Chukat, חֻקַּת. "Statute" Numbers 19:1-22:1

Chukat And The Child

Poetic notes for the parashat Chukat 5782*

Blessed is the person

who does not sit as a captive to the evil inclination,

deriding the law of the red heifer,

or mocking the goat sent to Azazel,

living always in exile outside of the Temple,

being always lost outside the camp,

but instead, their hope is in HaShem, 

Redeemer of Israel in heaven and on earth

Salvation is first revealed with an absolute change,

the complete change of Abraham’s name and Sarah’s name,

And finally it reveals itself only with an alternation,

the alternation of the name from Jacob to Israel

There is a new, eternal creation exacted by strict justice,

yet it is made in the form of a redeemed heaven and earth,

revealed in righteous mercy

in the Temple of Jerusalem’s heart

The nations blushed to see Israel

performing the ritual of the red heifer

But God stood surrounding her,

surrounding His firstborn,

and silenced them before they could speak

Israel cannot explain or defend

the service of the red heifer 

It is a chukat

It is a sovereign decree

It is a purification concealed from all agents of death

It is an eternal secret of life

Let those whose hearts crave learning,

who's souls insist on understanding,

seek in good faith to learn and understand

For an insincere philosopher

serves the propagandists of death

They draw maps that are mazes in madness

A person who trusts God as a child trusts in truth

and is like the child king, King Solomon

That wise child understood how to learn

and to admit when he did not yet understand

The learning companion of anyone like Solomon

is the hidden Tzaddik

And their teacher is joy

When they come of age they are vessels

of incense and thankfulness

There are those who will only obey

the mind of their own understanding 

They do not understand what they are —

those who have lived all their lives

being spiritual cripples,

unable to get up out of their death bed

Having no regenerating faith,

their love is always limited by desire,

unless it is taken in hand

by the faith of others

and they are set free from being a god to themselves

The holy desire of God is His holy love,

that God's holy love should be the love

filling every heart and mind in all creation

There is no vessel of heaven

through which we can fulfill God’s desire

other than His commandments

which, like mana, have come down from heaven

And no vessel made of earth can please God

other than the trusting obedience of our hearts,

our minds and our souls and our bodies

One faith, one kingdom,

obeying every mitzvah

Each soul according to its role and its place,

waiting together in obedient faith

for the Redeemer of Zion

Waiting for the Redeemer of Zion,

the judges of Israel,

with Mishnah and Gemara and Posekim,

will open the floodgates

of the knowledge of God

And the knowledge of God shall fill the earth

as the waters fill the seas

Because the simple faith of a child

will lead them with humility

along the pathway outside the camp,

to drink from Miriam’s well,

beyond the place of the stricken rock,

to clear the place of the fiery serpents,

to know that the place of Moshe and Aaron

is the place of the red heifer

and of the kohanim who sprinkle

and become one with the sprinkled,

the place of the red ribbon and fire,

the place of judgment and mercy

with hyssop and cedar wood and ashes

and purification,

healing the heart of Jerusalem, 

the eternal Mother of all living