Chukat

Water World - Diana Lipton

Diana Lipton is Lecturer in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies at King's College London.

Chukat reminds me of a 'magic painting' book. With no more than a jar of clean water and a paintbrush, even the least creative child could transform a greyish sheet of paper into a colourful farmyard/seaside/playground scene. Chukat too acquires shape and colour from water and, since God provides, we do not need to pipe in our own. H₂O seeps, trickles and flows from every nook and cranny of this week's parsha, revealing an intricate web of textual reflections on the subjects of power and identity.

Water is for washing, and it first appears in Chukat in that guise. The priest who slaughters the Red Heifer and the men who burn it and gather up its ashes must wash their clothes and their bodies in water (19:7, 8, 10). Yet water turns out to be part of the process, not the (cleansing) solution; even after washing, the men remain unclean until evening. To add to the confusion, we discover that 'dirty' water removes some stains that clean water cannot reach. Ashes are a source of uncleanness, rendering unclean the man who gathered them (19:10), but they remove the uncleanness of death when mixed with water to form mei niddah, 'lustration water' (19:9, 13).

This mixture of water and ashes links the Red Heifer to its evil twin, the Golden Calf, whose ashes are also ground and mixed with water (Exodus 32:20). The Calf connection is developed when Aaron is told he cannot enter the land on account of Moses' disobedience at Meribah (20:24). That Aaron's punishment is associated not, as we might have expected, with the Golden Calf, but with the Red Heifer is underlined by two parallels. The removal of Aaron's garments (20:26) recalls the washing of garments of those who came into contact with the Heifer (19:7), and his 'gathering' [to the dead] (20:26) recalls the 'gathering' of the Heifer's ashes (19:10). This parsha rehabilitates Aaron and his descendants, emphasising their power to remove sin by association with the Heifer, and demonstrating their model for the successful transmission of authority. Moses comes down from this mountain not with the tablets he smashed when he descended from Mount Sinai after the Calf (Exodus 32:15), but with Eleazer, Aaron's son and successor (Num. 20:28).

Water is for drinking. The juxtaposition of Miriam's death (20:1) and the report that the community lacked water (20:2) is a peg on which to hook the rabbinic tradition of the well that followed Israel in the wilderness and dried up when Miriam died. The subsequent water shortage leaves Israel with two sources of support - God and outsiders. Neither is straightforward. God tells Moses to bring forth water, but construes his striking of the rock as a failure to sanctify Him in Israel's eyes. The waters that gush from the rock are called the Waters of Meribah, memorialising Israel's quarrel with God there (20:6-13). As for outsiders, water is pivotal in the failure of diplomatic negotiations between the Israelites and the Edomites, through whose land Israel hopes to pass. Neither Israel's promise not to drink from Edomite wells nor her offer to pay for the water they drink, is sufficient (20:17, 19), and the Edomite refusal to negotiate is another nail in the coffin of Israelite/Edomite relations.

Water fills moats. The tension over water creates a division between the Edomites and Israelites that becomes explicit later in the parsha with the announcement that Israel will take possession of Amorite land 'from the Arnon to the Jabbok' (21:24). It was at the Jabbok that Jacob wrestled all night before re-encountering his brother Esau, the ancestor of Edom (Genesis 32:23). Indeed, if fences make good neighbours, water makes better ones. The Arnon, one of many wadis in Moab, keeps the Moabites from the Amorites (21:13), and the parsha features the separation channel par excellence, the Sea of Reeds (21:4). This is the body of water that keeps Israel forever out of Egypt. The sight of the sea apparently reactivates Israelite longing: 'Why did you make us leave Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread and no water.' (21:5). But Israel does not return to Egypt, a triumph for Jewish continuity celebrated perhaps in our parsha with a song to a well that recalls the song of the sea, sung this time not by Moses and Israel, but by Israel alone: az yashir yisrael et ha' shirah ha'zot, 'then Israel sang this song' (Num. 21:17, cf. Exodus 15:1). 'What is water if not Torah', the rabbis asked (Babylonian Talmud, Avodah Zara 5b)? Perhaps we should rephrase that for parshat Chukat: what is Torah if not water?