Chukat
Numbers 19:1 – 22:1
Chukat opens with the paradoxical law of the red heifer (parah adumah) — it purifies the impure but renders the pure impure, and even King Solomon declared he could not fathom it. The narrative then leaps forward nearly thirty-eight years: Miriam dies and the well dries up, the people complain of thirst, and Moses strikes the rock instead of speaking to it, for which God decrees that he and Aaron will not enter the Land. Aaron dies on Mount Hor and is mourned for thirty days. Israel defeats the Canaanite king of Arad, is plagued by fiery serpents and saved by the bronze serpent, and conquers the kingdoms of Sihon and Og east of the Jordan.
Key figures
- Moses — Strikes the rock in anger, told he will not enter the Promised Land
- Aaron — Dies on Mount Hor, his garments transferred to his son Elazar
- Miriam — Dies at Kadesh; the well that sustained Israel dries up at her death
- Elazar — Aaron's son, succeeds him as High Priest
- Sihon and Og — Amorite kings defeated by Israel east of the Jordan
Famous verses
- 20:12 And Hashem said to Moses and Aaron: "Because you believed not in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."
- 21:8 And Hashem said to Moses: "Make you a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he sees it, shall live."
- 21:17 Then sang Israel this song: Spring up, O well—sing you to it—
Haftarah: {'ref': 'Judges 11:1-33', 'connection': "Jephthah's message to the king of Ammon recounts Israel's conquest of Sihon's territory — the same events narrated in Chukat — to justify Israel's possession of the land."}
Total gematria: 296,752.