- there are 70 faces to 
Post by alon on Jun 28, 2020 8:31:04 GMT -8
Again, I am putting this up a week early so you all may comment. If you think I am shorting the commandments here, or giving too much in putting up these principles, let me know. However I am most interested in any ideas for keeping these mitzvoth in a time we have no Temple and often for us in places where we have no suitable access to a mikvah.
Name of Par’shah- 39.3 Chukat- Regulation
Par’shah- Numbers 19:1-22:1
D’rash: We start out with the laws concerning the Red Heifer, which without the Temple we cannot sacrifice. So I am omitting those from our list. We are not concerning ourselves (at this point anyhow) with statutes to be observed only in the future. Our list is growing quite long and a bit unwieldy as it is. However should you want to see tose future mitzvoth, almost any list of the 613 will include those mitzvoth.
These Laws for Purification require the ashes of the Red Heifer for cleansing, however they give some very important principles for us today:
Numbers 19:11-12 (ESV) “Whoever touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days. He shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean. But if he does not cleanse himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not become clean. While we do not have the ashes of a red heifer to sprinkle on us, we can if at all possible undergo tevilah on the 3rd and 7th days after touching death. And we should forgo any duties in our assemblies for the 7 days afterwards as we are tumah, ritually unavailable. Sadly I cannot say what those with no access to a mikvah should do. In summer we may find a suitable source of clean, flowing water. But up where I am winters are long and waters cold well into summer, and no synagogues I know of have their own mikvoth.
Numbers 19:13 (ESV) Whoever touches a dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him. We don’t have a Tabernacle to defile, however even if just as a remembrance and reminder of what will be I think we should acknowledge these commandments in some way.
Numbers 19:14-16 (ESV) “This is the law when someone dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean seven days. And every open vessel that has no cover fastened on it is unclean. Whoever in the open field touches someone who was killed with a sword or who died naturally, or touches a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean seven days. Ditto the above.
Numbers 19:19b (ESV) Thus on the seventh day he shall cleanse him, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and at evening he shall be clean. So if you must attend a funeral or touch dead bodies, a 7 day observance should be done.
Next we have the story of the death of Miriam and Moshe’s disobedience in striking the rock. Also Edom refusing passage. How many blessings were lost in these actions? One is told in the next passage of the death of Aaron. Many, many good lessons there, which you should read and contemplate. We are also told of the destruction of the Canaanite cities which opposed the Hebrews, the Bronze Serpent, and the defeat of the kings of Sihon and Og. More opportunities for blessings lost.
So while there is a lot in this parashah, we have no commandments relevant to us today. However those mitzvoth not really applicable as commandments but still applicable as principles we should acknowledge are important.
Baruch HaShem.
