Questions & Commentary on Parashat Chuqqat
1. What is the connection between the death of Miriam
mentioned in Numbers 20:1 and the lack of water which Israel
suffers in Numbers 20:2? How might we connect these two verses with 1
Corinthians 10?
Rabbi Jason Sobel
The connection between the two verses is that it was
in the merit of Miriam that Israel
received the miraculous water giving rock that followed them in the wilderness.
Rashi arrives at this conclusion due to the juxtaposition of Miriam's death and
Israel's
grumbling. The Talmud elaborates on this point when it says,
R. Jose the son of R. Judah says: Three good leaders had
arisen for Israel, namely: Moses, Aaron and Miriam, and for their sake three
good things were conferred [upon Israel], namely, the Well, the Pillar of Cloud
and the Manna; the Well, for the merit of Miriam; the Pillar of Cloud for the
merit of Aaron; the Manna for the merit of Moses. When Miriam died the well
disappeared, as it is said, "And Miriam died there," and immediately follows
[the verse], "And there was no water for the congregation; and it returned for
the merit of the [latter] two."
b. Ta‘anit 9a
What is the connection between these three
individuals (Moses, Aaron, Miriam) and these particular gifts (the Well, the
Manna, and the Pillar of Cloud)? They are analogous to and personify the three
pillars on which the world stands Torah, Avoda (Divine Service), and Gemilut
Chasidim (deeds of kindness) (Avot 1:2.)
Moses, as the giver of the Torah, had the merit to
provide manna for the people, in order that they might be free from earning a
livelihood and so that they might have the nourishment needed to study Torah.
Thus Moses provided Israel
with both their spiritual and physical food. Messiah Yeshua, as the second
Moses, did the same when he multiplied the bread and the fish.
Aaron was the embodiment of priesthood and avoda.
His great devotion in serving God through his sacrificial service enabled the Shekhina
to dwell in their midst. Thus the Clouds
of Glory were given in his merit.
Miriam was the personification of deeds of kindness,
the third pillar. From the time she was a small girl, the Sages tell us, she
worked for the welfare of the Jewish people.
She watched over her brother Moses, assisted the courageous midwives,
and fed the poor. Thus due to her chesed
towards all Jews, it was in her merit that Israel
received live giving waters (see Ein Ya‘aqov).
All of this however does not explain why the well
disappeared after Miriam's death? Was her merit not great enough to ensure its
continued presence among the people she dedicated her life to helping? The Kli
Yakar (R. Ephraim Lunshitz) answers this mystery when it writes, "This came
as punishment for their failure to properly mourn Miriam's passing . . . They
felt no loss with her passing.
Therefore, Hashem removed her well from their midst, thus showing them
that the water came in their merit." One
lesson that we can learn from this episode is to respect, honor, and value our
women leaders as much as our men.
The following midrash is a detailed description of
the Miriam's well.
The
well that was with Israel in the wilderness had
extraordinary properties. It resembled a rock the size of a beehive, from
which, as out of a narrow-necked jug, water coming out in a trickle shot high
up into the air like a geyser. The well rolled up mountains with Israel and went down into
valleys with them. Indeed, wherever Israel encamped, the well
rested close by on an elevated spot opposite the entrance to the Tent of
Meeting. The princes of Israel would come and walk
around the well with their staves as they chanted the song "Spring up, O well,
sing ye unto it" (Numbers 21:17). At that, the waters
welled up, rising high like a lofty pillar; and each of the princes, digging
[into the ground] with his staff, channeled water toward his tribe and toward
his family, as is said: The well, which the princes dug, Which the nobles of
the people delved, With maces, with their own staffs (Numbers 21:18). [Thus the
well flowed in all directions throughout Israel's camp, watering all
the surrounding wasteland. It branched out into streams so large that
Israelites would seat themselves in small boats and go visiting one another.
[There was no need to row], for a man who went upstream on the camp's right
side would [as the current reversed itself] return downstream on the right
side; and so it was with the man who set out on the camp's left side. Even the
overflow of drinking water spilled on the ground became a wide river, which
coursed toward the Great Sea and, upon its return, brought back from there all
the things in the world that were desirable.
t. Sukka
3:11-13; Numbers Rabba 1:12
This particular passage or one similar to it formed
the background for Paul's midrash in 1 Corinthians 10 that Messiah was the true
source of this water. When Messiah
returns he will again cause streams of life giving water to follow to all Israel
and the nations (see Revelation 22:1-2; Joel 3:18).
2. In Parashat
Chuqqat Moses is rebuked by God and prohibited from leading the people of
Israel into the promised land (see Numbers 20:12). The Torah seems to be
ambiguous as to what Moses did wrong. What is Moses' failure in leadership, and
how can we apply this episode to ourselves?
Nick Amic
What was the lack of leadership that excluded Moses
from leading Israel
into the promised land in this week's parasha? The commentators list as
many as ten different reasons, each focusing on a different nuance of the text.
God's twofold rebuke to Moses consists of: 1) Moses' lack of faith, and 2) his
failure to sanctify God before Israel
(Numbers 20:12). Ramban rhetorically
asks "is it possible that Moses did not believe God could perform the miracle?"
Instead, he suggests we render the verse "because you did not cause them (Israel)
to believe in Me." When Israel
complains (see 20:1-5) Moses and Aaron's response is to "come to the Tabernacle
[in fear] from the congregation, and . . . fall on their faces" (20:6), instead
of immediately challenging Israel
(as he did forty years earlier in the incident at Refedim - see Exodus
17:1-7).
A few chapters earlier, Moses' leadership is
challenged by Qorach. There God performs a miracle using Aaron's staff as the
signal that indeed Moses and Aaron are God's true mediators. God directs Moses to
use Aaron's staff to "be a sign for any rebellious group [in the future]" (17:26). Here is the key to understanding how
Moses fails to sanctify the LORD in our parasha. The LORD commands Moses
to take "the staff" (Numbers 20:8) to gather the people. Given the
circumstances this can be none other than Aaron's staff meant to remind
rebellious Israel
of earlier events. Therefore, Moses interprets Gods command to speak to the
rock as "speak about the rock" in order to challenge Israel:
"is it possible for a rock to give water?!" Moses hits the rock (as he did in
the incident at Chorev forty years earlier) however with his own staff (20:11) and not Aaron's, thus failing to truly
follow God by taking matters into his own hands.
Moses is not punished for a technical flaw in
fulfilling God's command, rather he fails as a leader when faced with a crucial
opportunity to remind Israel
to maintain its faith in God in face of challenging circumstances on the one
hand and on the other hand to warn Israel
not to go looking to other sources of direction. Yeshua, described in Paul's
midrash as the very rock in our parasha (see 1 Corinthians 10:4) told
the woman at the well "he who believes in me will never be thirsty" (John
6:35). However, he also gave us a sobering directive to be a witness of this
ultimate quenching of our spiritual thirst by warning, "Therefore everyone who
confesses me (i.e. sanctifies Yeshua) before men, I will also confess him
before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me (does not sanctify
Yeshua) before men, I will also deny him before my Father" (Matthew 10:32-33). Like Moses we have the crucial
opportunity to challenge Israel
to have faith that the same God who led us out of physical slavery in Egypt
has now given us the ultimate provision in Yeshua to lead us out of spiritual
slavery. We can take part of the waters of Yeshua's Torah which quenches our
soul's deepest longings.
Sean Emslie
Mark 14:53-72
- Who is Yeshua?
This may seem to be an odd question, but earlier in
the book of Mark, Yeshua asks his talmidim, who people were saying he
was and then he asked who they thought he was, we read:
"Some say you are Yochanan the Immerser," they told him,
"others say Eliyahu, and still others, one of the prophets." "But you," he
asked, "who do you say I am?" Kefa answered, "You are the Mashiach."
Mark 8:27-29
The answer given by Kefa was important and in a
parallel passage in Matthew, Yeshua responds that Kefa's affirmation of
Yeshua's Messiahship was to be the foundation on which the Messianic community
would be built (Matthew 16:16-18).
In this week's besora reading we come to the
trial of Yeshua before the Sanhedrin and Yeshua's answer to the question of his
identity. In this passage from Mark we read:
The cohen haggadol
stood up in the front and asked Yeshua, "Have you nothing to say to the
accusations these men are making?" But he remained silent and made no reply.
Again the cohen haggadol questioned
him: "Are you the Mashiach Ben-HaMevorakh?"
"I AM," answered Yeshua. "Moreover, you will see the Son of Man sitting at the
right hand of the Almighty and coming on the clouds of heaven."
Mark 14:60-62
When he was asked who he was, Yeshua identified
himself as both Messiah and the Son of God (Ben-HaMevorakh) and further
identified himself as the Son of Man, the apocalyptic figure of Daniel who
would come at the end of days. What can we learn from our Messiah about the
vital issue of who Yeshua is as we are building a Messianic Judaism for today
and for the future?
First, it is vital that we recognize and honor
Yeshua as the Jewish Messiah. We need to take this to heart that we are a
Judaism with a Messiah amongst us and empowering us to live God honoring, Torah
faithful lives. The affirmation of Yeshua as Messiah led the early talmidim
to exclaim: "We have found the Messiah. We've found the one Moses wrote about
in the Torah, also the Prophets - it's Yeshua Ben-Yosef from Natzeret!"
(Yochanan 1:41, 45).
Like these talmidim we have found the Messiah! Yeshua is the Jewish Messiah, the Hope of Israel,
the Root and Offspring of David and the One in whom the promises made to the
Ancestors is uniquely answered.
Second, we should embrace Yeshua as the Son of God,
the very word of God who became a first century Jew to live a life of absolute
faithfulness to the Father as our example and to lay down his life for our
atonement.
To be a Messianic Judaism that truly follows
Yeshua we need to take these two designations of Yeshua's own
self-identification and embrace them and follow him who is both Messiah and Son
of God. May we follow Yeshua's example and seek to order our lives by God's
Torah and thereby be faithful followers of our righteous Messiah.
Parashat Chuqqat
1. What
is the connection between the death of Miriam mentioned in Numbers 20:1 and the
lack of water which Israel
suffers in Numbers 20:2? How might we connect these two verses with 1
Corinthians 10?
2. In Parashat Chuqqat Moses is rebuked by God
and prohibited from leading the people of Israel into the promised land (see Numbers 20:12). The Torah seems to be ambiguous as to what Moses
did wrong. What is Moses' failure in leadership, and how can we apply this
episode to ourselves?
NEXT WEEK'S READINGS
- PARASHAT BALAQ
Numbers 22:2-25:9
Micah 5:6-6:8
Mark 15:1-15
UPCOMING YACHAD NETWORK EVENTS
4th Annual Young Leaders Shabbaton
New
York City ●
June 2008
7th Annual Young Messianic Jewish
Scholars Conference
New
York City ●
June 2008
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