Chukat
God instructs Moses and Aaron regarding the red heifer; Miriam dies; Moses hits a rock to bring forth water rather than speaking to it; Aaron dies.
"They think it's all over...it is now!" - Raphael Zarum
Dr Raphael Zarum is the Director of Lifelong Learning at the London School of Jewish Studies. He is a Jerusalem Fellow Graduate of the Mandel leadership institute.
The sedra is a massacre. First Miriam dies (20:1) then, according to Rashi (11th century commentator) on the same verse, the story leaps ahead thirty-eight years in which time the entire generation of redeemed Israelites is wiped out - just as God promised. Then Moshe hits the rock and both he and his brother get the death sentence (20:12). Aharon dies soon after (20:28) and fiery serpents start killing off the next generation of Israelites (21:6). The sedra ends in two bloody wars (21:23-35).
To cap it all, Chukat opens with the law of Para Aduma - the Red Heifer. Chronologically out of place (it belongs back in Vayikra), it seems to be here because it too is about death and how to be purified from it.
So what's the message? I think there is a subtle rabbinic emphasis of a Biblical point. The text does not specifically say that the whole first generation was wiped out, it is just inferred. It must have happened sometime in Bamidbar, because by the opening of Devarim (1:3) the forty years have passed. So how did our Talmudic Sages know it happened right here? Sure the theme of death is strong, but I think there's more to it.
The key is that Moshe, Aharon and Miriam all go down together. That tripartite leadership since Egypt is coming to an end - and so all hell breaks loose (the serpents).
The later biblical book of Michah makes the point that Jewish leadership was a family affair. God said, "I redeemed you from the house of bondage, and I sent before you Moshe, Aharon and Miriam." (Michah 6:4). As siblings they made a strong management team for our wilderness journey, but once they too became fractious (see the end of Behaalotecha), the writing was on the wall.
So to drive the point home, our Sages spotted God's pre-promised massacre right at the heart of Chukat. Thus they made the upheaval onto the next stage in Jewish history even more powerful.
Our old leaders are on their way out today too. And we followers all too often just follow them right on down. Can the next generation gain the courage and confidence to take on the battle for the Jewish future and the Land of Israel? Chukat ends with success in that second battle, "right opposite Jericho" (22:1), on the verge of a new chapter. Are you too ready to read on or are you nostalgic for Act One?
Another Voice - Andrew Levy
38 of the 40 years of wandering do not get reported in the Bible; rather they get glossed over in this week's parshah in a short few sentences. What happened for these 38 years? The route from Sinai to Israel is one which should take less than 40 days to walk. 40 years is a bit over the top.
The Bible portrays the whole process as part of a grand design. Indeed, earlier on, God played with them as if they were puppets on a string. Prior to revelation, fearing that they might be put off by the Philistines, God made them turn - "swivelled them" is probably the best translation (see Ex 13, 18) - a different way. This whole 38 year gap seems to be part of that turning process.
As Michael Walzer puts it in "Exodus and Revolution", the effect of the revolution at Sinai (for that is what it was) was manic-depression afterwards (look at the enormous highs and lows in the wilderness period). It takes time to recover.
But that still begs the question. Why can't you recover at home in the land of Israel. Why does God keep them wandering?
A neat answer is perhaps hinted at in a book called "Wanderlust - A History of Walking" by Rebecca Solnit. Here Solnit looks at all manner of walking in different periods. The two considered here are those which aid the intellect and the spirit.
The intellect wakes up when the body to which it is attached is moving of its own volition at 3 miles an hour. In the university town of Heidelberg, there is a "Philosophenweg" - a philosopher's way where thinking perambulators could determine the finer points of metaphysics. The great enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant could not write without his cogitative constitutional every evening after dinner at 8pm (punkt).
And as for the spirit, well the three pilgrim festivals are of course the "three feet" in Hebrew. They walked to Jerusalem to praise God. To be a pilgrim is to get tired naturally by walking. That act elevates the spirit - a phenomenon recognised in religions worldwide.
So perhaps we have an answer to the 38 gap years. The walking was profoundly beneficial for the people - it raised their intellect and their spirit(s). A much better-trained generation entered Israel than left Egypt. And none of it was by accident - it was all part of the Divine design.