Parashat Chukatפָּרָשַׁת חֻקַּת

Chukat (“Law Of”) opens by describing the process of burning the red heifer and using its ashes for purification. It also tells the stories of the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ striking of a rock to bring forth water, a plague of venomous snakes, and battles against the Emorite kings Sihon and Og. Chukat is built around the idea of the chok: a divine decree observed as an act of faith rather than reason. The red heifer is its emblem: its ashes purify a person defiled by contact with death, yet they render impure the very people who prepare them, making it the Torah's classic example of a law beyond human understanding. The portion pivots from law to mortality and succession, as the deaths of Miriam and Aaron and the failure at the Waters of Meribah mark the passing of the wilderness generation and seal Moses' and Aaron's exclusion from the Land. Its closing section turns outward to the journey itself (the copper serpent, the Song of the Well, and the victories over Sihon and Og), establishing Israel's claim to the territory east of the Jordan as the people draw near to Canaan.

In most Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities the haftarah for Chukat is Judges 11:1-33, the story of Jephthah (Yiftach) the Gileadite. The thematic link is territorial: in his message to the king of Ammon, Jephthah recounts the very conquest of the Amorite king Sihon described in the parashah, using that history to justify Israel's claim to the contested land east of the Jordan. A secondary echo is the reluctantly accepted leader: Jephthah, once rejected and expelled by his kin and later summoned to lead them, mirrors the leadership and succession concerns running through Chukat. The reading deliberately stops at verse 33, before the tragic vow concerning Jephthah's daughter. This haftarah applies when Chukat is read on its own; in the many Diaspora years when Chukat is combined with Balak, the joined portion takes Balak's haftarah (Micah 5:6-6:8), and a special Shabbat (such as Shabbat Rosh Chodesh) can also displace the regular reading.

The red heifer (parah adumah, Numbers 19) is among the most famous and enigmatic passages in the Torah, the prototypical chukah, traditionally cited (even, per rabbinic tradition, by King Solomon) as a decree beyond human comprehension. Moses' rebuke at the rock, "Listen, you rebels, shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" (Numbers 20:10), and his striking of the rock are among the most discussed episodes in scripture because of their grave consequence for him. The copper serpent (nechash nechoshet) that Moses raises on a pole to heal snakebite victims (Numbers 21:8-9) is a widely recognized image, later referenced in the Mishnah (Rosh Hashanah 3:8). The portion also preserves the brief, poetic Song of the Well: "Spring up, O well — sing to it!" (Numbers 21:17).