Readings for Saturday, June 27, 2026

Readings For Saturday, June 27, 2026

Since this year is a non-leap year Chukat and Balak are read on the same Shabbat with the haftarah being the one normally read for Chukat

Chukat (Statute)

19:1-22:1 Bamidbar (Numbers)

Chukat is the sixth sedrah in Bamidbar.  The sedrah takes its name from the second Hebrew word in the second verse of the weekly reading, “This is the statute (Chukat) of the law, which the Lord hath commanded.”  For convenience, the sedrah can be divided into three major parts:  Chukat - The Statute of the Red Heifer, The Changing Generations and The Conquests Begin.

Chukat or The Statute of the Red Heifer (19:1-22)

Although people may not know the specifics of the statute concerning the Red Heifer, it remains one of the best known and least understood commandments in the Torah.  Since the text is fairly straightforward in describing the ritual, there is no need to paraphrase it here.  The ritual was intended to purify one who had come in contact with a corpse or household items found at the scene of the death.  As strange as the ritual might sound, it becomes even stranger since the clean person who sprinkles the ashes on the unclean person then becomes unclean for a day.  In other words, the ritual results in cleansing the defiled, and defiling the cleansed.  Obeying the statute was obviously of great importance since the penalty for deliberate disobedience was “karet,” being cut-off.  Use of this term has come to mean a form of Divine punishment, which further underscores the importance of the statute.  As Rabbi Hertz points out, “The word ‘statute’ (or Chukat) is used in connection with all laws or ordinances whose reason is not disclosed to us.  In Bereshit 26:5 we saw three terms used to describe laws and ordinances.  Mitzvoth or commandments were laws dictated by a sense of morality such as prohibitions against robbery and bloodshed.  Chukim or statutes were laws ordained by God, which we are to observe although reason cannot assign an explanation such as the prohibition against eating swine’s flesh.  Toroth or laws are customs and traditional ordinances orally transmitted from generation to generation such as we find in Midrash.”  In his commentary on Chukat, Rabbi Schneerson cites Rashi who contends that even among Chukim, there are two categories:  “Those which could in principle be understood by human intelligence, but details of which are beyond comprehension” and “those which are entirely beyond the scope of human understanding.  The Statute of the Red Heifer is alone in belonging to the second category.”  More important than the legal term Chukat, is the spiritual concept of Chukat.  As the book of Job freely admits, there are things that happen in life that are beyond human comprehension.  We may make haphazard attempts to explain such events, but in the end the explanations are not very satisfying.  While such a concept of Chukat may seem like a cop out it may very well serve as a safety valve.  By admitting that there are things beyond our comprehension, we can then devote our energies to dealing with that which we do understand even if it is only a partial understanding.  For example, our inability to understand where God was during the Holocaust does not give us the right stop being Jewish.

The Generations Begin to Change (20:1-29)

According to some commentators, the events described in this chapter are out of sequence.  Chronologically, they follow after the events of Bamidbar 14, the chapter in which the Israelites are condemned to wander the Wilderness until the generation of the spies dies out.  This means that events described in this chapter occurred in the fortieth year of the wanderings.  In other words, the Torah is silent about the events of the thirty-eight years during which one generation gave way to another.  Be that as it may, the chapter begins without fanfare or comment announcing the death of Miriam, “…the people stayed at Kadesh.  Miriam died there and was buried there.”  This is how we are told of the death Miriam - the sister of Moshe, the singer of songs of victory, and the prophetess.  Fortunately, we have just read Chukat, so we know that those who tended to her corpse could be purified.  The narrative does not even pause to tell us if her passing was even mourned by the people.  It just picks up with the next event, another rebellion concerning a lack of water.  In yet another famous biblical tale, God tells Moshe to speak to the rock so that it will give water.  But Moshe in his anger strikes the rock twice, producing a gusher of water.  God then tells Moshe and Aaron that they will not enter the Promised Land.  Why such a harsh punishment?  Were the brothers to be denied the supreme moment of accomplishment just because Moshe hit the rock instead of speaking to it?  Isn’t God being a little extreme, especially when you consider all the great things Moshe had done?  The notes are rife with all kinds of speculation.  Maybe, by his statements and actions, Moshe had led the people to believe that he and not God was the source of the miracle.  Or, maybe, by losing his temper, Moshe had forfeited his role of prophet and had become just another member of the generation of spies that had already been condemned to perish in the Wilderness.  In the end, we really do not know and all of the explanations fall flat.  Fortunately, we have the concept of Chukat, which means that there are things we must accept even if we do not understand them.  Moshe and Aaron appear to have accepted the decree since neither of them offered any argument.  Instead, the text picks up with the travelogue.  Moshe attempts to pass through the land of Edom.  The Edomites refuse.  Moshe accepts the refusal and changes routes because God has already decreed that Edomites have their assigned piece of land and the Israelites are to take no action against them.  After journeying from Kadesh, the Israelites stop at Mount Hor.  God tells Moshe that Aaron is now to be “gathered unto his people.”  And just in case Moshe has forgotten why he is to die in the Wilderness, He tells Moshe that it was “because you rebelled again My word at the waters of Meribah.”  Apparently God was not confused about why the brothers were being punished.  Aaron does not die a mean death.  He gets to see his son Eleazar don the vestments of the Kohein Gadol.  He dies peacefully knowing that his son has succeeded him.

The Conquests Begin (21:1-22:1)

A new generation has grown up, a generation that is capable of fighting for the Promised Land.  The chapter begins with a victory over the King of Arad, a Canaananite Kingdom located in the Negev.  This new generation has learned its lesson.  Before going into battle, the warriors seek God’s support.  In this case, they promise to forgo the spoils of war if God will reward them with victory.  The Torah then describes the march of the Israelites through the region of the Transjordan i.e., the land across or east of the Jordan River.  The Israelites defeat Sichon, King of the Amorites and Og, King of Bashan.  According to the sedrah, some of our information about this comes from a text called “the Book of the Wars of the Lord.”  This may have been an actual text, written at the time of the Torah, which has been lost to us.  It should also be noted that verses 27 through 30 are a Song of Victory, similar in style to the Song at the Sea.  It is as if the Israelites began and ended their journey through the Wilderness with song.  One difference is that here, Moshe does not lead the Song.  The great leader’s voice is soon to become silent.  The sedrah ends with the Israelites making camp across the Jordan from Jericho.  In the midst of all of this fighting and traveling, we do find one last rebellion over water.  When the first rebellion over water occurred in this sedrah, God did not punish the Israelites.  However, this time He sends serpents to attack the people.  Once again the people admit their sin and beg Moshe to intercede.  Once again Moshe intercedes and God relents.  As a result of this episode, Moshe fashions a copper serpent, which is placed on a pole and is kept as an item of veneration by the Israelites.  King Hezekiah will later destroy it because it became an object of idol worship.  For many of us, this copper serpent is more of a mystery than the Statute of the Red Heifer.  But then maybe the sedrah was meant to begin and end in the spirit of “Chukat.”

Themes

Commandments

The requirement that a ritually clean person shall sprinkle water and ashes of the Red Heifer to purify one who has become ritually unclean (19:19).

Biblical Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

As if to emphasize the uniqueness of this commandment, it is the only one listed in this sedrah.  Furthermore, the companion sedrah of Balak (during no-leap years) does not contain any commandments.  Therefore, regardless of the cycle, the Statute of the Red Heifer stands alone.

The Death of Miriam

According to some, the failure of the Israelites to properly mourn the death of Miriam led to the lack of water at Meribah.  Legend has it that Miriam’s virtue was the source of the magical Well that accompanied the Israelites.  By failing to properly mark her death, the water stopped.  This led to her brothers’ sin, which denied them entrance to the Promised Land.

The Death of Aaron

When the people saw that Aaron was dead, the whole House of Israel wept for thirty days (20:29).  This thirty day mourning period for Aaron is the source of the thirty day mourning period known by the Hebrew word for thirty - sh’loshim.  It follows the seven days known as Shiva.  During the Sh’loshim, the mourners avoid public displays of joy and happiness.  In the Synagogue, mourners may lead services but do not accept honors such as chanting the haftarah.

Hand Washing

When leaving the cemetery or entering the Shiva house, it is customary to wash ones’ hands.  There are those who will claim that this custom has to do with a superstitious attempt to wash demons from our hands.  Jewish tradition sees this custom is a reminder of the washing that took place according to Chukat.

The Punishment of Moshe and Aaron

There are numerous commentaries on this most of which revolve around explaining what the brothers did that was so bad that they were excluded from entering the Promised Land.  However a sage known as Ramav has a different spin on the statement “…you will not bring the congregation of Israel to the Holy Land.” (20:12).  He said that the Israelites were being punished for their lack of faith.  God was depriving them of their two greatest leaders.  Only once they had to face life without these brothers would the Israelites recognize their greatness of these men.

The Color Red

Red is the color of sin.  Hence the heifer must be red.  It can never have worn a yoke because it symbolizes “the sinner who casts off God’s Yoke.”

The Mystery of Chukat:  the sedrah not the ritual

This reading is filled with mystery in the truest sense of that term.  There is the mystery of the ritual of the Red Heifer.  There is the mystery of the lack of water following the death of Miriam.  There is the mystery of why Moses was really denied entry into the Promised Land.  And then there is the ultimate mystery itself - death; in this case the death of Miriam and the death of Aaron.  But the sedrah also provides us with the clue to understanding these mysteries as well as all the other issues that confront human beings.  In the opening section of the sedrah we find these stark “Zoht HaTorah,”  “This is the Torah” (19:14).  Even if we do not understand why we are to do something, we know what we are to do.  At the same time we are encouraged to delve into the Torah so that we can at least begin to understand the “why” of life as well as the “what” of it.  You can question, you can challenge, but you cannot ignore that stark reality of the life of the Jew - This is the Torah.

What Was Moses

Moses is variously referred to as Moses, our teacher, or as the first of the prophets.  This week we see another appellation applied to him.  In recounting the history of the Israelites to the King of Edom (20:14) the text said “We cried out to the Lord and He heard our voice; He sent a Malach (translated as emissary or messenger) and He took us out of Egypt” (20:16).  The Malach is Moses.  Malach can be translated as “angel” because, according to Rashi, the prophets are referred to as angels which Ibn Ezra construes to mean that an angel, Moses, accompanied the Israelites out of Egypt.  Considering the fact that this week’s portion includes the display of temper that kept Moses from entering the Promised Land, one must wonder how angelic he really was.  Or is this a reminder that we are all capable of a variety of behavior, some angelic and some, well let’s just say a little less than angelic.

No One Left Behind

The IDF prides itself on not leaving behind any of its men on the battlefield and of going to great lengths to rescue anybody who fails into enemy hands.  Similarly Jews in the Middle Ages went to great lengths to ransom any of their co-religionists who fell into the hands of marauders, thieves and pirates.  Communities actually had special funds for this purpose.  This week’s reading shows that this practice is deeply rooted in our people’s history.  When the King of Arad attacked the Israelites “he took some of them captive.” (21:1).  The Israelites then turned to God and asked Him to aid them in their fight.  They plainly stated that they would forgo the booty and loot that most armies fought for.  The implied deal is give us victory so that we might free the captive or captives taken by the Canaanite king.   While some commentators opine that there was really only one captive and it was a non-Jewish slave, others say that this does not matter - that one captive, one person denied their freedom, is one person too many.

Balak

22:2-25:9 Bamidbar (Numbers)

Balak is the seventh sedrah in Bamidbar.  It takes its name from the first word in the sedrah, “Balak, son of Zippor, saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.” (22:2).  Balak is the name of the King of the Moabites.  Balak divides into two parts.  Most of the sedrah (22:2-24:25) is taken up with the Story of Balaam.  Some commentators contend that this section of Bamidbar was originally a separate book of the Torah, which would have meant that the Torah would have consisted of seven books.  The last nine verses of the sedrah start the story of Pinchas, the grandson of Aaron.

The Story of Balaam (22:2-24:25).  I have always found this story to be a mystery, especially when you get to the part about the talking ass.  There appear to be several differing views about its importance.  Plaut talks about this portion with almost reverential awe while the editors of Etz Hayim refer to it as containing “what may be the only comic passage in the Torah.”  In Torah Studies, a compilation of Rabbi Schneerson’s talks on the weekly readings, the editors do not mention the Story of Balaam, focusing instead on the episode involving Pinchas, which comes at the end of the sedrah.  I have relied heavily on the Plaut Chumash and the writings of Rabbi Telushkin in preparing this section.  The sedrah opens with the Israelites camped “on the steppes of Moab.”  Balak, the King of Moab, is frightened by this mass of intruders and sends for the prophet Balaam to help him fend off the invaders.  According to tradition, those who Balaam blesses remain blessed and those who he curses are cursed forever.  Balak does not ask Balaam to bless Moab.  Rather he wants him to come and curse the Israelites.  Balaam hears the voice of God, and turns down Balak’s first offer.  This is not the first time that we have seen God revealing himself to non-Jews.  After all, He is the God of the entire Universe.  But the second time, God relents and lets Balaam accept Balak’s offer.  Balak saddles his ass and heads for Moab.  But the donkey balks at her mission.  (Yes, this wise, talking animal is a female.  Is this a continuation of the feminist theme we saw when God told Abraham to listen to Sarah?)  The ass sees an armed angel standing in the road and tries to turn aside.  This angers Balaam who begins beating the animal.  Then the ass speaks, reminding Balaam of her loyalty, at which point God reveals the angel to Balaam.  The angel admonishes Balaam for beating his ass, telling him that if it had not been for her, Balaam would have been slain right there on the road.  For those of you who are bothered by super-natural events like this, relax.  According to Midrash, this talking ass was one of the things created on the evening of the Sixth Day of Creation.  In other words, the talking donkey does not violate the laws of nature; it was pre-programmed to appear at this moment.  Balaam arrives at Ir-Moab, the capital city of Balak’s kingdom.  Balak has to be one of the most disappointed employers in history.  He is paying for curses on his enemies and instead he hears blessings on the Israelites.  Balaam views the Israelite camp from three vantage points and each time he utters blessings upon them.  In his own defense, Balaam tells Balak that he can only utter the words that God puts in his mouth.  The angered Balak sends Balaam packing without paying him.  At this point, as if to add insult to injury, the departing Balaam speaks for a fourth and final time.  This time he predicts that Israel will eventually triumph over Moab.  There are obvious messages in the story.  In allowing Balaam to go to Balak when he is asked for a second time, God is allowing man to exercise free will.  The fact that God puts the blessings in Balaam’s mouth is a reminder that while men may speak words of blessing all blessings come from God.  Balaam’s willingness to sell his prophetic powers for material gain shows the difference between a real and false prophet.  To paraphrase the Mishnah, he who profits from the crown of the Torah shall surely perish.

Pinchas (25:1-9).  Pinchas is the name of next week’s sedrah.  However, we meet him for the first time at the end of Balak.  The events in these last nine sentences of the sedrah provide the antecedents to the events we will be reading about next week.  Having failed to defeat the Israelites with curses, the Moabites send their women to the Israelites in an attempt to seduce them.  God orders Moshe to have the “ringleaders impaled.”  Moshe then calls upon the leaders of the Israelites to carry out God’s command.  Just at this moment an unnamed Israelite (we will find out who he is next week) approaches Moshe with his “woman” and heads for his tent to enjoy her pleasures.  Pinchas, the son of Eleazar the Kohein Gadol and grandson of Aaron, is so outraged that he grabs a spear, enters the tent and stabs them both in the belly.  The sedrah ends by telling us that this stopped the plague that had broken out.  The plague had claimed the lives of 24,000 Israelites.  We must wait until we read Pinchas next week to fully understand the import of these events.

Themes

Commandments

There are none in this sedrah.

Prayer

As we have seen before, the Torah is a source for many of our prayers.  The Mah Tovu, the prayer recited when entering the synagogue for morning prayers, comes from the mouth of Balaam (24:5).  You may recognize the traditional English translation for its opening verse, “How goodly are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling places O House of Israel.”

Separate and Apart

One of the recurring themes of the Torah is the special role of the Jew in the world.  We are the people of the Covenant.  We are the people of whom God has said, I will make you a holy (separate) people.  I will make you a nation of priests.  Now the words of Balaam drive this point home again, “There is a people that dwells apart, not reckoned among the nations.”  There are those who seek the walls of the Ghetto to keep us apart from other nations because they are afraid that we will assimilate and lose our identity.  There are those who would place us behind Ghetto walls to keep us from “contaminating” other nations.  There are those Jews who bridle at this concept of separateness for a variety of reasons and reject this as anachronistic chauvinism.  And then there are those who would say that the challenge for modern Jews is to live in the world while maintaining a strong, positive sense of our own identity.

Genesis Connection

This sedrah contains at least two connections to Bereshit.  First, they both contain talking animals - the snake in Bereshit and the donkey in Balak.  Secondly, we see God asking questions for which He should have known the answer.  In Bereshit He asks Cain, “Where is your brother, Abel?”  In Balak He asks Balaam, “Who are the people who came to you?”  Since God obviously knew the answers, why ask the questions?  Because, according to some commentators, this is so we will know that confession is the beginning of repentance.

The Power of Words

Jews and Judaism are all about words and language.  After all, we are known as The People of the Book.  This sedrah is filled with reminders of the power of speech.  Balak knew that he could not defeat the Israelites with armed might so he tried to use the power of negative speech (curses) to destroy us.  The donkey spoke in an attempt to save her master.  This proves that we should listen even to the humblest of creatures because they might have a message worth hearing.

What’s in a Name?

Balak is one of only six weekly portions that takes its appellation from a person’s name.  The others are Noah, Cha’Yay Sarah, Yitro, Korach, and Pinchas.  What do “a righteous man in his time,” Abraham’s wife, Moses’ father-in-law, a rebel leader, the King of the Moabites and a killer turned High Priest have in common?  Why are these six people memorialized for all times?  Why do their names appear every year on Jewish calendars around the world?  Is this one of those questions that “Rashi’s five year old could answer” or one of those that would elicit commentary from those engaged in Torah study?  Since nothing is placed in the Torah for no reason, there must be one.  The question is what is the reason?

The Universal God

There are those who contend that the God of the Israelites was essentially a tribal or a national deity.  Many of them believe that the concept of the God of the Israelites as a Universal God is a later manifestation formulated in the time of the literary prophets and the Babylonian Exile.  The sedrah of Balak challenges that assumption.  The God of the Israelites speaks to both Balak, King of the Moabites and Balaam.  Balaam says, “What the Lord says, that I must say.”  Balak tells him, “I was going to reward you richly, but the Lord has denied you the reward.”  At the beginning of the Torah, God spoke with all people i.e., Adam, Eve, Cain, Noah.  As the tale progresses, He establishes a special relationship with the Israelites, but that does not mean He is not the God of the entire World.  As the narrative of the Torah is coming to a close with these chapters of Bamidbar, it is almost as if the author, in this sedrah, is reminding us that God does indeed speak to all people, not just the Jewish people.

Methods of Destruction

There have been a myriad of methods used to try and wipe out the Jews.  In the Torah we have already read about Laban, Pharaoh and the Amalekites using drowning, starvation and physical force to destroy the Israelites.  But this week we read what might be the first account of psychological warfare or “black-ops” to wipe out the Jewish people.  The attempts to use “curses” and appeals to the supernatural smacks of ancient man’s attempts to use “mind games” to destroy his opponents.

Haftarah

5:6-6:8 Micah

The Man:  The name Micah is actually an abbreviation of the name “Micaiah” which means “who is like unto God.”  Micah is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets.  While he may be minor in terms of length (fifteen pages in the Jewish Publication Society’s English translation, The Prophets) he is certainly a major figure when it comes to the complexity of his preachings, the boldness of his teachings and the majesty of his language.  Consider the following famous statements, all of which are found in this slender work.  “For out of Zion shall go forth the law, And the word of the Lord from Jerusalem” (4:2).  “And they shall beat their swords in plowshares, And their spears into pruninghooks; Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, Neither shall they learn war any more” (4:3).  “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; And none shall make them afraid” (4:4).  “It hath been told thee, O man what is good, And what the Lord doth require of thee:  Only to do justly, and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God” (6:8).

Based on information in the text, we know that Micah preached during the reign of three Judean Kings, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah.  This means he lived at the end of the eighth century B.C.E. and the beginning of the seventh century B.C.E.  He lived during the last days of the Northern Kingdom and a period in which the Southern Kingdom was threatened with foreign conquest.  He was a younger contemporary of Isaiah.  Some statements including one cited above are found in the writings of both men.  Nobody is sure if one is quoting the other or they are both referencing an even older source that has been lost to us.  Micah lived at a time of wealth and social upheaval.  Judean society was moving away from an agrarian egalitarianism model to a more urban model with increasing gaps between the rich and the poor.  He decried the abuse of power by the wealthy and their exploitation of the masses.  He warned the people that this behavior would bring exile and destruction.  He told them that possessing the holy city of Jerusalem would not protect them.  He mixed this harsh message of immediate punishment with a message of ultimate redemption.  God would not forget us.  He would forgive us and redeem us.  “Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth the iniquity, And passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?  He retaineth not His anger forever, Because He delighteth in mercy.  He will again have compassion upon his; He will subdue our iniquities; And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.  Thou wilt show faithfulness to Jacob, mercy to Abraham, As Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old” (7:18-20).

The Message:  As Goldman points out in his commentary on this prophet, the Book of Micah can be divided into three parts.  Micah opens with a message devoted almost exclusively to denouncing sin and proclaiming impending punishment.  He then shifts to a message almost totally devoted to “words of hope and cheer.”  The haftarah is taken from the third section where he mixes the two elements.  He opens by addressing the “remnant of Jacob,” an obvious reference to punishment and exile.  But then he reminds the people of God’s past beneficence.  Surely, God who has been good to us in the past will be good to us in the future.  As the editors of Etz Hayim point out, this leads the people to ask in what manner they should approach the Lord.  Should they approach with mounds of sacrifices?  No, not with sacrifices alone should they approach God.  Instead the prophet tells them to approach Him in the way they already know is proper - with justice, mercy and humility (6:8).  The classical English version of verse eight loses some of its meaning in the translation.  As the notes in the Soncino edition point out, the prophet uses the word “justly” first because it is the lack of justice both in the legal and social sense of that term which will lead to the destruction of the nation.  But justice is not enough.  The people must love mercy.  In Hebrew the word used is “chesed” which actually means acts of loving-kindness.  “Chesed” is to be the basis of interaction with all human beings, regardless of their social station.  Finally, the English reads “walk humbly” but in Hebrew the word “v-hah-tznayah” which though translated here as humbly actually has the connotation of “modesty or decency.”  And of course modesty and decency have a multiplicity of meanings far beyond just being humble.  There are those who have praised Micah for reducing the commandments to three items.  But in following this list of three, the Israelites will be led to follow all 613 commandments.

Theme-Link:  There are at least two connections between the sedrah and the haftarah.  The sedrah tells the story of Balak and Balaam.  In reminding the people of “God’s gracious acts”, Micah reminds his contemporaries of this episode.  Furthermore, Balaam speaks the words “mah tovu” as in the famous “Goodly are your tents O Jacob?”  Micah uses the same term “mah tov” in the famous words of 6:8.

Micah and George Washington

Sometime during the 7^th and 8^th centuries BCE, Micah gave us a vision of the peaceful life that we could expect “in the end of days.”  “They shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree; And none shall make them afraid”  Thousands of years later, in 1879, President George Washington wrote to the Jews of Newport, Rhode Island, in part to reassure the Jews of their acceptance in the new republic.  Echoing the words of the Jewish prophet he wrote:  “May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants - while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid.  Whether he meant to or not, Washington was telling the Jewish population that the messianic vision of peace and justice could be realized the United States of America under its newly adopted constitutional form of government.