarily relinquishing power is foreign to ancient people.  These people surrendered leadership through rebellion or death. 

In the ancient world, most are illiterate so ritual is a powerful messenger.  This ritual addresses the basic human fear of death. According to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the animal symbolizes pure life, natural and untamed. Red is the color of blood, the essence of life. The cedar, tallest of trees, represents vegetative life. The hyssop represents purity.  These were reduced to ash in fire, a reminder that all lives die. The ash was then dissolved in water, symbolizing continuity, the flow of life, and the potential of rebirth. The body dies but the spirit flows on. Those who live after us continue what we began, and we live on in them. 

Death causes emotions hard to understand.  Rabbi Sacks said that it took him 2 years to overcome the sense of loss when his father passed.  I lost my parents in 2020 and 2022.  Since that time, I find it hard to watch a movie in a cinema or give emotional talks before crowds without tears.  For some, death of a loved one is a severe disrupter while to others it forces a new beginning. 

The use of the red Heifer has no explanation except as a commandment of God.  It is a test of our willingness to follow a mitzvah simply because it was imposed.  This like the laws of kashrut and circumcision is designed to separate Israel from other nations.  This is a test of their fidelity to God.  Today we sit shivah. 

Our defective world is repaired through future generations, improving the human condition, so children are a must.  An evil person can worsen things.  In the Hasidic view the animal soul is matched by the Godly soul in humans allowing the light of goodness or the darkness of evil to be balanced though our free will.  

It would not be surprising that the people would rebel when they are thirsty.  Then the snakes appear to cause death to those complaining.  The bronze serpent upon the staff forces the people to look upward and remember God is above, just as a kippah (or yarmulke) reminds us of that.

According to Rabbi Sacks, Maimonides, like Aristotle, believed that emotional intelligence exists in striking a balance between excess and deficiency. Too much fear makes me a coward, too little makes me rash and foolhardy, taking unnecessary risks. The middle way is courage. There are, however, two exceptions, says Maimonides: pride and anger. Even a little pride is too much. Likewise, even a little anger is wrong.

That, says Maimonides, is why Moses was punished: because he lost his temper with the people when he said, “Listen, you rebels.” His reaction to the sin of the Golden Calf by smashing the Two Tablets, was justified. God Himself was threatening to destroy the people. Moses acted decisively to restore order with the people wildly out of control.  Moses acted to protect Israel.  Here they were thirsty. God was not angry with them. Moses’ intemperate reaction was therefore wrong, says Maimonides.  We are all prone to anger. But Moses was a leader, and a leader must be a role model. So, Moses was punished heavily for a failure more lightly punished in someone less exalted. 

According to Liberal Rabbi Jordan Cohen, God clearly instructed Moses to “speak” to the rock, but instead he hit it, not just once, but twice. Rashi suggests that God seemed to be dismayed that Moses robbed him of the opportunity to impress the people with the miracle. More simply, Moses displayed a lack of faith or compliance with God’s command, something common among the people.

But Moses was not just an average Israelite; he was the leader of the people and expected to set a higher example. As the Zohar teaches “The acts of the leader are the acts of the nation. If the leader is just, the nation is just; if he is unjust, the nation too is unjust and is punished for the sin of the leader.”

Aaron is also held accountable and dies on Mt. Hor. If Moses had hit the rock once, only he would have been punished for the act. But since Moses hit the rock twice, Aaron is deemed culpable as well. After seeing Moses hit the rock once, Aaron should have stopped him before Moses hit the rock a second time.

According to Beth Ellen Young, a Reform Jewish educator, the scene follows the “complaining Israelites” formula that can be seen many times in the book of Numbers. The people complain, God gets angry, and bad things happen to the people – in this case, fiery serpents.  But here is something that is not expected, and shows that the next generation of Israelites is emerging:  The people said to Moses, “We sinned by speaking against God and against you. Intercede with God to take away the serpents from us!” And Moses interceded for the people. (Numbers 21:7)

This is the first time that the people take responsibility for their actions and acknowledge that they have erred, a sign of maturation. In Judaism, we are expected to acknowledge when we have erred, take responsibility, and take steps to do better in the future. They do not blame Moses or God, nor bend the truth as Aaron does following the Golden Calf. A mature people must accept responsibility for their lives.  They must reduce their dependency upon others such as their need for food and water from another source. 

Rabbi Sacks notes it was not the Israelites’ demand for water that led Moshe to lose control, but rather dealing with this during his own deep grief. The Israelites may have lost their water, but Moshe had lost his sister, who had watched over him as a child, guided his development, supported him throughout the years, and helped him carry the burden of leadership, as a prophetess.

Commentators reconcile Moses’ punishment by acknowledging that each leader has different skills and talents.  Moses was the person to bring the flock out of Egypt but not the person to establish the new nation.  Joshua had the ability to coalesce the twelve tribes into a fighting force that could conquer Canaanite nations.  Moses had become too haughty after years of power and conversation with God.  The sin of the rock was committed before all of Israel, a desecration of God’s name. God will forgive all sins, but Chillul HaShem, the sin of desecrating the Divine Name, God will not forgive. (Tz’enah Ur’enah).

Reform Rabbi Amy Grossblatt Pessah feels this passage also teaches us about the importance of living with awareness, recognizing the wells in our lives and remembering not to take them for granted.  Judaism provides various rituals to cultivate this awareness. Each morning when we awake, Jewish tradition teaches us to recite Modeh Ani, offering gratitude to God for another day. We recite blessings over food, rainbows, plants, and pleasurable scents, for instance. Pausing prevents us from taking those gifts for granted. 

Korach and the rebels were punished for their effort to overthrow the trio sibling leadership without God’s sanction.  But the challenge to Moses’ position must have created a paranoia that merged with loss after Miriam’s death resulting in anger.  Korach’s challenge to Moses’ leadership, just previously has unleashed his hubris and loftiness.  An angry and arrogant leader cannot connect to his people.

American history is unique.  With the end of the revolution against Britain, George Washington resigned his military commission.  Again, after two terms as president Washinton resigned.  This is at odds with historical leadership where power is transferred through death or defeat.  

The founders created a constitutional republic which limits individual power.  We reconcile our differences electorally; a bruising Civil War resulted from not accepting election results in 1860. Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma J. Rufus Fears in his series for the Teaching Company noted that the unifying principle of history is not freedom but power.  Decisions made by leaders determine outcomes for nations and empires.  Their success requires connection to and support of the people.

After his assassination Mary Todd Lincoln reported that Abraham Lincoln had a premonition of his death.  He said that he could have let the South secede but by resisting he caused death and destruction.  With guilt he felt that his death would atone for this damage.  Without his resistance the Civil War would not have occurred and slavery would have continued.  Good leaders brave the difficult, but are bound by the consequences.   Our purpose in life is to find that redemption. 

This short parsha is usually combined with Balak which follows when the cycle is compressed.  However thematically it is more connected to the former parsha Korach in which Moses is challenged.  Moses is threatened but God rescues him, allowing a feeling of invincibility.  Then his sister dies raising his own mortality.  The uncontrollable anger in calling them “rebels” damages his loyalty to the people and his position, revealing pride that separates him from the flock.  

Our nation established voluntarily changing power through popular support via elections.  Now most western nations follow this peaceful mode of power transfer.  Power is a personal narcotic.  God has determined that Moses must relinquish his position.  I believe the sin against God is not the cause for Moses’ demise, but his sin against the people Israel, alienating them and God, Israel’s ultimate protector.

Shabbat Shalom.