Vol. 7 #36, July 3, 2020; Chukat/Balak 5780
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BS”D July 3, 2020 Potomac Torah Study Center Vol. 7 #36, July 3, 2020; Chukat/Balak 5780 NOTE: Devrei Torah presented weekly in Loving Memory of Rabbi Leonard S. Cahan z”l, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Har Shalom, who started me on my road to learning almost 50 years ago and was our family Rebbe and close friend until his recent untimely death. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Devrei Torah are now Available for Download (normally by noon on Fridays) from www.PotomacTorah.org. Thanks to Bill Landau for hosting the Devrei Torah. __________________________________________________________________________________ In our modern world, any lack of access to modern technology can be very frustrating. My Internet connection went out on Thursday afternoon. Bill Landau uploaded what I had completed by Thursday afternoon. My Internet has been working again since 4 p.m. on Friday, so I am fortunate to post late – but still before Shabbas. Of all the pairings of parshot that we occasionally encounter, Chukat and Balak to me seem the most thematically challenging to consider together. Chukat opens with Parah Adumah, the procedure of regaining ritual purity after contact with a dead body. This chapter follows logically after Shelach and Korach, when many thousands of Jews died (and therefore those who cared for the deceased became ritually impure). After Parah Adumah, the discussion of the generation of the Exodus ceases, and the Torah picks up immediately 38 years later, with the events of the generation that Yeshoshua led into the land. These events include the death of Miriam and Aharon and the events that caused God to tell Moshe and Aharon that their period of leadership was over, that Yehoshua and Elazar would replace them. B’Nai Yisrael travel and reach Moab, on the Jordan River, across (east) from Jericho. At this point, we have a strange parsha. Balak, who had been a powerful warrior and became the king of Moab, feared that B’Nai Yisrael were about to conquer his nation. Balak therefore approached Balaam, an evil prophet from Mesopotamia, to hire him to curse the Jews so Moab would be able to defeat them in battle. What is strange about Balak is that the entire parsha, until the final nine pasookim (which begin the next story, about Pinchas), involves only non-Jews. Balak, Bilaam, Bilaam’s donkey, and the people they encounter do not include any Jews. While the Moabites, Midianites, and Bilaam’s entourage plot against the Jews, Moshe and B’Nai Yisrael go about their activities completely unaware of the plotting going on around them. The Midrash focuses on many parallels between Avraham and Bilaam. Studying the two men together provides many insights on both of them. Parah Adumah connects to more than 15,000 deaths in Korach (plus the death sentence to virtually all the adults of the generation of the Exodus in Shelach). Red appears several times in the ritual – an all red cow, red blood, brownish red earth, etc. The Torah calls the mixture of water and ashes of the Parah Adumah “waters of niddah” – a word that means menstruation but also goes back to its original mention of “niddah” in the Torah, the punishment that Cain receives for killing his brother (the first death in the Torah, when he becomes a wanderer without a place). By reminding us of Cain’s murder of his brother, Rabbi David Fohrman observes that one reason for the ritual of Parah Adumah is to remind us of the horror of death. After the 38 year gap, the Torah resumes with the stories of the death of Miriam, the punishment of Moshe and Aharon, death of Aharon, and word to Moshe that he will die soon. The theme of death is obvious here as well. Commentators from the Rishonim to contemporary have been trying to explain the sin that Moshe and Aharon committed. Whatever the sin, God ended their leadership, sentenced them to death without entering the land, and turned over leadership to Yehoshua and Elazar. Rabbi Fohrman’s interpretation makes a lot of sense to me. In every event involving Miriam and water, she had complete faith that God would find a solution, even if she did not know how He would accomplish saving the Jews. With complete faith, she put her baby brother in a teva and pushed him into the Nile. She led the women in songs at the Sea of Reeds (one before and a second after crossing the sea.) 1 After B’Nai Yisrael crossed the Sea of Reeds, there were three crises over lack of water in the Midbar. For the first two, Miriam was present. She encouraged her brother to trust in God when the people encountered bitter water, and she was confident that God would find a way to bring water from a rock when God told Moshe to hit a rock to get water. Thirty- eight years later, God wanted Moshe to teach Miriam’s lesson of complete faith to the new generation, at Mer Merivah. God wanted Moshe and Aharon to go to the rock that had given water for nearly 40 years (until Miriam died), tell the people to trust in Hashem, and ask the rock to give water. God wanted Moshe to perform a Kiddush Hashem, a lesson of God’s power and mercy, that He would provide as long as the people had faith and asked Him to help them. Showing anger and hitting the rock did not teach this lesson at a time when a new generation needed to learn the lesson of true faith. Our community had a vivid example of the themes of coping with death and learning complete faith in Hashem on Monday with a large gathering at Mt. Lebanon Cemetery for the funeral of Iran Kohan, beloved wife of Mehrdad Kohan, and mother of Yosef and Sharine Kohan. Iran, born a Kohen and wife of a Kohen, originally from Iran, was a beloved wife, sister, and mother in our community for many years. Generations of young children knew her as Morah Irene, the favorite teacher of most students who were fortunate enough to be in her classes. Iran loved nothing more than inviting people to her home for Shabbas and Yom Tov meals – and telling everyone how fortunate she was that Hashem had given her everything. Iran had the complete faith of Miriam – the faith that God had wanted Moshe and Aharon to show the people at Mer Merivah. There could not have been a better Devar Torah on Chukat than learning from the life and legacy of Iran Kohan. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Please daven for a Refuah Shlemah for Hershel Tzvi ben Chana, Gedalya ben Sarah, Mordechai ben Chaya, Baruch Yitzhak ben Perl, David Leib HaKohen ben Sheina Reizel, Zev ben Sara Chaya, Uzi Yehuda ben Mirda Behla, HaRav Dovid Meir ben Chaya Tzippa; Eliav Yerachmiel ben Sara Dina, Amoz ben Tziviah, Reuven ben Masha, Moshe David ben Hannah, Meir ben Sara, Yitzhok Tzvi ben Yehudit Miriam, Yaakov Naphtali ben Michal Leah, Rivka Chaya bat Leah, Zissel Bat Mazal, Chana Bracha bas Rochel Leah, Leah Fruma bat Musa Devorah, Hinda Behla bat Chaya Leah, Nechama bas Tikva Rachel, Miriam Chava bat Yachid, and Ruth bat Sarah, all of whom greatly need our prayers. Note: Beth Sholom has additional names, including coronavirus victims, on a Tehillim list. _____________________________________________________________________________ Hannah & Alan _____________________________________________________________________________ Drasha: Parshas Chukat: Symbolism over Substance by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky © 1999 In one of the most difficult episodes in the Torah, this week we read how Moshe loses his entitlement to enter the Land he so desired to inherit. What happened is as follows: during the desert journey, a miraculous well traveled with the Jews. This well existed in the merit of Miriam. When she died, it ceased to flow. The Jews complained bitterly that they were thirsty. Hashem commanded Moshe to "take his staff and speak to the rock," thereupon the rock would disgorge water to nourish a parched people. Moshe did not end up speaking to the rock. The nation was upset and impatient. When Moshe chose the wrong rock they chided him. "He in turn turned to them and said, "Listen you rebellious folk. Do you expect me to draw water from this rock?" (Numbers 20:10) Immediately Moshe hit the rock instead of speaking to it and water flowed from it. Hashem is angered by Moshe's actions. "Because you have not sanctified me in the eyes of the nation, you will not enter the the land of Israel. (Numbers 20:12) Rashi, the classic medieval commentator, departs from his standard text-based explanation and bases his explanation of this verse upon the Midrash. "Imagine," said Hashem, "if the Jewish nation would have seen that scenario. A rock, that does not talk nor hear and does not need sustenance, produces water by the request of the Almighty. Surely, they would have taken heart when Hashem speaks to them! The impact would have been far more reaching! 2 Moshe's prelude to his action is noteworthy: "Listen, you rebellious folk. Do you expect me to draw water from this rock?" The nation just wanted water, they did not ask for miracles or rock-wells. It was Hashem who told Moshe to approach the rock. Moshe knew that the water would come. Then why was his admonition given in the inquisitive mode, rather it should have been decreed in the declarative mode! Listen you rebellious folk! I am going to extract water from a rock? It seems that Moshe, himself, (Heaven-forbid) doubted his own authority. (Though many commentaries explain the question as rhetorical.) Surely, the rock-water connection cannot be taken at face value.