{"id":2859,"date":"2025-07-06T07:38:35","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T13:38:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/?p=2859"},"modified":"2025-07-06T07:38:35","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T13:38:35","slug":"torah-teaching-for-parsha-chukat-from-mark-call-of-shabbat-shalom-mesa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/?p=2859","title":{"rendered":"Torah Teaching for Parsha \u201cChukat\u201d from Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The annual cycle Torah reading for this week is parsha &#8220;Chukat,&#8221; Numbers chapters 19 through 21) and it contains what is sometimes called the most enigmatic &#8220;chuq&#8221; (or, &#8220;do this because He says so&#8221;) in the Torah: the Red Heiffer, or <em>parah adumah.<\/em> Even Solomon is thought to have said he just didn&#8217;t quite get it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Erev Shabbat reading:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/hebrewnationonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/SSM-7-4-25-Chukat-teaching-podcast-xxx.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The Sabbath Day midrash tackles that Greatest Mystery head on. But, even more interesting, what might be the SECOND most mysterious &#8216;chuq&#8217; in the Torah is in this same parsha! The &#8220;bronze serpent&#8221; (but the Hebrew term is much more alliterative: &#8216;nachash nachoshet&#8217;) &#8211; aka the &#8216;snake on a stick.&#8217;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is a common thread that runs through this entire portion, too. Actually, several, but all evidently related: Death. And some important numbers. And water, in multiple ways, and &#8216;salvation.&#8217; But still one more that Mark suggests, which may even help explain some of the confusion, is &#8220;I blame Moses.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Chukat: &#8220;From the Red Heifer to the Snake-on-a-Stick &#8212; I blame Moses&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"https:\/\/hebrewnationonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/WT-CooH-7-5-25-Chukat-Red-Heiffers-Snakes-on-a-Stick-and-another-jesus-water-life-death-I-blame-Moshe-podcast-xxx.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/hebrewnationonline.com\/mark-call-torah-teaching-for-parsha-chukat\/\" data-type=\"URL\" data-id=\"https:\/\/hebrewnationonline.com\/mark-call-torah-teaching-for-parsha-chukat\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">combined two-part reading and Sabbath teaching<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mark Call of Shabbat Shalom Mesa&#8217;s 2025 Torah cycle teachings for parsha &#8220;Chukat&#8221; (Numbers chapters 19 through 21, and related)<br \/>\n <a href=\"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/?p=2859\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,1742,69,35,11,12],"tags":[2135,2136,98,88,2133,955,63,2134,104,1233,630,251,2137,1669,212,318,92,101],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2859"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2860,"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2859\/revisions\/2860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markniwot.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}