Parshiyot Hukkat-Balak 5783
June 26, 2023
Rabbi Katy Allen ('05)
I delight in the robins, cardinals, and other common birds that I regularly see and hear in my yard, and their presence brings me joy. But recently, thanks to the wonders of technology in the form of the Merlin app produced by Cornell University, my ears, mind, and heart have been opened to the knowledge that there are many other, less common and well-known birds, right here in my own backyard. Through the ability of this app to inform me of the birds around me by recording their songs, I have discovered that rose-breasted grosbeaks, warbling vireos, chimney swifts, and cedar waxwings are prone to visiting my neighborhood. Who knew! What a wonder! The joy, uplift, delight, and hope that awareness of these mostly unseen birds bring me is deep and unbounded. They make my day. Balak, King of Moab, sends Bilam to curse the Israelites. Along the way, Bilam has a...
Parashat Hukkat
July 8, 2022
In this week’s D’var Torah, Rabbi Ariann Weitzman shows how Parashat Hukkat provides a recipe for communal care that is not a burden to individuals but is a shared obligation across the community.
Parashat Hukkat 5782
July 8, 2022
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat By Rabbi Ariann Weitzman (’11) The most frustrating thing about cleaning is that things don’t stay clean and you’re going to have to do it all over again. The second most frustrating thing about cleaning is that it’s hard to do without winding up filthy yourself. This is exactly the paradox of the ritual of the red heifer. As we read at the beginning of parashat Hukkat, the only way to cleanse the ritual impurity attached to caring for or touching the dead is to bring impurity to a wide circle of others. In order to produce the “waters of lustration,” which are used to ritually purify those who have been in contact with the dead, a perfectly unblemished red heifer, who has never had the experience of being yoked, must be slaughtered and burned to ashes. Those...
Parashat Hukkat 5781
June 18, 2021
Click HERE for an audio recording of this D’var Torah A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat By Rabbi Cantor Sam Levine (’19) Of all the noteworthy events and passages in parashat Hukkat – the impenetrable red heifer; the death of Miriam; the incident at the waters of Merivah and God’s pronouncement that Moshe and Aharon will not enter the land; the death of Aharon and the succession of his son Elazar; the plague of venomous snakes and the miraculous healing copper serpent; and the prelude to the conquest of Canaan – there is one event that is startling in its omission. Parashat Hukkat sees the passage of 38 years in the desert, never noted, only inferred. Moshe, at the beginning of the parasha, is 82 years old. At its conclusion, he is 120, in his last year of life. As the previous several parshiyot reveal, it has not been an...
Parashat Hukkat – Balak 5780
July 2, 2020
A D’var Torah for Parashat Hukkat – Balak By Rabbi Len Levin We are reading two parshiyot this week, each rich in lessons. We can only present a few hors d’oeuvres here; enjoy the rest at your leisure! * * * The ritual of the red heifer raised many puzzles for the rabbis, to the point that they said that the wise king Solomon, frustrated in trying to solve them, gave up in despair and said: “All this I tested with wisdom, I thought I could fathom it, but it eludes me.” (Ecclesiastes 7:23; Pesikta Rabbati 14:1) The central mystery arises from the fact that it is a ritual for purification from contact with death. We are still struggling to understand the causes of death, which even now are evolving and mutating as we try to cope with them. A favorite question was: How is it that the ashes of the heifer...
