Chukat – Torah with Joseph

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom, my name is Joseph Shulam, together with Brad TV, we are partnering in doing the weekly portions of the Torah that are read in every synagogue.

This week we are talking about a portion that is called Chukat, which means “my laws”, “God’s laws”, and it’s from, Numbers 19:1, till Numbers 22:1. The portion from the prophets, that is read in the synagogues, is Joshua from chapter 11:1-33 and from the New Testament, we’re reading, John chapter 3:1-21.

This portion, in the synagogue, is called the portion of the red heifer. The ‘Red Cow’, is one of the most mysterious commands in the whole five books of Moses. It’s a strange command. It’s a mysterious command, but it’s an important command, nonetheless.

It deals with a red heifer, a red calf, that has to be completely red, and cannot have a white spot, not in the leg, not in the forehead, not in the body; or a dark spot, or a black spot, a completely red cow. It has to be a perfect specimen, without a blemish.

It has to be a calf, a cow that has never been yoked, or put to work, as with a plow, or in other jobs on the farm, or to pull a cart. It has to be, sacrificed, but not in the normal sacrificial, way of sacrificing animals to the Lord, which is either in the tent of meeting during the wilderness, or in the temple in Jerusalem, on the altar, in the temple by the priest.

No, this calf, this red cow, has to be sacrificed outside the camp. In a place that is not in Jerusalem, but outside Jerusalem. And it has to be burned completely. The whole cow has to be burned, turned into ashes. But before it is burned, you have to add to it cedarwood. And you have to add to it, hyssop, which is essentially oregano; wild oregano is hyssop. And you have to add scarlet yarn; wool yarn that is scarlet, red. And this red heifer is burned completely. Its ashes are what’s important.

It’s not eaten. It’s the only sacrifice that nobody eats from; not the priest, not the people who sacrifice it. It’s not donated by somebody from the outside. It’s something that the temple itself, the priesthood itself, has to provide. It’s a very different sacrifice.

It was used for several purposes in the Law of Moses. One of the main purposes is purification. If a person is defiled, that he touched a dead body, or he had some kind issue of voluntary secretion of some bodily liquids, or he was a leper, and he had to be, you know, announced pure from leprosy. Then these ashes, of this red heifer, played a major role. Without these ashes, a person could not be purified or could not be declared pure. So, the red heifer had a very important function.

When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, obviously there was no more temple, no more priesthood that’s functioning, no more sacrifices in the temple, and no more red heifer. The ashes of red heifer didn’t exist anymore. That means that Israel, until this very day, could be considered impure; ceremonially impure. We don’t have a temple. So, it’s not practically important.

We just finished the Passover, a day ago. And now we are after the Passover. But, if we touched a dead person, or a dead animal, or had leprosy, or had some kind of other thing that makes us impure, there’s no way for us to be purified from the point of view of the Law of Moses; there is no way for us to be purified. We don’t have the ashes of the red heifer. We don’t have a kosher priesthood. We don’t have a kosher temple. We don’t have any of the institutions, and instrument for us to be purified after 70 AD.

Now, there is a very interesting first century AD (after Christ, after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD) document, that I think is very, very important for us to understand in relationship to this red heifer. I am reading to you now from a rabbinical source. A major rabbinical source, it’s called, “Midrash Rabbah”. This is the main Midrashic body of literature. And here is the story of what happened, soon after the destruction of the temple at 70 AD.

The rabbi that is being discussed here is a great grandson of Gamaliel, that was mentioned in the New Testament. His name was Rabbi Johanan, John, the son of Zacchaeus, in English, or in Hebrew, Johanan Ben Zakkai. He’s a rabbi that escaped the siege of Jerusalem, and saved his disciples by playing dead. And only the dead were allowed to get out of Jerusalem, for burial during the Roman siege of Jerusalem at 70 AD.

So, his disciples all gathered and took him out as dead. Then they went to Titus, the Roman general, that later became a Caesar in Rome, and he let them go. They said to him, we give you Jerusalem, and we want Jamnia, Yavneh, (that is not far from, between Ashkelon, and Ashdod, by the sea coast of the Mediterranean Sea, some distance from Jerusalem) about an hour and a half distance driving from Jerusalem.

So, Titus agreed, and gave them Jamnia, and Jamnia became a major center for rabbinical studies, and for the composition of rabbinical literature. So, Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai, a gentile, came to him, and asked, “These rituals you do, they seem like witch craft”. You bring in a heifer’,( that means a calf or cow)‘burn it, crush it up, and take its ashes. If one of you is impure by the dead, or has a very strong impurity, two or three drops sprinkled on him, and you declare him pure’”. He asked him, “Has a restless spirit ever entered you?” He said to him, “No”. “Have you ever seen a man where a restless spirit entered him”? He said to him, “Yes.” Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai said to him, “And what did you do for him”? For a person that has been defiled by a restless spirit, by a demon? He said to him, “He brought roots and made them smoke beneath him, and pour water, and that spirit flees”. “The spirit flees”, the gentile said. If we mix, you know, water, and sprinkle on this guy, then the spirit runs away. The gentile asked this question is right.

The same substance that can purify, somebody that is impure, if a pure person touches the same substance, he becomes impure. So, the same stuff that can make you pure, and the same substance if you’re pure, can heal you. And if you’re pure, and you touch it, you become impure. So, it’s the gentile with the question, who is right. It looks like witchcraft. If an Israelite didn’t have the ashes of the sacrifice of the red heifer, he could not get purified. If he is leprous, he cannot get purified.

Even if he’s healed, like Yeshua healed the 10 lepers on their way going through Samaria. And he met them, and they begged him to heal them. And he healed all 10 of them. And what did he do? He didn’t say go home. He said, go show yourself to the priest to get declared, purified. How? By the ashes of the red heifer.

There is another very useful use of the ashes of this red heifer. And that is if a husband suspects that his wife was unfaithful. And, of course that puts a strain on their relationship. They go to the priest, and the priest mixes the ashes of the red heifer with water, pure water, and lets the woman drink it. If she gets a strong stomach ache from this, it means that the husband is right, and she’s been unfaithful. If she gets nothing out of it, it means that the husband is wrong, and she has been faithful and there’s no reason for him to suspect her. This is in Numbers, chapter five. The usefulness of these ashes, was extremely important.

This gentile was also right. He asked the right question from Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai, and Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai gave him the answer “don’t worry about it.” Neither, the touching of a dead person makes you impure, nor does the ashes of the red heifer makes you pure. Very strange question. Very strange answer. Why is it strange? Because what did Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai do? He essentially said, that the whole thing of the ashes of the red heifer, is psychological, not real.

It’s a way to ensure that the person who is purified experienced something that gave him like, a diploma, that he is now pure; gave him a priestly edict that is pure. But in reality, Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai, told that gentile, no, these things in the Torah are not really real. They are psychological, they are spiritual, but they don’t have a real value, as far as the person being pure, or impure. His disciples came to him, and said, Rabbi, you gave a sorry excuse to this gentile. In other words, you diminished the power, the literal understanding, of the text of the Torah.

How could you do that? How Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai, how could you do that? How could you say that if you touch a dead person, you don’t really become impure? You have the water of the red heifer, with the ashes of the red heifer, and that doesn’t really purify you. Give us the real story behind it! This is what the Rabbi said, “By your lives” you know, they swore; “a dead person doesn’t make things impure, and the water doesn’t make him pure”. “Rather God said, I have engraved the rule. I have decreed a decree, and you have no permission to transgress what I decreed. As it says, this is the law, of the Torah”.

That’s an interesting text, which reveals to us, some of the dynamics of religions. In the end, you have the rules, and you have reality. You have the laws, and you have reality. You have the doctrines, and you have reality. And what Rabbi Johanan Ben Zakkai told his disciples, listen, we are obligated to what God commanded. We’re not obligated to understand everything, and to agree with everything. But these are the rules that God gave us. And if we can’t practice them, it’s not our problem.

If God took away the temple from us, destroyed it by the Romans, the rules are there, but we have to do the best we can with what we have. An interesting thing.

Now, this text of the red heifer, is revealed to us as a very important, very, very important, relationship to Yeshua himself. I’m reading now from Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews 13:10-13:

As you should know, from reading the Torah, till now, priests offered the sacrifices that people brought, and they all had a part of the animal, as their portion, as their tithe. And they could eat it. People came to sacrifice, they got a portion of their sacrifice, for most of the sacrifices that they offered. And they participated in the sacrifice by eating that portion that belongs to them.

The priest also got a portion. But there’s only one sacrifice, in all the laws of sacrifice, that nobody got to eat from it; not the priest, and not the people who offered it, nobody. And that is the sacrifice of the red heifer.

I’m reading from Hebrews 13:10-13

What is the writer of the book of Hebrews saying? That the model, the pattern, the paradigm of the way that, Jesus, Yeshua, his sacrifice atones for us, is like that of the, red heifer; is like that of a sacrifice that was outside the gate of the city, outside the camp, outside the temple.

The place of crucifixion in Jerusalem was outside the city, not inside the city, and the writer of the book of Hebrews connects, Yeshua, as the ultimate red heifer. The ultimate purification of our souls, and our lives. The ultimate sacrifice that is totally consumed, with hyssop, with cedarwood, and, all of it happened outside the camp.

Yes, dear brothers, and sisters, the Torah is relevant for us to understand. Also things in the new Testament like Hebrews 13:10-13, that connects us with the red heifer, connects us with the sacrifice that was offered outside the camp. Connects us by inviting us, as disciples, not to be tied to the establishment of the city or to the establishment of the church. But to be willing to step out, socially, intellectually, spiritually, to be where Jesus is, outside the camp. Outside the consensus, of human, experiences.

Yes, may God bless us all, and give us the courage, and the willingness to be different. Different than the world that we live in. Different than the world that calls itself Jewish, or Christian, and follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Being willing to be different from our culture, from our society, and sometimes also, from our religious establishments, that created institutions, that don’t exist in the Bible.

And may God bless us all, and guide us from the word, and from Holy Spirit. God bless you. Amen.