Rabbi Binyamin Yuhanan Parshat Chukat 1

good morning we are learning we are in the art scroll homage on page 8 39. has two parts the first part brings us back to the uh first of Nissan of the second year about a year after Jewish people left Egypt and the second half of parshad who cut it brings us to the end of the 40 years uh in the desert in to the 40th year uh just before parashatukat we had parashat Korra where there was a rebellion of Korah and his um conspirators against motion Aaron and um that was instigated by the fact that the Jewish people had to stay in the desert for 40 years and korok used the moment that the Jews were disappointed and he started the Rebellion um so chapter 19 page 839 Hashem spoke to Moshe and to aharon saying this is the decree of the Torah which Hashem has commanded saying speak to the children of Israel and they shall take to you a completely Red Cow which is without blemish upon which a yoke has not come so there are three conditions for this strange Mitzvah of a red cow number one it has to be completely red a female cow number two it has to be perfect in its uh outer body no blemishes a number number three is that it did not do any work in its lifetime yet including in it it is that it didn't have any children yet what is the purpose of this cow we will see soon you shall give it to elazar De Cohen and he shall take it to the outside of the camp and someone shall Slaughter it in his presence and elazar should take some of its blood and sprinkle toward the front of the tent of meaning seven times not reaching it but just toward in that direction and someone shall burn the cow it's hide its flesh and blood and kohen shall take Cedarwood hyssop plant and red thread and throw it them into the burning of the cow which means the blood is sprinkled he's standing outside of betamic Dash he sprinkles the blood toward the betamic dash and that's the whole service of the cow the rest is the procedure to produce the ash he burns the entire cow together with all its parts and in addition to it he throws in three things Cedar Wood he's a plant and red thread then the kohen shall immerse his clothing and himself in water te Villa and he will be contaminated until the evening the the kohen that um uh burned the cow becomes impure and um the kohen that slaughtered the cow also becomes impure the verse 8 says the one who burns it shall immerse his clothing and himself in water and because and stays contaminated until the evening we're gonna go through the whole procedure and then we'll go back and summarize it on page 841 verse 9 a pure man Shall Gather the ash of the cow place it outside the camp in a pure place for the Assembly of Israel it shall remain as a safekeeping for water of sprinkling now we see what we do with this uh these ashes of the red cow we mix it with water and we sprinkle that water we'll find out for what it is for purification and we'll see what kind of purification and verse 10 the one who gathered the ash of the cow also needs to immerse and immerse his clothing and he remains contaminated until the evening it shall be for the children of Israel and for the proselyte for a convert who dwells among them as an eternal decree now let's summarize what happens we take a cow a female cow it has to be red no blemish and it did not do any work and there are seven steps of preparation of this cow first we have to take it outside of the temple and outside of Jerusalem number two we have to slaughter it number three we sprinkle its blood seven times toward vitamic Dash number four we burn the whole cow number five we add into the fire a little bit of cedar wood a little bit of hyssop plant and a little bit of red wool thread number six everyone that was involved in them service of the red cow becomes contaminated has to immerse himself and his clothing in the Mikvah and he stays contaminated until the evening um and we said there are three people the one that Slaughters it the one that um Burns it and the one that collects the Ash and the last step gather the Ash and store it outside of Jerusalem and use it for purification in fact it was divided uh in three parts one was stored for future Generations one was actively used for regular uh people and one was used for purification of kohanim now on page 841 we continue learning what do we do with these ashes we already learned that we mix it with water and we sprinkle um the the water with ashes on to someone who is impure or what kind of impurity are we talking about verse 11 on page 841 whoever touches a corpse of any human becomes contaminated for seven days the contamination the Tuma of dead body of a of a human is one of the most severe kinds of contamination um he becomes contaminated for seven days and it's not enough just to wait seven days he also has to immerse and besides immersion he also needs uh to be sprinkled twice as verse 12 says he shall purify himself with it with the ashes of the red cow mixed in water on the third day and on the seventh day then he will become pure in verse 13 in the middle it continues if he shall have con uh he if if he will not purify himself he shall have contaminated the Tabernacle of Hashem and he will if in his state of impurity he enters the the temple he will receive a punishment of karet of spiritual excision of his soul so we learn uh three things about the impurity over the dead body number one that is that it lasts for seven days number two is that you have to sprinkle ashes of the red cow mixed with water on this person on the third day and on the seventh day and number three is that a person who is contaminated may not enter the temple and then on the seventh day after the final purification of of the final uh sprinkling he immerses himself in Mikvah and then the following day day number eight is he is completely pure now we learn a little bit more about how the the impurity of the dead body spreads verse 14 this is the teaching regarding a man who would die in a tent if you have a dead body in a house a tent is an example of anything that has a roof whether there are walls or not it doesn't matter as long as there's a roof there is this Special Rule anything that enters the tent and anything that is already in the tent shall be contaminated for seven days here we learned that it's not necessary to touch the dead body even if you are in the same house or in the same tent under the same roof you become impure for seven days it's as if it spreads like like uh radio waves but only if there is a roof the way it works is that impurity Rises if there is a roof the roof blocks it cannot rise anymore so then it starts spreading and then it goes down and fills the entire area under the roof and you open vessel that has no cover fastened to it is contaminated here we learn an interesting rule that if you have an earthenware container that is tightly sealed with a cover protects anything that's inside so if if you have any utensil in this tent with a dead body whether it's open or closed that is not made out of earthenware it becomes contaminated if you have a metal safe sealed Fireproof anything that's inside becomes contaminated but if you have a simple earthenware jog with a seal on top anything that's inside will be protected from this particular contamination now in verse 16 we learn about um what if you have a dead body in the open air without the roof on the open field anyone who touches this one slain by the sword or one that died or a human bone or even a grave shall be contaminated for seven days so we see here that if there is no roof then you have to touch the dead body however we also learned that you can create the roof with your own body which means if you lean over the dead body or you lean over a human bone or you lean over a grave the contamination Rises and when it reaches you you become contaminated for seven days so we now learn two different kinds two different methods of becoming contaminated with uh impurity of the dead body either by touching the dead body or anything that's connected to the dead body like the grave or the sword with which the person was killed the sword becomes contaminated also and if anybody touches the sword he becomes contaminated as well um and the second way to become impure is by being under the same roof or by leaning over the dead body now verse 17 explains the process of purification they shall take for the contaminated person some of the ashes of the burning of the cow and put for it spring water in a vessel a pure man shall take his supplant and dip it in water and sprinkle upon anything that's impure for example upon the tent if it's a movable tent not a house but a movable tent it becomes impure as well and he shall sprinkle upon all the vessels and upon the people who were there and upon the one who touched the bone or the slain one or the one that died by himself or if he touches the grave and he shall sprinkle on the contaminated person on the third day on the seventh and then on the seventh day he shall immerse his clothing and immerse himself in the Mikvah and become purified in the evening so there are six steps in the purification from impurity of the dead body first put Ash put spring water in a vessel second you put add ashes onto the spring water in a vessel and you mix the ashes together with water number three you take a bundle of hyssa plant dip it in water and then you sprinkle it on the impure person on the third day and then he has to come back and repeat this procedure on the seventh day step number five after the final sprinkling on the seventh day the person immerses himself in Mexico and his clothing and step number six he has to wait until the evening and then in evening he becomes purified page 843 this shall be for them an eternal decree anyone who sprinkles the water of sprinkling for a wrong reason he sprinkles sprinkles it on a person that doesn't need it or he sprinkles it on an animal he becomes impure for one day and he shall immerse his clothing and himself or someone who carries the water in which ashes of the red cow were mixed and he carries it not for the purpose of sprinkling but by mistake he just carries it he becomes impure also however a person that sprinkles it on the right person he remains pure a person who carries it for the purpose of sprinkling he remains pure now in chapter 20 we jump 38 years and we are now at the beginning of the 40th year of the Jewish people traveling in the desert the children of Israel the whole assembly arrived at the Wilderness of sin in the first month first month of the 40th year the final year and the people settled in Kadesh Miriam died there and she was buried there this was on the 10th of Nisan that is when Miriam passed away and verse 2 tells us what happened immediately after Miriam died there was no water for the assembly from here we learned that the water that they had from The Rock in the desert was in the Merit of Miriam moshe's sister and people gathered against motion Aaron they were thirsty the people quarreled with motion spoke up saying and again people complain if only we had perished as our Brethren perished before Hashem why have you brought the congregation of Hashem to this Wilderness to die there we and our animals and why did you bring us up from Egypt to bring us to this evil place no not a place of seed or fig or grape or pomegranate and there is no water to drink they have a valid concern however the way they're expressing it is improper instead of asking politely motion we know you can do it please speak to Hashem we are thirsty please help us they go into complaining mode Moshe and aharon went from their presence and to the entrance of the tent of meeting and fell on their faces in prayer and the glory of Hashem appeared to them Hashem spoke to Moshe saying take the staff and gather together the assembly you and aharon your brother and speak to the Rock before their eyes that it shall give its Waters you shall bring forth for them water from the Rock and give drink to the assembly and to their animals this is the second time when Moshe is told to bring water from The Rock the first time was at the beginning of their travels and then Moshe struck The Rock and what they came out and that water lasted for 38 uh 39 years and now Hashem tells him surprisingly speak to the Rock now you're on a higher level you don't need to use Force anymore speak to the Rock that it shall give water however here Hashem tricked motion you could say he told him take your staff why does motion need the staff if he is speaking to the Rock so right away Moshe assumed that in case speaking doesn't help I have a stick to strike The Rock and he assumed that that's what Hashem meant on page 845 Marshall took the staff from before Hashem now what is this staff from before Hashem some commentators say that this was the staff of aharon which he placed in the code shakudashim in the holy of holies and the next morning this staff blossomed turned into a living tree with branches with leaves with the flowers with fruit and they left that staff tree that is why it's called from before Hashem he went into the holy of holies and took this branched out staff as God had commanded him Moshe and aharon gathered the congregation before the Rock and he said to them listen listen now all Rebels shall we bring forth water for you from this rock then Marshall raised his arm and struck the rock with his staff twice he hits it and he hits it twice and abundant water came forth for in the assembly and the Animals drank so far we don't see anything wrong Hashem told Moshe take the staff speak to the Rock but you have a staff in case the rock doesn't listen you can hit it and that's what Moshe did and the water came it worked however verse 12 surprises us Hashem said to moshood to Aaron because you did not believe in me to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel therefore you will not bring this congregation to the land that I have given you Moshe you lost it aharon that's it they are the Waters of strife where the children of Israel contended fought with Hashem and he Hashem was Sanctified through them for such seemingly insignificant mistake Hashem puts a very heavy blame upon Moshe decreased death penalty upon him and his brother aharon so what did they do wrong and the commentators give a few answers one of the answers is that he was supposed to speak to the Rock and he didn't instead he hit the rock and what's the problem with that Hashem wanted to teach the Jewish people an important lesson that everything in the universe listens to Hashem to hashem's words and the example is Moshe speaks to an inanimate object to Iraq in the name of God and The Rock changes its nature and gives forth Abundant Living Water and the Jewish people were supposed to take that to heart and say we're gonna stop being stubborn We're not gonna wait until Hashem hits us over the head we're going to listen from the first time but because Moshe hit the rock now the Jewish people remained stubborn and unfortunately we still have this character trait towards Hashem we hear the truth we hear of our obligations and we are not moved until something hits us either a Calamity or a sickness Shalom or the deadline is approaching and we're about to fail the test only then we wake up and start doing but we're not moving until we're forced to and that was a a big problem Moshe could have accomplished so much by speaking to the Rock and he didn't some commentators say because he attributed the Miracle to himself because he said shall we bring forth water for you from this rock and he included aharon and because he didn't mention Hashem do you want Hashem to give you water from the Rock and said he said we me and Aaron are gonna bring water from The Rock for that he was punished and some commentators say because he called the Jewish people Rebels we have a rule that whatever you expect people to be that's what they're gonna be and if you call people names they will become those names you put a title or a label on a person that's what he's gonna be forced to be until someone removes that label and puts a different label on him so by putting a label on them you rebels Moshe is making it very hard for the Jewish people to be anything better than Rebels that's why the custom is to call people um you don't know someone's name you say it's addict a righteous person instead of saying uh hey you we say Sadiq why because even if we don't know who the person is we see him for the first time we don't know his name we want to call draw his attention we already giving him a blessing we're already putting a label on him he's a good person and rambam says that the reason Moshe was punished so severely is because he became angry one of the the reason we know he became angry is because he he uh called the Jewish people Rebels who calls people names A person who is not in control of himself and by calling the Jewish people Rebels he showed that he is angry so what's such a big problem forfeiting your life losing ability to lead the Jewish people losing ability to enter the land of Israel dying just because you become angry once and the truth of the matter is becoming angry is a very severe transgression it um is unhealthy physically and it contaminates person's soul because by becoming angry a person is showing that he doesn't believe in Hashem he is showing that things are not going his way things are not going the way they should be going and he can't do anything about it and he gets angry he shouldn't get angry because even though he can't do anything about it but God is in the world and Hashem will take care of it that's number one thing when you want to become angry say to yourself Hashem is in charge he will take care of it he'll get me out of it either this is God's will that it's supposed to be like this and if it's not supposed to be