Parshas Chukat-Balak: Be Honest and Bold

The double Torah portion this week, Chukat-Balak: Bamidbar (Numbers) 19:1-25:9, shows the principle of Divine cause and effect revealed in the exiled community. The new generation of Jews begins to recognize that their wayward attitudes and actions have negative repercussions and that sincere repentance remedies suffering.

Parshas Chukat Lessons in Honesty

Parshas Chukat opens with the Red Heifer ritual, an inexplicable, divinely decreed remedy for spiritual impurity. Close proximity with a human corpse causes contamination which must be purified by a priest who prepares a concoction made from the ashes of a special cow. The contamination must be rectified to ensure God's presence and protection.

During the desert journey, people are dying every day from old age and from plague, disaster and war. Family members, friends, and neighbors all have proximity with the dead. They must undergo this purifying rite, or spiritual death and childlessness result. At this time, spiritual death and childlessness are considered really bad conditions to be avoided by any means necessary.

In Chukat, Miriam dies, causing the well water to dry up. Aaron dies, causing the protective cloud to disappear, emboldening enemy tribes to attack. These calamities set off another rebellion against God and Moses. 

Venomous snakes and vicious animals attack the rebels. Many die. The people recognize their folly and repent. Moses forgives them and prays to God to stop the carnage and heal the wounded.

40 years have passed since the Exodus, replete with repeated relapses into resistance, defiance, and outright rebellion of God’s laws and Moses’ authority. The biblical record makes clear that the people offer only feigned regret and insincere apologies to get immediate relief from disaster, only to escalate their disobedience a short time later. 

The Almighty realizes a new approach is needed to prepare His children for passage into the Holy land. This time He requires serious thought and sincere repentance demonstrated by real change. The people respond favorably. The portion closes with lifesaving miracles. Dry wells fill with water. The army defeats unbeatable Canaanite tribes.

Parshas Balak Lessons in Vulnerability 

This new attitude among the people remains intact as Parshas Balak begins. We find the Israelites encamped at the edge of the Promised Land, having recently vanquished several enemy tribes. Balak, the Moabite King, fears the Hebrews will next attack him. He consults with the Midianites to develop a strategy to stop the Jewish army. 

Learning that their military successes are divinely destined, Balak attempts to disrupt their Heaven sent protection by hiring an anti-semitic soothsayer named Balaam to curse the Jews. God forbids Balaam to carry out the plan, ordering him to bless the Jews, instead.

Not giving up the desire to eradicate the Jews and prevent an attack on Moab, Balak and Balaam implement Plan B: Remove protection from Heaven by subverting the moral integrity of the Hebrew culture. Reintroduce hedonism, sexual sin, idolatry and lawless rebellion. Watch catastrophe happen. 

Unaware of the secret strategy and only recently recommitted to Godly living, many Jews fall prey to the internal manipulation and propaganda by their enemies. Moabite women beguile the Jews, leading them back into idol worship. Rampant violation of Torah law ensues, prompting God to send a devastating plague that ravages the camp.

Moses orders all 78,000 appointed judges each to execute two men responsible for widespread idol worship. 156,000 executions and 24,000 plague deaths have a chilling effect on idol worship and illicit sex. Most of the people return to acceptable norms and mourn the recent loss of life and virtue. 

Zimri, the leader of the tribe of Simeon, holds out. He brings a Midianite woman into the camp and into his tent. Pinchas slays both and the plague stops. 

Micah's Prophesy

In the Haftorah portion this week, Michah (Micah) 5:6 - 6:8, the prophet refers to Balak and Balaam as he encourages his countrymen to return to their moral contract with the Almighty. Micah prophesies during the reign of King Ahaz. 

In 2 Kings 16:1-4, we meet Ahaz and learn that he endorses and personally practices child sacrifice. Micah warns that this egregious sin along with other pagan observances will cause the downfall of Israel. 

In the seventeenth year of Pekah son of Remaliah, Ahaz son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign. Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem sixteen years. Unlike David his father, he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God. He followed the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.

Micah reminds the people about the miracles and wonders of the Almighty God, recalling the events during the 40 years in the wilderness. emphasizing that God desires holiness and loyalty, not wickedness and rebellion. Micah cautions the people that offering animal sacrifices will not atone for these willful acts. They must change attitudes and behaviors. 

In Micah 6:8, the prophet patiently explains the basics of Judaism to those who cannot understand. "He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord demands of you; to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Current Lessons from Chukat, Balak, and Micah

Chukat shows us the essential need to decontaminate our spirit after proximity to dead human bodies. As the death count mounts from current wars and modern plagues, we must also include the millions and millions of aborted unborn babies whose bodies end up in public water systems, medical waste landfills and incinerators. Our whole society needs a restorative spiritual healing from the death all around us.

Chukat also challenges us to have greater faith in God's will for us, not less. When we want relief from the consequences of our self imposed troubles, weak apologies for harms done no longer restore His favor. He expects sincerity and changed attitudes and actions from us.

Balak warns us to monitor our communities for trends that separate us from Godly attitudes and activities. Nations that sponsor the idol worshipping ritual of child sacrifice in the form of abortion invite disaster. We need leaders who stand boldly  against evil, confident of Heavenly consent without fear of reprisal.

Micah lives during a time when leadership rejects all moral standards and rewards evil. He speaks to a clueless society immersed in wickedness without knowing it. They remain loyal followers without question.

We face the same leadership threat to Jewish survival today that Micah warned about in his time. In Israel and America our political, civil, and community leaders claim moral authority over life and death. They ignore Divine justice and the right to life of our unborn children.

We need leaders who operate through a humble recognition of God's authority rather than their own. We need leaders who protect our God given right to life from conception, who show mercy towards pre-born human beings and help parents secure a future for their children.

May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and good life upon us and upon all Israel. Amen.

Cecily Routman

Cecily Routman is the founder and president of the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation. She opposes abortion homicide in general and among Jews in particular and laments secular policy making in Israel that results in loss of Jewish life and delays the messianic redemption. Cecily envisions a Torah based holy Land of Israel and a world that respects the life of every human being from conception.

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