הַנֹּגֵ֥עַ בְּמֵ֖ת לְכׇל־נֶ֣פֶשׁ אָדָ֑ם וְטָמֵ֖א שִׁבְעַ֥ת יָמִֽים׃ ה֣וּא יִתְחַטָּא־ב֞וֹ בַּיּ֧וֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁ֛י וּבַיּ֥וֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י יִטְהָ֑ר (חקת יט, יא-יב)
“Anyone touching the corpse of a human being will become defiled for seven days. On the third and seventh days, he must purify himself [by being sprinkled] with it [the ashes of the Red Heifer]…” (Numbers 19:11-12)
First Reading: The Dew of Resurrection
Parashat Chukat stands between life and death. The beginning of the parashah deals with the red heifer, which purifies from the impurity of death. A corpse is considered the ultimate source of impurity, but one can be purified from this impurity by the ashes of the red heifer mixed with living water and sprinkled upon the defiled. Subsequently,[1] the parashah sharply transitions from event to event: first, Miriam the prophetess dies, and the well disappears, only to return after Moses strikes the rock. However, it soon becomes clear that due to this act, both Moses and Aaron will die in the wilderness, “You shall not bring this assembly to the Land that I have given them,”[2] and later we read about the death of Aaron the priest.
However, it is not only Miriam and Aaron who die in this parashah. An entire generation dies. The entire generation of the wilderness, upon whom the decree was made following the sin of the spies, finishes serving its punishment and dies in the wilderness. Thus, Rashi explains on the verse “And the Israelites, the whole congregation, came to the wilderness of Zin”—“the whole congregation, the complete congregation, since those destined to die in the wilderness had already died, and these were designated for life.” Therefore, the parashah swiftly skips over thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness (about which nothing is recounted!) and reaches the new generation that is destined to enter the Land. Indeed, later in the parashah, the Israelites enter the eastern side of the Jordan, concluding the great journey from the Exodus from Egypt at the gates of the Promised Land, “in the plains of Moab, by the Jordan, near Jericho.”[3]
The Secret of Resurrection
Seemingly, death is a given that cannot be changed, only ignored or its impact on the living minimized. Thus, one might think that in parashat Chukat we leave the dead behind, buried in the vast wilderness, and continue onward to the Land of Israel, which is known as the “Land of the Living.” But the truth is that there is a deeper secret here, the secret of the Resurrection of the Dead. The dead themselves return, and death itself is transformed into life.
The Resurrection of the Dead is connected to the secret of the red heifer, which purifies an individual from the impurity of death. Thus, the opening of the parashah provides the remedy for the death that appears later on. The sages say that the logic behind the red heifer was not revealed even to King Solomon, the wisest of all men, "I said I will become wise, but it is far from me," but was revealed only to Moses. Therefore, Moses carries the secret of the Resurrection of the Dead. This is highlighted in the fact that the sages derived a hint to the Resurrection of the Dead from the Torah in the verse “Then Moses will sing”[4]—“it does not say ‘sang’ but ‘will sing,’ from here is a hint to the Resurrection of the Dead from the Torah.”
Indeed, in our parashah, there is already a glimmer of the Resurrection of the Dead with Moses: God gave three gifts to Israel in the wilderness: the manna by the merit of Moses, the well by the merit of Miriam, and the clouds of glory by the merit of Aaron. After Miriam died, the well disappeared but then returned thanks to the merits of Moses and Aaron. After Aaron died, the clouds of glory disappeared, but then returned thanks to the merit of Moses. This means, in an inner sense, that after their death, the souls of Aaron and Miriam appeared within Moses’ soul. This is known in Kabbalah known as Ibbur Neshamah—an impregnation of a soul. This is a kind of Resurrection of the Dead, as it becomes clear that the souls of the departed tzaddikim are present with us, continuing their journey within the leader. Following this initial stage, we ascend to believe in the literal Resurrection of the Dead, when the souls will return to live in actual bodies.
Dew and the Manna
The central and most important description of dew in the Torah is found in the account of the manna's daily descent from the heavens: a layer of dew came below,[5] and upon it the manna rested, and over the manna, there was another layer of dew.[6] As we remember, the manna came by the merit of Moses, so it is fitting to say that the dew from above and below hints to Aaron and Miriam. The dew from below resembles the wellspring that came from the earth by the merit of Miriam (about which the Song of the Well is sung in our parashah[7]), and the dew from above resembles the clouds of glory that were by the merit of Aaron. Therefore, this special packaging of dew-manna-dew is the secret of the unification of the souls of the three great siblings within the soul of Moses.
The Dew of Torah
To grasp the secret of resurrection, let us consider a beautiful hint. Our parashah is the thirty-ninth in the Torah, which is the gematria of “dew” (טַל). The concept of dew is directly associated with the Resurrection of the Dead, as it is written: “Your dead shall live, my corpses shall rise; awaken and sing, you who dwell in the dust, for your dew is like the dew of light, and the earth shall bring forth the spirits”[8] – “For the dew of resurrection that I will bring upon you will be like the dew that descends upon the plants, causing them to grow, so too the dead will live through the dew of resurrection.”[9] In the words of the Midrash, in the future, God will "bring down the dew of resurrection and revive the dead."
The word for “dew” in Hebrew itself hints at the Resurrection of the Dead. How so? The word for “curse” (לָט) in Aramaic—Hebrew’s sister language—is spelled using the same two letters as “dew,” (טַל) but in reverse order. A curse represents death, and the dew transforms the curse into life and blessing. Nothing is as blessed as dew. Additionally, we note that the journey of the Israelites from Mount Sinai towards the Land of Israel began in the second year after the Exodus from Egypt, in the month of Iyar, until the decree for the sin of the spies was issued in the month of Av. Thus, the generation of the wilderness wandered in the desert for thirty-nine years, again the value of “dew” (טַל).
But what is this “dew of resurrection”? The sages interpret it as referring to the “dew of Torah,” stating that “whoever engages in the dew of Torah, the dew of Torah enlivens him.”[10] The Torah itself is the greatest gift given to us by Moses. The person who brought the Torah down to earth holds the secret of the Resurrection of the Dead through the Torah. Indeed, the sages say that this dew of Torah already acted once as the dew of resurrection when, at the Giving of the Torah at Mt. Sinai, the souls of Israel departed due to the overwhelming Divine revelation, and God revived them with that very dew.[11]
And why is the secret of resurrection specifically concealed within Moses? Because Moses teaches the oneness of God, “Havayah our God, Havayah is One.”[12] When we feel the unity of God, everything is filled with life, “In the light of the king’s countenance is life.”[13] When we distance ourselves from it, there is room for the separation that prevails in the material world and brings death. In the Kabbalistic texts, there is a well-known hint: the value of “Havayah is One” (י-הוה אֶחָד) is 39, the same as the gematria of “dew” (טַל)—the same dew of Torah that revives the dead—drops of the dew of God’s unity that touch us and awaken us to life.
וַיַּ֤עַשׂ מֹשֶׁה֙ נְחַ֣שׁ נְחֹ֔שֶׁת (חקת כא, ט)
“Moses made a copper snake…” (Numbers 21:9)
Fifth Reading: The Union of the Written and Oral Torah
At Mount Sinai, we received two Torahs—the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. The Written Torah is the Divine revelation from the heavens, the manifestation of God’s word and His revealed sovereignty over us to the extent that even the nations of the world recognize it. In contrast, the Oral Torah rises from below; it is renewed and revealed through the study of the sages and the tzaddikim of the Jewish people.
The sages state, “There is nothing as honorable as Torah”[14] (אֵין כָּבוֹד אֶלָּא תּוֹרָה). This applies equally to both the Written and Oral Torah. The Written Torah, the Torah from the heavens, reveals the honor of the heavens, the revelation of God’s sovereignty. At the same time the Oral Torah reveals the honor of the sages of the Torah, to the degree that they two are likened to kings who are sovereign, as captured in the statement, “Who are the kings!? The Rabbis.”[15]
Of course, despite referring to the Written Torah and to the Oral Torah, in truth the Torah is one. We must be careful not to divide or separate the Torah into two, God forbid. Rather, the union of both aspects of Torah—the Written and the Oral—can be likened to the union of a groom and his bride. This is the union referred to by the Kabbalists as the union of the Holy Blessed One, representing the Written Torah, and His Divine Presence, the Shechinah, representing the Oral Torah.
In Chasidut, it is explained that the verse “Above all honor shall be a (wedding) canopy”[16] (עַל כָּל כָּבוֹד חֻפָּה) is a symbol for the honor of the groom and the honor of the bride. The groom’s honor is his love for his bride, and the bride’s honor is her love for her groom. Carrying the image to the analogous relationship between the Written and the Oral Torah, the Written Torah’s reveals God’s glory, but as the figurative groom, God’s intent is to increase the honor of the Jewish people, His bride and particularly the honor of the Torah sages—foremost among them Moses. At the same time, the Oral Torah, indeed reveals the glory of the Jewish people, but as the figurative bride, the Jewish people and its scholars, those who study and innovate the Oral Torah, aim to increase the honor of Heaven and dedicate everything to the Holy Blessed One.
The Bronze Serpent
An example of this relationship between the Written and Oral Torah and between God and Moses can be found in the story of the bronze serpent related in our reading. The Torah recounts that “the people spoke against God and Moses….”[17] In response, “God sent against the people venomous snakes”: “snakes” because of their words against God and “venomous” because of their speech against Moses—the Torah scholar whose hiss is likened to the hiss of a venomous serpent.[18] When Israel repented and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against God and against you,”[19] Moses prayed for them, and God instructed him how to turn the very source of illness and death into a source of healing and life. The verse states that God told Moses, “Make yourself a venomous [snake].”[20] God did not mention the word snake, which as we said refers to the punishment of speaking against God, meaning that God was careful to protect Moses’ honor, whom we said was captured in the venom of the snakes. For his part, Moses made a copper snake, a play on the word “snake,” which in Hebrew is cognate with the word for “copper.” Thus, even though God had not mentioned a “snake,” the punishment for speaking against Him, Moses was careful to protect God’s honor, the honor of Heaven.
We can go a little deeper and discover that the relationship between the Written and Oral Torah is even more profound. It is explained that God indeed said to Moses, “Make yourself a venomous snake,” but the Torah text shortened His words and omitted the word “snake.” This was, it is explained, in response to the spirit of the people, which grew short-tempered on their journey; measure for measure, so too, in a manner of speaking, God’s patience was shortened, yet He wished to minimize the Israelites’ disgrace and concealed the offense against Him by omitting the word “snake.” Thus, what God actually said to Moses is revealed only through the Oral tradition. We can refer to this special phenomenon as “the Oral aspect of the Written Torah,” with God’s honor—the word “snake”—concealed for the sake of protecting the honor of Israel.
And once again, for his part, Moses’ derivation from the missing word, “snake”—that the snake placed on the pole be made of copper—is written explicitly in the Written Torah’s text. Thus, the words, “Moses made a copper snake”[21] designate “the written aspect within the Oral Torah” since this particular derivation made by Moses, was written into the Torah text. Moses’ derivation is meant to insist on the honor of Heaven, because it aims to reveal that “no evil descends from Above” and that within the apparent evil itself (the snakes attacking the people) there already lies God’s hidden remedy. Making the snake out of copper demonstrates that God preemptively provides a cure for all sickness and that He heals the bitter with bitter—He heals the bite of the snake with the sight of the copper snake. To do so, Moses must divine how the healing is revealed in the bronze serpent itself.
(translated from www.pnimi.org.il; based on a class given on 3 Tammuz 5780)
[1]. Numbers 20:1.
[2]. Ibid. v. 12.
[3]. Ibid. 22:1.
[4]. Exodus 15:1.
[5]. Numbers 11:9.
[6]. Exodus 16:14.
[7]. Numbers 21:17-20.
[8]. Isaiah 26:19.
[9]. Metzudat David on Ibid.
[10]. Yalkut Shimoni Devarim 824 (based on Ketubot 111b). Tikkunei Zohar, Introduction (12a) and tikkun 19 (38b).
[11]. Shabbat 88b.
[12]. Deuteronomy 6:4.
[13]. Proverbs 16:15.
[14]. Shemot Rabbah 38:5.
[15] Gittin 62a.
[16]. Isaiah 4:5.
[17]. Numbers 21:5.
[18]. Avot 2:10.
[19]. Numbers 21:7.
[20]. Ibid. v. 8.
[21]. Ibid. v. 9.
