Parsha for Kids: Chukas 2023
Below is the transcript for the past week’s episode of Parsha for Kids, Chukas 2023.
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Season 4 Episode 6:
Hello! My name is Chana and this is Parsha for Kids. The parsha of the week is “Chukas” also pronounced “Chukat.” This comes from the word “Chok” which refers to a law or statute.
Chukas means "the law of."
You may wonder, "law of what?" The answer is that this week's parsha teaches about the law regarding the Parah Adumah, or red cow.
But before we get to the red cow, let's discuss the word chukas a bit more. It comes from the word chok, which means law. The Torah has at least FOUR different words for laws: Torah, mitzvos, chukkim (which is plural for chok), and mishpatim.
All these words can translate to English as "laws" but they each mean slightly different things. According to Rashi, a chok is a law about which the Torah does not offer a reason and the reason is not obvious, while mishpat is a law where the Torah doesn't need to offer a reason because the reason is obvious. Another opinion says that chok means a ritual law while mishpat is a law that helps build a well-functioning society.
An example of a chok would be the the laws of Kashrut, eating only kosher animals. Some of our sages have attempted to explain these laws, suggesting for example that we are not allowed to eat birds of prey because if we did so, we would become similar to them- violent and cruel. However, at the end of the day, these are only suppositions. This category of laws, chukim, exist because God made them. There may well be a reason behind the law but it is not a reason that we know. We keep these laws because God gave them to us, not because they reflect a social norm.
An example of a mishpat would be to not kill other people. We wouldn’t want someone to get angry and just decide to kill us, after all. Additionally, the world would not be a very stable place if anyone who felt like it could just kill someone else. Similarly, it makes sense to us that we should not steal from other people. Even individuals who are not Jews would be able to come up with laws like not killing and not stealing.
Now, let’s get back to the red cow. At the beginning of this week’s parsha, we learn about a chok referring to the Parah Adumah, or red heifer, also known as the red cow. The cow was used to help someone who had come in contact with the dead to become tahor, pure. A Parah Adumah needs to be completely red, not have any blemishes (so for example, it can’t have a cut lip or a broken leg) and needs to have never worked, meaning it has never pulled a yoke. This cow has to be slaughtered by a Kohen, who will then sprinkle its blood seven times towards the Mishkan. The cow needs to be entirely burned. A piece of cedar wood, hyssop and red thread is also burned with the cow. In this way, the cow will be reduced to ashes. The person who offered the cow and burned it needs to wash their clothes and dip their body in water and will remain tamei, spiritually impure until that night, after which he can become tahor.
Someone else who is already tahor must gather the cow’s ashes and place them outside the camp in a pure place; that person too will become tamei until the night. And when someone becomes tamei because of contact with the dead, they will need to go through a process that will include sprinkling the ashes of the Parah Adumah, mixed with water, on a person who is tamei because of contact with the dead. This will make the person who was tamei because of contact with the dead tahor, and it will also make the person who was tahor and doing the carrying and sprinkling of the ashes tamei.
Rashi connects the Parah Adumah to the sin of the Golden Calf. He says that just as the Golden Calf made everyone involved in its sin impure, so too the Red Calf makes everyone involved in preparing it or putting in on a tamei person impure. Additionally, in both scenarios, scattering ashes in water was used as a means to demonstrate that people were pure (although in the context of the Golden Calf, the people actually drank the mixture.)
TRANSITION
Bnei Yisrael were now in their fortieth year of wandering in the desert. At this point, Moshe and Aharon’s sister Miriam died.
Right after Miriam died, we learn that Bnei Yisrael had no water. They came to Moshe and Aharon and complained, saying that they wished they had died along with the 15,000 Jews who died because of the plague that occurred as punishment after Korach’s rebellion. They added, “Why have you brought us and our animals to die in the desert? Why did you take us out of Egypt to bring us to this evil place, which is not a place for seeds, grapes or pomegranate trees, and there is no water to drink?”
Rashi wonders why the section about Miriam’s death is placed right next to, or juxtaposed, to Bnei Yisrael suddenly not having water. He concludes that in Miriam’s merit, Bnei Yisrael had water for forty years, but once she died, the water went away. The Midrash refers to this as the Be’er Miriam, or Well of Miriam, and says that it accompanied the Jews in her merit.
Now that the well had dried up, what were Bnei Yisrael going to do?
God spoke to Moshe and told him to take the staff and gather Bnei Yisrael along with Aharon. Moshe was then supposed to speak to a rock. When he did this, water would flow out and Bnei Yisrael and their animals would be able to drink from it.
Moshe and Aharon gathered Bnei Yisrael together. Then Moshe spoke, saying, “Listen, you mordim, rebels, can we get you water from this rock?” He then took his staff and struck the rock twice. Lots of water gushed out and Bnei Yisrael were able to drink from it.
There was a problem, however. Can you figure out what it was?
Moshe didn’t follow instructions. God had told him to speak to the rock. Instead, he hit the rock.
Why does this matter?
Our Sages give many different reasons. The simplest one is that it was important for Moses not to deviate from God’s commands. He needed to follow God’s instructions to the letter. Hitting instead of speaking meant that Moshe was putting his own desire- to hit the rock- ahead of God’s command, which was to speak to the rock. We are not supposed to put what we want ahead of what God wants.
Additionally, since it was now at the end of the forty years, Bnei Yisrael were getting ready to enter the land of Israel. During the time that bnei Yisrael were in the desert, God helped them with open miracles. He rained manna down from heaven for them. He gave them water earlier through Moshe striking a rock. But God now plans to have the people transition to a more natural way of doing things. When they enter the land of Israel, for example, they will need to plant seeds and harvest crops in order to make their daily bread. God telling Moshe to speak to the rock rather than hit it signified part of that transition, demonstrating that God could be present not only with large open flashy miracles but even with more subtle ones. When Moshe chose to hit the rock instead, that undermined the lesson God was trying to teach Bnei Yisrael.
God told Moshe and Aharon that because they had missed the opportunity to show God’s holiness through believing in Him and following His commands, they would no longer be able to bring Bnei Yisrael into the land of Israel. Some look at this as a punishment for a sin that Moshe committed. But others simply see it as a natural consequence. If Moshe was unable to help transition the Jews from a period of flashy open miracles to more subtle ones, he would be the wrong leader to help them transition to life in Eretz Yisrael. They would need a leader who was capable of helping them learn how to live in a way where miracles were less obvious.
The place where this happened was called Mei Merivah, meaning Waters of Strife. Strife means fighting or arguing. The name of the place referred to the fact that Bnei Yisrael had striven against God, but God proved Himself nonetheless.
TRANSITION
Bnei Yisrael were now in Kadesh, close to the country of Edom. They asked permission to cross through Edom’s land in order to get to the land of Israel. However, Edom refused to allow them safe passage. Because of this Bnei Yisrael had to take a more roundabout route to get to the land of Israel.
Bnei Yisrael camped at the foot of the mountain Hor Hahar. God told Moshe that Aharon would die on this mountain. He told Moshe to tell Aharon and his son Elazar to come up the mountain with him. There, Moshe would take off Aharon’s holy bigdei Kehunah, priestly garments, and place them on Elazar instead. This was a beautiful way to die because Aharon got to see his son take over his role, which he must have witnessed with a sense of love and pride. Aharon’s death was peaceful.
After Aharon died atop the mountain, Moshe and Elazar descended the mountain. When Bnei Yisrael found out that Aharon had died, everyone cried for him and mourned for thirty days.
Rashi has an important comment on this. He wonders why the Torah mentions that everyone cried for Aharon- men and women, and that they mourned him for so long. He explains that it was because everyone loved Aharon. Aharon was a rodef shalom- someone who pursued peace. When he saw two people in the midst of an argument, he would try to figure out a way for the two of them to make up and get along again. This especially applied if it was a husband and wife who were fighting with each other.
TRANSITION
After Aharon died, a Canaanite king named Arad attacked Bnei Yisrael. Rashi explains that this was actually Amalek. The Amalekites spoke in the Canaanite language, hoping Bnei Yisrael would think they were from Canaan and pray to God to save them from the Canaanites. Since they wouldn’t be praying about the Amalekites specifically, the Amalekites assumed their prayers would not work. However, Bnei Yisrael simply prayed that God should give “this nation” into their hands, and so Amalek was defeated.
Unfortunately, Bnei Yisrael, still not having learned their lesson, spoke badly about the manna that God was giving them. God sent poisonous snakes against the people, and they bit members of Bnei Yisrael so that many of them died. Rashi explains that the snake was the one who had spoken evil to Chava, and therefore it was appropriate that it should come and punish those who had spoken evil against the manna. Additionally, God had cursed the snake that everything it ate would taste the same, and so it was appropriate that the snake be used to punish Bnei Yisrael who were complaining about a miraculous food that could taste like so many different foods.
Bnei Yisrael admitted their sin to Moshe, having regretted it. God told Moshe to construct a snake and put it on a pole and tell members of Bnei Yisrael to look at it. Those who were bitten would do so and then live. Moshe made the snake and the pole out of copper. A snake coiled around a staff would later become the symbol of the medical profession and connote healing. It’s referred to as the caduceus.
TRANSITION
Bnei Yisrael continued to travel through the Midbar. They arrived at the border of the Emorite kingdom. They wanted to pass through but Sichon, their king, refused to let them do so. Instead, he waged war against them. Bnei Yisrael fought against him and conquered the Emorite kingdom.
Bnei Yisrael then headed north towards Bashan. Og, the king of Bashan, decided to come fight against the Jews. God told Moshe not to be afraid of him. Bnei Yisrael won a war against him and his people and they conquered his land as well.
In the wake of these victories, Bnei Yisrael went and camped in the plains of Moav, across the Yarden from a city called Yericho which was inside of the land of Israel.
TRANSITION
So here’s what we learned this week:
We need to follow God’s laws, including his chukim, even if we do not know the reason for these laws.
It’s important to follow the exact instruction God gives rather than deviating from it- as happened when Moshe hit the rock instead of speaking to it.
A person is much beloved when they act as a peacemaker. This is why everyone in Israel mourned Aharon’s death. We can learn from this to be a rodef Shalom, someone who chases after and pursues peace, in our own lives.
If you have any questions or comments on this week’s episode, please email me at parsha4kids@gmail.com. That’s parsha the number 4 kids at gmail.com. Good Shabbos.