{"id":76819,"date":"2020-07-02T14:55:24","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T11:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=76819"},"modified":"2020-07-02T14:55:24","modified_gmt":"2020-07-02T11:55:24","slug":"chukat-balak-kohelet-tolstoy-and-the-red-heifer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/chukat-balak-kohelet-tolstoy-and-the-red-heifer\/","title":{"rendered":"Chukat-Balak: Kohelet, Tolstoy and the Red Heifer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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1. Chukat begins with the law of the Red Heifer (a young female cow who can be used to purify us). The Sages thought the Red Heifer was the hardest of all the mitzvot in the Torah to understand, and it became the classic example of a chok – a mitzvah with no obvious explanation.<\/p>\n

The parsha then continues telling the story of the Israelites in the desert. After the death of Miriam, the people complain they no longer have any water. Moses and Aaron turn to God for help, and then show impatience with the people. God judges that they have acted wrongly and tells them they will not live to enter the Land of Israel. Soon after this Aaron dies a natural death, aged 123.<\/p>\n

The people complain again and are attacked by venomous snakes. God tells Moses to place a brass snake on a pole, so that all who look up to it will be healed. Moses then leads the people into battle against Sihon and then Og, and they win both battles.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0Balak is the king of Moab, a country next to the Land of Israel. He becomes scared when he hears that the Israelites are heading his way. Together with the elders of Midian (another country near Israel), he tries to hire the famous non-Jewish prophet Bilam to curse the Israelites. Bilam asks God what he should do, and God tells him not to go with them. But the Moabites and Midianites return to ask him again, this time with a better offer. God tells Bilam that if he goes, he must only say the words God puts in his mouth.<\/p>\n

Then a strange thing happens. Bilam\u2019s donkey sees an angel blocking their way and stops walking so Bilam strikes her, and the donkey speaks to him. Bilam is then able to see the angel, who reminds Bilam to only use the words God gives him. After that, Bilam and the king climb a mountain above the Israelite camp to prepare for Bilam’s curse. They try three times to prepare altars and sacrifices, but each time, Bilam blesses the Children of Israel instead of cursing them. King Balak eventually gives up and leaves, angry and frustrated. Despite escaping Bilam\u2019s curses, the Israelites bring disaster on themselves anyway when Moabite women convince some Israelites to have forbidden relations with them and to worship idols. 24,000 people die in a plague as punishment, until Pinchas, in an act of passion, rises up against one of the wrongdoers and kills him.<\/p>\n

Download the whole parashah guide for Parashot\u00a0<\/a>Chukat-Balak<\/a><\/p>\n","image":false,"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"Family Study Materials","main_caption":"Kohelet, Tolstoy and the Red Heifer","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"for the double parasha - Chukat-Balak","preview_embedded":"","preview_image":{"ID":42816,"id":42816,"title":"covenant and conversation - Sacks","filename":"covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/the-three-stages-of-creation\/covenant-and-conversation-sacks\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"covenant-and-conversation-sacks","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":42815,"date":"2018-10-25 10:59:44","modified":"2022-10-19 19:45:17","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":723,"height":426,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks-300x177.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":177,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","medium_large-width":723,"medium_large-height":426,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","large-width":723,"large-height":426,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","1536x1536-width":723,"1536x1536-height":426,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","2048x2048-width":723,"2048x2048-height":426,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks.jpg","post_full_size-width":723,"post_full_size-height":426,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/covenant-and-conversation-Sacks-713x420.jpg","home_baner-width":713,"home_baner-height":420}},"preview_video":"","external_link":"","link_for_pay":false,"tile_gallery_items":false,"credits":""},"alternate_tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"","main_caption_size":"1","sub_caption":"","hide_media":false},"tile_group":{"preview_image_url":false,"main_caption":"","sub_caption":"","":null,"popup_package_extra_content":"","read_time":""},"home_color":"","home_gallery_top":"","home_gallery_middle":"","home_gallery_book":"","home_gallery_bottom":"","seo":{"seo_title":"","seo_description":"","seo_default_title":"","seo_default_description":""},"old_create_date":"","links":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76819"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76819"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76821,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76819\/revisions\/76821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}