page_title: Chukat
section_title: Numbers chapter 19
hierarchical_section_title: Chukat / In classical rabbinic interpretation / Numbers chapter 19
caption_attribution_description: English: The High Priest, detail from the illustration from a Bible card published by the Providence Lithograph Company
context_page_description: Chukat, Hukath, or Chukkas is the 39th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the sixth in the Book of Numbers. The parashah sets out the laws of corpse contamination and purification with the water of lustration prepared with the Red Cow. It also reports the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, the failure of Moses at the Waters of Meribah, and the conquest of Arad, the Amorites, and Bashan. The parashah constitutes Numbers 19:1–22:1. The parashah is the shortest weekly Torah portion in the Book of Numbers, and is made up of 4,670 Hebrew letters, 1,245 Hebrew words, 87 verses, and 159 lines in a Torah Scroll.
  Jews generally read it in late June or July. In most years, parashah Chukat is read separately. In some years when the second day of Shavuot falls on a Sabbath in the Diaspora, parashah Chukat is combined with the subsequent parashah, Balak, in the Diaspora to synchronize readings thereafter with those in Israel.
  Jews also read the first part of the parashah, Numbers 19:1–22, in addition to the regular weekly Torah portion, on the Sabbath after Purim, called Shabbat Parah.
context_section_description: Reading Numbers 19:1, 20:12, and 20:23, in which God addresses both Moses and Aaron, a Midrash taught that in 18 verses, Scripture places Moses and Aaron on an equal footing (as God spoke to both of them), and thus there are 18 benedictions in the Amidah prayer.
  Rabbi Levi taught that God gave the section of the Red Cow in Numbers 19 (which came into force as soon as the Tabernacle was set up) on the day that the Israelites set up the Tabernacle. Rabbi Rabbi Johanan said in the name of Rabbi Bana'ah that the Torah was transmitted in separate scrolls, as Psalm 40:8 says, "Then said I, 'Lo I am come, in the roll of the book it is written of me.'" Rabbi Simeon ben Lakish (Resh Lakish), however, said that the Torah was transmitted in its entirety, as Deuteronomy 31:26, "Take this book of the law." The Gemara reported that Rabbi Johanan interpreted Deuteronomy 31:26, "Take this book of the law," to refer to the time after the Torah had been joined together from its several parts. And the Gemara suggested that Resh Lakish interpreted Psalm 40:8, "in a roll of the book written of me," to indicate that the whole Torah is called a "roll," as Zechariah 5:2 says, "And he said to me, 'What do you see?' And I answered, 'I see a flying roll.'" Or perhaps, the Gemara suggested, it is called "roll" for the reason given by Rabbi Levi, who said that God gave eight sections of the Torah, which Moses then wrote on separate rolls, on the day on which the Tabernacle was set up. They were: the section of the priests in Leviticus 21, the section of the Levites in Numbers 8:5–26 (as the Levites were required for the service of song on that day), the section of the unclean (who would be required to keep the Passover in the second month) in Numbers 9:1–14, the section of the sending of the unclean out of the camp (which also had to take place before the Tabernacle was set up) in Numbers 5:1–4, the section of Leviticus 16:1–34 (dealing with Yom Kippur, which Leviticus 16:1 states was transmitted immediately after the death of Aaron's two sons), the section dealing with the drinking of wine by priests in Leviticus 10:8–11, the section of the lights of the menorah in Numbers 8:1–4, and the section of the Red Cow in Numbers 19.
  Tractate Parah in the Mishnah and Tosefta interpreted the laws of the Red Cow in Numbers 19:1–22.
  Rabbi Tanhum son of Rabbi Hannilai taught that Numbers 19 was one of two sections in the Torah (along with Leviticus 21, on corpse contamination) that Moses gave the Israelites in writing that are both pure, dealing with the law of purity. Rabbi Tanhum taught that they were given on account of the tribe of Levi, of whom it is written (in Malachi 3:3), "he [God's messenger] shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them."
  The Mishnah and Tosefta taught that if the month of Adar began on a Sabbath, then the section on the Red Cow in Numbers 19:1–22 was read on the third Sabbath of the month (thus preceding Passover, so as to caution the people to purify themselves in preparation for eating the Passover sacrifice).
  Rabbi Joshua of Siknin taught in the name of Rabbi Levi that the Evil Inclination criticizes four laws as without logical basis, and Scripture uses the expression "statute" (חֹק, chok) in connection with each: the laws of (1) a brother's wife (in Deuteronomy 25:5–10), (2) mingled kinds (in Leviticus 19:19 and Deuteronomy 22:11), (3) the scapegoat (in Leviticus 16), and (4) the Red Cow (in Numbers 19). In connection with the Red Cow, the Mishnah noted the paradox that the garments of all those who took any part in the preparation of the Red Cow became defiled, but the cow itself made garments ritually clean. And Numbers 19:1 applies the term "statute" to the Red Cow.
  A Midrash taught that an idolater once asked Rabban Johanan ben Zakkai about the Red Cow, likening its procedures to witchcraft. Rabban Johanan asked the idolater what he had seen done for a man possessed by a demon of madness. The idolater explained how in such a case, they would bring roots, make them smoke under the madman, sprinkle water on the man, and the de
caption: The High Priest Wearing His Jeweled Breastplate over His Ephod (detail from an illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company)
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ReferenceBlackWhite": "[0, 255, 128, 255, 128, 255]", "Image ExifOffset": "162", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "121", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "433"}