The Parshah of Chukat (“the decree of”) opens with the law of the red heifer, which purifies a person from the tum’ah (ritual impurity) engendered by contact with death.
G‑d spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: This is the chok of the Torah which G‑d has commanded.
Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring to you a red heifer without defect, in which there is no blemish, and upon which never came a yoke.
You shall give her to Elazar the priest, that he may bring her outside the camp, and she shall be slaughtered before him.
Elazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood towards the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times.
The entire heifer—“her skin, her flesh, her blood, even her dung”—is burnt, together with a piece of cedar wood, a bundle of hyssop and a scarlet thread. The ashes are then collected.
This is the law: when a man dies in a tent, all that come into the tent, and all that is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days . . .
They shall take for that unclean person from the ashes of the burnt purification offering, and it shall be placed in a vessel [filled with] living water.
A ritually pure person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon . . . the impure person on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall . . . wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be pure at evening . . .
This shall be to you an everlasting decree.
He who sprinkles the water of sprinkling . . . and he who touches the water of sprinkling, shall be unclean until the evening . . .
Waters of Strife
After 40 years of journeying through the desert, the people of Israel arrive in Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin. Miriam dies and is buried there, “and there was no water for the congregation.”
The people complain to Moses and Aaron: “. . . Why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us into this evil place? It is not a place of seeds, or of figs, or of vines, or of pomegranates; nor is there any water to drink.”
G‑d instructs Moses to “gather the congregation together, you and Aaron your brother; and you shall speak to the rock before their eyes, and it shall give forth its water.”
When they are thus gathered, Moses admonishes the people: “Hear now, you rebels! Shall we get you water out of this rock?”
Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice, and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.
G‑d speaks to Moses and Aaron:
"Because you did not believe in Me, to sanctify Me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”
These are the Waters of Strife; because the children of Israel strove with G‑d, and He was sanctified by them.
Moses sends messengers to the king of Edom, asking permission to pass through his land in order to reach the land of Canaan. “We will not pass through the fields,” he promises, “or through the vineyards, nor will we drink of the water of the well. We will go by the king’s highway; we will not turn to the right hand or to the left, until we have passed your borders.”
The Edomites refuse, and mass their armies to block Israel’s passage, so “Israel turned away from them.”
They journey from Kadesh to Hor HaHar (“mount upon a mount”), where G‑d says to Moses and Aaron:
Aaron shall be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter into the land which I have given to the children of Israel, because you rebelled against My word at the Waters of Strife.
G‑d instructs Moses to take Aaron, and Aaron’s son Elazar, up to the top of the mountain. There he should dress Elazar in Aaron’s priestly garments, and there Aaron will die.
When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, they wept for Aaron thirty days, all the house of Israel.
The Brass Serpent
Canaanites from Arad in the Negev attack the children of Israel. The Israelites pray for G‑d’s help and pledge the war spoils to the Sanctuary; the attackers are defeated and their cities despoiled.
The children of Israel journey on, circumventing the land of Edom, “and the soul of the people was discouraged along the way.”
The people spoke against G‑d and against Moses: “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, nor is there any water, and our souls loathe this insubstantial food.”
G‑d sent venomous serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and many people of Israel died.
The people came to Moses and said: “We have sinned, for we have spoken against G‑d and against you; pray to G‑d that He take away the serpents from us.” And Moses prayed for the people.
G‑d said to Moses: “Make for yourself a serpent, and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass that every one who is bitten, when he looks upon it, shall live.”
Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole; and it came to pass that if a serpent had bitten any man, and he looked upon the brass serpent, he lived.
The Song of the Well
The people of Israel are now in the final stages of their journey to the Holy Land. They stop at Ovot, Iyei Avarim (“Desolate Passes”), the Zered Brook and the far bank of the Arnon River. Their next encampment is at Be’er (“The Well”), so named after “the well of which G‑d spoke to Moses: Gather the people together, and I will give them water.” A song was composed to commemorate the Miracle of the Well:
Then Israel sang this song:
Spring up, O well; sing to it
A well dug by princes,
Carved out by nobles of the people,
Through the lawgiver with their staffs,
And from the desert, a gift.
Leaving the desert, they camp at Mattanah (“The Gift”), Nachaliel (“Heritage of G‑d”) and Bamot (“The Heights”) before arriving at “the plain that is in the country of Moab, atop the cliff which looks out towards the desert.”
War and Conquest
The people of Israel now send messengers to Sichon, king of the Emorites, requesting permission to pass through his land. Sichon gathers his armies and attacks the Israelites. The Emorites are defeated and their land is occupied.
When Og, king of Bashan, also masses his people against the Israelites, he too is defeated and his lands too are occupied.
The children of Israel journeyed, and they camped in the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho.