Shabbat Chukkat
Written by Dr Annette Boeckler Friday, 22 June 2007
אז ישיר ישראל את השירה הזאת
“Then Israel sang this song”
Jewish teachings are transmitted not only by chukkot, laws, or other instructions or stories but also by songs. Songs in the torah often interrupt the narrative to update the meaning for the listener or reader, as art in general is able to widen the horizon of experience.
When the children of Israel crossed the waters of the Reed Sea, they expressed their experience by a song:
“I will sing to the Eternal One, for He has triumphed gloriously, …
יי ימלך לעלם ועד “The Eternal One will reign for ever and ever!” (Exod. 15:1,18). With these words they proclaimed God's kingdom not only in their time, but "for ever and ever".
In a song as in art in general the experience of the past becomes symbolic, it becomes a cipher for all life-threatening and difficult times in the historical experience of Israel.
One of the most difficult challenges in life are losses, especially losses of people. Death is one of the keywords in this week's parasha, parashat Chukkat (Num 19:1 – 22:1). Death interrupts the course of live, and I interrupt my thoughts about songs and art abruptly now.
We read about the death of a red heifer, and what to do after having touched a human corpse. Miriam dies. Aaron dies. Moses’ death is announced. Many Israelites die because of snake-bites. אז ישיר ישראל את השירה הזאת “Then Israel sang this song” (Num. 21: 17).
Some might associate this verse with the Song at the Sea in Exodus 15, but it does not appear there, but rather in this week's parasha, and my talking about death was not actually an interruption of the theme. Death belongs to the songs of live. Amongst all the deaths that are recalled in our parasha, a song is sung:
Spring up, O well,
O sing to it,
Well, which chieftains dug,
Which the nobles of the people started
With maces, with their staffs,
So from the desert a gift. (Num. 21,17 - 18).
"Death" is only one of the keywords of this parasha, "water" is the other. There is "fresh water" and "water of lustration" (me nidah); the Israelites complain about having no water, and water springs out of a dead rock.
Note that the song that informs the meaning of our parasha does not take up the theme of "death", is not a kinah; rather it deals with life-giving water. It is a "well-song".
In rabbinic tradition the Torah is compared with water. So today's wells might be the methods by which we enable ourselves and others to fetch life-giving teachings from the Torah. We did not start to do it and we are not the only ones at work. The task was started by the ancient nobles of our people, but we continue what they started.
The well-song has no end. If you would hear it cantillated you would realize an open musical end, because the last words of verse 18 "u-mi-midbar mattanah" are already the beginning of the following itinerary: a list of resting places of the Israelites. Verbally they don't mean "from the desert a gift" - that is what the Talmud made of them (Nedarim 55a, Eruvin 54a) and what the Masoretes who created the cantillation perhaps supported - but the text continues with places where our ancestors set out from and journeyed to,
From Midbar to Mattanah,
And from Mattanah to Nahaliel,
And from Nahaliel to Bamoth,
And from Bamoth to the valley that is in the country of Moab,
At the peak of Pisgah,
Overlooking the wasteland. (Num. 21:18 - 20)
Gradually and smoothly the well-song changes to an itinerary, becoming the journey of the Israelites from one place to another. It is as if the whole journey would be nothing but the continuation of this song. In our every day's experiences let us therefore join in the song: "Spring up, O wellsprings of torah."
