Chukath: allotments

Chok, the root of the title word of this week’s parsha, implies the arbitrary, an edict that is not to be questioned.  In this sense, the word is derived from chokek, inscribe. A chok is validated because it is written.

Chok also means an allotment, a fixed amount designated by the government to a specified set of people.  It was the chok that Pharaoh distributed to the priests of Egypt that allowed them to keep their land and independence while everyone else became a serf.

Our parsha deals with both aspects of the chok: the arbitrary and the measured.

The parah aduma , the red heifer ashes that are required for the purification from corpse contamination ( tumath hameth),  is the apparent  chok; the unquestionable ritual, that chukath seems to refer to. The responsible priest is not Aaron, the high priest, but rather his son, (the sagan, the assistant high priest). [Ramban quotes Sifre that all subsequent red heifer rituals {there were a total of 9}were  brought by the kohen gadol, the high priest]. From a literary point of view, Elazar, the son, the next generation, supervising the rite, evokes the idea that the older generation will die.  These ashes will be needed to purify the young when the old pass away. Elazar will eventually replace Aaron.

 

The limit of lifespan is a chok in both senses. It is a defined allocation. The obituary usually starts with age; a person lives for a set number of years. Lifespan also has an arbitrary and indisputable quality. It is almost always too short. This theme of the limited lifespan appears immediately after the details of purification from corpse tumah ( impurity)  are stated.  Miriam dies.

[Bartenura points out that 38 years had past between the red heifer preparation and Miriam’s death (Rav Yehuda Herzl Henkin z”l in his Chiba Yeteira commentary says that no one died during those 38 years, except those who succumbed to the enumerated events like the fiery serpents and Baal peor) .

Clearly, the text was arranged to juxtapose a death to the means of purification from the tumah that death brings.

The story that follows, which involves the fatal error of Moses and Aaron – striking the rock- presages the fact that Moses and Aaron will die before the nation  enters the Promised land

 

Toward the end of the parsha, there is a poem:

אָ֚ז יָשִׁ֣יר יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אֶת־הַשִּׁירָ֖ה הַזֹּ֑את עֲלִ֥י בְאֵ֖ר עֱנוּ־לָֽהּ׃

Then Israel sang this song:

Spring up, O well—sing to it—

בְּאֵ֞ר חֲפָר֣וּהָ שָׂרִ֗ים כָּר֙וּהָ֙ נְדִיבֵ֣י הָעָ֔ם בִּמְחֹקֵ֖ק בְּמִשְׁעֲנֹתָ֑ם וּמִמִּדְבָּ֖ר מַתָּנָֽה׃

The well which the chieftains dug,

Which the nobles of the people started

With maces, with their own staffs. And from Midbar to Mattanah,

 

Some commentators ( Chizkuni,Daath Zikanim) relate this song to Moshe and Aaron, presumably when they  hit the rock. The word ִמְחֹקֵ֖ק, translated here as maces, also means the ruler’s staff, the law giver,  as it is used in Jacob’s blessing of Judah.  Chok is embedded in this word . ְּמִשְׁעֲנֹתָ֑ם, their staffs also hints at the event at the rock.  The violation of Gd’s instructions invoked the epitome of the human chok: death.

The death of Aaron is presented as a clean succession. The vestments are transferred to Elazar. Aaron dies by the Divine kiss ( euthanasia: the good death) . I am not sure any tuma was transferred.

There are several battles and threatened battles. The Israelites never settle lands apportioned to others. The counterattack on the Amalekites ( call Cannanites) involves no land acquisition.  The Edomites and  Moabites deny the Israelite requests for passage and they mobilize their armies, but there is no battle with them. They are on their assigned portions. When it comes to Sichon and Og, lands  occupied by foreign kings, that region is open to annexation and the conquest of the Promised Land begins. The Divine apportionment of the land is also a chok.

The red heifer tells us that the chok is not only arbitrary and unquestionable, it is also mysterious. I do not understand the world. I do not understand what I think I understand. That which purifies contaminates.