DRASH – CHUKAT BALAK

Rabbi Dr. Esther Jilovsky

There’s a popular adage that if something doesn’t work, try switching it off and on again. When I was a teenager, I remember that the sound on our TV would stop working every now and then. There was a simple remedy for it – whack it on the top, and the sound would usually work again. Sometimes, you hit it a couple of times but it still didn’t work. In this case, you had to unplug the TV, turn it back on again, and then hit it a couple more times, and then the sound would finally be fixed.

This week in the Torah, we read a double parasha, Chukat-Balak, a pairing which occurs when the second day of Shavuot falls on Shabbat.[1] As we continue through B’midbar, the Israelites are still in the desert, and they find themselves without water. The people complain bitterly to Moses and Aaron, saying:

וְלָמָ֤ה הֶֽעֱלִיתֻ֙נוּ֙ מִמִּצְרַ֔יִם לְהָבִ֣יא אֹתָ֔נוּ אֶל־הַמָּק֥וֹם הָרָ֖ע הַזֶּ֑ה לֹ֣א ׀ מְק֣וֹם זֶ֗רַע וּתְאֵנָ֤ה וְגֶ֙פֶן֙ וְרִמּ֔וֹן וּמַ֥יִם אַ֖יִן לִשְׁתּֽוֹת

‘Why did you make us leave Egypt to bring us to this wretched place, a place with no grain or figs or vines or pomegranates? There is not even water to drink!’ (Numbers 20:5). They are so miserable, they even question why Moses brought them out of Egypt! Things must be absolutely dire, if even life under slavery seems like a better alternative. Or perhaps they have just forgotten what slavery back in Egypt was actually like.

Moses and Aaron appeal to the Eternal One for advice (Numbers 20:6). The Eternal advises Moses to take his rod and ‘speak to the rock’ to obtain water from it (Numbers 20:8). But Moses does not speak to the rock. He does not tap the rock gently, or try to coax water out of it in a nonconfrontational manner. Instead, he whacks the rock twice, and water flows from it (Numbers 20:11).

Why did Moses strike the rock? There is no one answer to this question. But perhaps he strikes it in anger or frustration. He has been leading the people of Israel since Egypt days, and still, they complain! Yet, if we go back a few verses, there is another explanation. The passage opens with:

וַיָּבֹ֣אוּ בְנֵֽי־יִ֠שְׂרָאֵ֠ל כׇּל־הָ֨עֵדָ֤ה מִדְבַּר־צִן֙ בַּחֹ֣דֶשׁ הָֽרִאשׁ֔וֹן וַיֵּ֥שֶׁב הָעָ֖ם בְּקָדֵ֑שׁ וַתָּ֤מׇת שָׁם֙ מִרְיָ֔ם וַתִּקָּבֵ֖ר שָֽׁם

‘The Israelites arrived in a body at the wilderness of Zin on the first new moon, and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there.’ (Numbers 20:1) Moses has just lost his sister. Miriam was Moses’ older sister, the one who saved him when he was a baby floating in a basket on the Nile, the one who was beside him during the Exodus and their journey in the desert. Perhaps he strikes the rock not in anger, but in grief. A grief that bubbles up in frustration, anger and other conflicting feelings that can arise in the aftermath of losing a loved one. Perhaps he just wanted to hit something – and in that scenario, whacking a rock is a far healthier option than taking the strong emotion out on an animal, or God forbid, another human being.

The Torah mentions Miriam’s death almost in passing, but its significance reverberates through the following verses and beyond. Rashi notes that as the verse ‘וְלֹא־הָ֥יָה מַ֖יִם לָעֵדָ֑ה’ ‘the community was without water’ immediately follows the mention of Miriam’s death, we can derive from it that for the duration of the forty years in the desert, they had the well, and therefore water, because of Miriam’s merit.[2] Miriam is special. Unlike many other female figures in the Torah, Miriam’s raison d’etre is not as someone’s wife or mother. From the time we first meet her, as an unnamed older sister watching her baby brother float down the Nile, she is an independent spirit who uses her own initiative (Exodus 2:4). After the people of Israel cross the Sea of Reeds into freedom, Miriam leads the women in dance and celebration (Exodus 15:20). Here, she is called נְּבִיאָ֜ה nevi’ah ‘prophetess,’ the only woman in the Torah to receive this title. When Miriam becomes sick with a white scaly skin disease and must isolate for seven days, the entire Israelite camp waits for her to be well again, before moving on (Numbers 12:15). Lastly, the place where Miriam dies is called Kadesh, which shares the root k-d-sh, the same as kadosh meaning ‘holy’ (Numbers 20:1).

Upon initial reading, Moses’ behaviour with the rock may seem excessively forceful and even violent. But considered in the context of the news that he had just lost his sister, it is understandable. Moses is in mourning. His sister, who has been by his side throughout this long journey, is no longer. It is a significant loss. Moreover, Miriam’s presence meant that there was always water nearby. Suddenly, finding water is yet another task that Moses must deal with as part of his leadership duties, in the midst of his grief.

This story reminds us that we never know what others are truly dealing with. We can only strive to encounter others with chesed, kindness, and compassion, and with curiosity rather than judgement. As for Miriam, let us remember her for her bravery, her kindness, her music, her dancing, her leadership. And most of all, as a person who mattered in her own right, not just as the sister of Moses and Aaron, but as Miriam, prophetess, dancer, musician, singer, leader, wellspring of water and so much more that we will never know.

  [1] Outside of Israel, those who celebrated two days of Shavuot read a double parasha, Chukat-Balak. In Israel, and elsewhere where one day of Shavuot is observed, this week’s parasha is Balak.

[2] Rashi on Numbers 20:2