Discussion of selected verses of the parsha Chukat through the lens of Mussar, with the middah of Akshan / עַקְשָׁן / Stubbornness as the focus.
עקשן = stubborn, obstinate. Related to the root of Akshan: עִקֵּשׁ adj. 1 twisted, crooked, perverted. MH 2 obstinate. [From עקשׁ.] Derivative: עִקְּשׁוּת.
עִקְּשׁוּת f.n. crookedness, perverseness (Proverbs: 4:24, 6:12 in the phrase עִקְּשׁוּת־פֶּה = crookedness of mouth. In this parsha, we'll delve a bit into the spiritual meaning of being 'crooked', exemplified by the snake...and 'straight' exemplified by the staff.
(כז) עִם־נָבָ֥ר תִּתְבָּרָ֑ר וְעִם־עִ֝קֵּ֗שׁ תִּתְפַּתָּֽל׃
and with the perverse, You are wily.
שמואל א ט״ו:כ״ג: Samuel 15:23
For defiance is like the sin of sorcery, and stubbornness is like the sin of idolatry; because you have rejected the word of Hashem…He has rejected you as King.
אָמְרִי: אֵין חָבוּשׁ מַתִּיר עַצְמוֹ מִבֵּית הָאֲסוּרִים.
They say: A prisoner cannot free himself from prison....
The general rule of this matter is that a man should never be stubborn and he should not "make his neck stiff" against those who rebuke him or against one who tries to teach him the upright way — but he...should very willingly listen to them, and accept their words with the graciousness of his soul...
Noam Elimelekh, Introduction, The Tzetel Katan 16
For example, if someone was born with a stubborn nature, they should break their nature by doing for forty consecutive days exactly the opposite of what their mind thinks of doing.
In the Torah and Talmud, the nature of rebellions are different from the nature of sins. Rebellious transgressions are when one not only intends to violate a prohibition but does so as an act of defiance against God.
Bullet Points:
The laws of the offering of the red heifer (said to be the most perplexing) and laws about ritual purity
After 40 years of journeying in the wilderness, B'nai Yisrael reach Kadesh in Zin.
Miriam dies and is buried there.
There is no longer source for water, and complain to Moses and Aaron, who turn to God.
They then respond to the people in a way that seems to suggest anger. They are judged to have acted wrongly, and both are told they will not enter the land. Aaron dies.
The people complain again and are attacked by venomous snakes.
Moses, at God’s command, places a copper serpent on a pole, so that all who look up to it will be healed.
The people sing a song about a Miraculous well that gave them water.
There are negotiations and battles with kings in order to gain safe passage through their land.
Moses then leads the people into successful battles against Sichon and Og.
The rituals and laws of the red heifer seemed to have been a mystery through the ages. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks z"l believes that rules of the chukim defy logic. Rabbi Yitz Greenberg believes that though we've lost the exact meaning through the ages, there is an explanation for this rite. We'll see that below.
Though the ritual has not been practised since the days of the Temple, it nonetheless remains significant, in itself and for an understanding of what a chok, usually translated as “statute,” actually is. Other instances include the prohibition against eating meat and milk together, wearing clothes of mixed wool and linen (shatnez) and sowing a field with two kinds of grain (kilayim)....The most famous is that a chok is a law whose logic we cannot understand. It makes sense to God, but it makes no sense to us. We cannot aspire to the kind of cosmic wisdom that would allow us to see its point and purpose. Or perhaps, as Rav Saadia Gaon put it, it is a command issued for no other reason than to reward us for obeying it. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks
...the red heifer rite was not an exercise in obeying the inscrutable. This ritual was, in fact, fully understood in biblical times. Furthermore, it is a fundamental principle of covenant that the commandments are given, not to train us to robotic conforming obedience in the service of God, but rather to improve people and their character traits. As such, they need to be explained rationally, and clarified in presentation, so that people will fully understand which improvements they should work on to become a better human being and partner with God, in living and applying the Torah to make a better world. The deeper truth is that the unfolding of covenant is the grand movement away from obedience—enforced by punishment—toward the human partner becoming a serious agent in defining the mitzvot, and accepting these disciplines in order to live life on a higher plane. ~Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, Parashat Hukkat
The Torah’s instructions are given not to glorify and obey God but “to purify God’s creatures.”6 Therefore, the commandments had to be presented rationally so people would understand them, and be able to develop their character or behaviors to meet a higher standard of morality and spiritual meaning. Thanks to modern critical scholarship—and the work of Jacob Milgrom in particular—we can recover the original meaning and rationale of the red heifer rite. ~Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, Parshat Chukkat
The cow shall be burned in his sight—its hide, flesh, and blood shall be burned, its dung included— and the priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson wool, and throw them into the fire consuming the cow. The priest shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water; after that the priest may reenter the camp, but he shall be unclean until evening. He who performed the burning shall also wash his garments in water, bathe his body in water, and be unclean until evening.
The red heifer is a hattat, a purification offering, which in this case decontaminates death impurity (Numbers 19:9). Blood—which is the carrier of life (see Leviticus 17:11)—is the decontaminant of death impurity. The blood plus the ashes of the all red cow—also symbolizing blood—is mixed with cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson yarn to create a liquid which purges the death impurity. Part of the blood is sprinkled toward the altar to purge the tabernacle/temple. The rest is sprinkled on the impure individual, moving them from the zone of being under death’s influence to the zone of life. This makes them eligible to enter the tabernacle/temple, the zone of life dominant and growing. In symbolic language, this is the repeated, fundamental message of our tradition, that the human is to shake off death and act, work, and live on the side of life and in creating life in the world. ~Jacob Milgrom
We are holy when alive, because we have souls. In Sefer HaChinuucuh, it says that at death, the body sinks to a level of impurity. Without a soul, we are like beasts...and when our soul departs, the body becomes mere waste.
The fact that the ashes of the Heifer "purify the contaminated and contaminate the pure" carries an important lesson to us in our daily lives: If your fellow has been infected by impurity and corruption, do not hesitate to get involved and do everything within your power to rehabilitate him. If you are concerned that you may became tainted by your contact with him, remember that the Torah commands the Kohen to purify his fellow Jew, even though his own level of purity will be diminished in the process. ~ The Lubavitcher Rebbe
(ו) וַיָּבֹא֩ מֹשֶׁ֨ה וְאַהֲרֹ֜ן מִפְּנֵ֣י הַקָּהָ֗ל אֶל־פֶּ֙תַח֙ אֹ֣הֶל מוֹעֵ֔ד וַֽיִּפְּל֖וּ עַל־פְּנֵיהֶ֑ם וַיֵּרָ֥א כְבוֹד־יְהֹוָ֖ה אֲלֵיהֶֽם׃ {פ} (ז) וַיְדַבֵּ֥ר יְהֹוָ֖ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֥ה לֵּאמֹֽר׃ (ח) קַ֣ח אֶת־הַמַּטֶּ֗ה וְהַקְהֵ֤ל אֶת־הָעֵדָה֙ אַתָּה֙ וְאַהֲרֹ֣ן אָחִ֔יךָ וְדִבַּרְתֶּ֧ם אֶל־הַסֶּ֛לַע לְעֵינֵיהֶ֖ם וְנָתַ֣ן מֵימָ֑יו וְהוֹצֵאתָ֨ לָהֶ֥ם מַ֙יִם֙ מִן־הַסֶּ֔לַע וְהִשְׁקִיתָ֥ אֶת־הָעֵדָ֖ה וְאֶת־בְּעִירָֽם׃ (ט) וַיִּקַּ֥ח מֹשֶׁ֛ה אֶת־הַמַּטֶּ֖ה מִלִּפְנֵ֣י יְהֹוָ֑ה כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר צִוָּֽהוּ׃ (י) וַיַּקְהִ֜לוּ מֹשֶׁ֧ה וְאַהֲרֹ֛ן אֶת־הַקָּהָ֖ל אֶל־פְּנֵ֣י הַסָּ֑לַע וַיֹּ֣אמֶר לָהֶ֗ם שִׁמְעוּ־נָא֙ הַמֹּרִ֔ים הֲמִן־הַסֶּ֣לַע הַזֶּ֔ה נוֹצִ֥יא לָכֶ֖ם מָֽיִם׃
(6) Moses and Aaron came away from the congregation to the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, and fell on their faces. The Presence of יהוה appeared to them, (7) and יהוה spoke to Moses, saying, (8) “You and your brother Aaron take the rod and assemble the community, and before their very eyes order the rock to yield its water. Thus you shall produce water for them from the rock and provide drink for the congregation and their beasts.” (9) Moses took the rod from before יהוה, as he had been commanded. (10) Moses and Aaron assembled the congregation in front of the rock; and he said to them, “Listen, you rebels, shall we get water for you out of this rock?”
ARE WE TO BRING YOU FORTH WATER OUT OF THIS ROCK? Far be it and [G-d] forbid that [we should explain this] as a question indicating impossibility! For Moses our teacher, who was trusted in all G-d’s house, [knew] that nothing is too hard for Him; and he together with all Israel had seen greater and more wondrous miracles than this, and especially since this [miracle of providing water from a rock] had already been done once before through him at the rock in Horeb! Now the commentators have said that there are certain questions which [by apparently doubting that which cannot be denied], have the force of an [impassioned or indignant] affirmation...But Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra wrote [that the meaning of the verse is]: “Do we indeed have power to bring you forth water out of the rock?” He means thereby to explain that Moses said to them: “Hear now, ye rebels against G-d, who say, ‘and why have ye brought the assembly of the Eternal unto this evil place?’ Do we have the power by natural means to bring you forth water out of this flint? You should therefore recognize that this is all from G-d, for it is He Who took you out of Egypt, and brought you to this place, and it is He Who will feed you here.” This is similar to what he [Moses] told the people in the case of the manna, and ye shall know that the Eternal hath brought you out from the land of Egypt.
?המן הסלע הזה נוציא לכם מים, “Are we supposed to extract water for you from this rock?” The Israelites understood Moses’ exclamation at face value, i.e. that he thought that it was quite impossible to extract water from the rock he pointed at, (or they had pointed at). Actually, what Moses had meant to say was: “did you think that what we are going to do to this rock is the same as what we did for your fathers 40 years ago, i.e. by striking it?”G-d’s command to speak to the rock was precisely to teach them that it was not even necessary to strike the rock. Moses had not been precise in his exclamation.
The sages offer insight into what Moses' sin actually was. According to Rashi, it was because Moses struck the stone instead of speaking to it as God had told him to. Maimonides writes that the sin of Moses' anger was the cause. Nachmanides points to Moses' lack of Emunah in God that was the sin.
"Chassidic Master Rabbi Levi Yitzchak of Barditchev sees Maimonides' explanation (that he rebuked the people angrily) and Rashi's explanation (that he struck the rock instead of speaking to it) as two sides of the same coin. If a leader's influence on the community is achieved through harsh words of rebuke, than his relationship with the environment is likewise: he will have to forcefully impose his will on it to get it to serve his people's needs and their mission in life. If, however, he influences his community by lovingly uplifting them to a higher place so that they, on their own, will desire to improve themselves, the world will likewise willingly yield its resources to the furtherance of his goals."
https://www.chabad.org/parshah/in-depth/default_cdo/aid/48215/jewish/Chukat-Balak-In-Depth.htm
An obstinate man does not hold opinions, but they hold him; for when he is once possessed with an error, it is, like a devil, only cast out with great difficulty. ~Samuel Butler (1835 -1902)
But had not Moses previously said something that was worse than this? For he said (Numbers 11:22): "If flocks and herds be slain for them, will they suffice them? Or if all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, will they suffice them?" Faith surely was wanting there too, and to a greater degree than in the present instance. Why then did G‑d not make the decree against him on that occasion?
Let me illustrate. To what may this be compared? To the case of a king who had a friend. Now this friend displayed arrogance towards the king privately, using harsh words. The king, however, did not lose his temper with him. After a time he rose and displayed his arrogance in the presence of his legions, and the king passed sentence of death upon him. So also the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses: "The first offence that you committed was a private matter between you and Me. Now, however, that it is done in the presence of the public it is impossible to overlook it." Thus it says: "[Because you did not believe in Me...] in the eyes of the children of Israel." ~Midrash Rabbah
Blot out and remove our transgressions and sins from before Your eyes, and compel our Evil Inclination to be subservient to You, and subdue our stubbornness, that we may return to You in truth... ~Machzor Yom Kippur Ashkenaz, Maariv Service for Yom Kippur Eve, Yaaleh 106
(ה) וַיְדַבֵּ֣ר הָעָ֗ם בֵּֽאלֹהִים֮ וּבְמֹשֶׁה֒ לָמָ֤ה הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֙נוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לָמ֖וּת בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר כִּ֣י אֵ֥ין לֶ֙חֶם֙ וְאֵ֣ין מַ֔יִם וְנַפְשֵׁ֣נוּ קָ֔צָה בַּלֶּ֖חֶם הַקְּלֹקֵֽל׃ (ו) וַיְשַׁלַּ֨ח יְהֹוָ֜ה בָּעָ֗ם אֵ֚ת הַנְּחָשִׁ֣ים הַשְּׂרָפִ֔ים וַֽיְנַשְּׁכ֖וּ אֶת־הָעָ֑ם וַיָּ֥מׇת עַם־רָ֖ב מִיִּשְׂרָאֵֽל׃ (ז) וַיָּבֹא֩ הָעָ֨ם אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֜ה וַיֹּאמְר֣וּ חָטָ֗אנוּ כִּֽי־דִבַּ֤רְנוּ בַֽיהֹוָה֙ וָבָ֔ךְ הִתְפַּלֵּל֙ אֶל־יְהֹוָ֔ה וְיָסֵ֥ר מֵעָלֵ֖ינוּ אֶת־הַנָּחָ֑שׁ וַיִּתְפַּלֵּ֥ל מֹשֶׁ֖ה בְּעַ֥ד הָעָֽם׃ (ח) וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהֹוָ֜ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה עֲשֵׂ֤ה לְךָ֙ שָׂרָ֔ף וְשִׂ֥ים אֹת֖וֹ עַל־נֵ֑ס וְהָיָה֙ כׇּל־הַנָּשׁ֔וּךְ וְרָאָ֥ה אֹת֖וֹ וָחָֽי׃ (ט) וַיַּ֤עַשׂ מֹשֶׁה֙ נְחַ֣שׁ נְחֹ֔שֶׁת וַיְשִׂמֵ֖הוּ עַל־הַנֵּ֑ס וְהָיָ֗ה אִם־נָשַׁ֤ךְ הַנָּחָשׁ֙ אֶת־אִ֔ישׁ וְהִבִּ֛יט אֶל־נְחַ֥שׁ הַנְּחֹ֖שֶׁת וָחָֽי׃ (י) וַיִּסְע֖וּ בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל וַֽיַּחֲנ֖וּ בְּאֹבֹֽת׃
(5) and the people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water, and we have come to loathe this miserable food.” (6) יהוה sent serpents against the people. They bit the people and many of the Israelites died. (7) The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned by speaking against יהוה and against you. Intercede with יהוה to take away the serpents from us!” And Moses interceded for the people. (8) Then יהוה said to Moses, “Make a seraph and mount it on a standard. And anyone who was bitten who then looks at it shall recover.” (9) Moses made a copper serpent and mounted it on a standard; and when bitten by a serpent, anyone who looked at the copper serpent would recover. (10) The Israelites marched on and encamped at Oboth.
...the visual of a staff is representative of that G‑dly energy that descended from on High to be implanted in this world. The long, slender stick connotes a downward flow of energy, symbolic of the spark’s journey through the cosmos into the Egyptian landscape. Though they’ve been cast far, they are directly attached to G‑d; a straight line can be drawn right back to Him.
The serpent, of course, is the exact opposite: Hearkening back to the days in Eden, it is the prototype of evil and negativity in this world. ~Staff, Serpent, and Scattered Sparks.