Parashat Chukat In the end, Love Torah Portion: Numbers 19:1-22:1 Haftarah Portion: Judges 11:1-33
Shalom!
Death suffuses our Torah portion this week, Parashat Chukat. There is the ritual of the red heifer, whose ashes are used to purify those in contact with a dead body; the deaths of Moses’ siblings, Aaron and Miriam; God’s decree that Moses will die in the wilderness and not reach the promised land; the “many Israelites'' (Numbers 21:6) who are killed by God’s serpents; and finally, the violent defeat of the Emorite kings Sihon and Og.
The parashah certainly represents many low points in the story of our people wandering in the desert. It can be hard to mine the text for hope. But there are hints of both past joy and possible future joy as we learn of some of the places the Israelites encounter in their wanderings, especially right before God replaces the water source that disappears at Miriam’s death. The text relates: “From there they set out and encamped beyond the Arnon, that is, in the wilderness that extends from the territory of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites. Therefore the Book of the Wars of God speaks of …Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis of Arnon” (Numbers 21:13-14). That second verse in the quotation is an odd one. It’s not clear what the “Book of the Wars of God” is, other than a now-lost work. In addition, one translation says that the places referenced in this missing work are from a quotation that “…is a fragment; its text and meaning are uncertain.”[i] The dictionary definition of “Waheb” reinforces its mysteriousness: “a place in Moab, site unknown.”[ii]
The region called “Suphah” is similarly singular; it is described as only appearing in the phrase from our verse “in [an] ancient poetic fragment.”[iii] It’s therefore not surprising that commentators are eager to make sense of these words. The medieval French scholar Rashi engages in a common rabbinic trope of “re-reading” the Hebrew letters from the Torah scroll. Literally, the letters denote this place name, et-vahev b’sufa, Rashi says, but metaphorically, the words can be interpreted differently, as a reminder of what God did to free the Israelites from slavery. Maneuvering the Hebrew, Rashi claims: “It means to say: They will relate what God gave to them and how God did many miracles at the Red Sea.”[iv] That is, the miracles of the encampments in the desert will be recalled with as much awe as the journey from Egypt. The Talmud does a comparable play-on-words with this verse, with even more dramatic implications: It is stated in the verse discussing the places the Jewish people engaged in battle in the wilderness: “Therefore the Book of the Wars of God speaks of …Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis of Arnon” (Numbers 21:14). The word vahev is interpreted as related to the word for love, ahava. Additionally, do not read this as “in Suphah” (b’sufa); rather, read it as “at its end” (b’sofa).[v] The context in the Talmud is people engaged in strife, whether parents and children, or teachers and students. Our rabbis teach from this verse a way toward wholeness within ourselves and with each other. Their challenge to us is to stay engaged in the face of difference, to talk and debate until we come to a new place. What we can learn from our verse is that “in the end,” there should be “love.” From a parashah that contains so much tragedy, hope does indeed bubble up, alongside the wells that the Israelites sing into existence after the loss of Miriam threatens an end to their water supply. That hope comes from remembering the miracles that God performed for us, and from having productive relationships modeled for us. This Shabbat, amidst any communal strife we may experience, may we all be held by the wisdom of our tradition and act in such a way that what remains in the end is love.
Shabbat shalom! Rabbi Salem Pearce
[i]The JPS Tanakh: Gender-Sensitive Edition, trans. David E. S. Stein (Jewish Publication Society: Philadelphia, 2023), p. 260.