Parshat Chukat5 min read

Israel Lost Aaron After Edom's Hard Refusal

After the rock and Edoms closed road, Aaron died on a mountain left as a sample of miracles. Israel still chased peace before fighting Sihon.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Rock and the Crowd
  2. Alliance With a Closed Door
  3. Seek Peace and Pursue It
  4. Three Stations on One Road

At Meribah the rock stood under the eyes of a whole people, and every person saw himself as if he stood at that stone. Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation. Heaven had said to take the rod and provide water for the camp and even for the cattle, for the Holy One is concerned for Israel's wealth, not only for its thirst.

Israel Lost Aaron After Edom's Hard Refusal Click for full size

The Rock and the Crowd

The people began to mutter that Moses knew the natural properties of rock. If he wished, he could draw water from this one or from that one. Moses faced a trap. If he listened to them, he would disregard the word of the Omnipresent. For forty years he had kept himself from anger, fearing the oath that not one of that evil generation would see the good land. Now the pressure found a crack. "Please listen, you rebels, shall we bring forth water for you from this rock?" (Numbers 20:10). The word hamorim, rebels, carried more heat than a patient prophet could afford.

Water came. The cost was already moving down the road toward Mount Hor.

Alliance With a Closed Door

Then the camp asked passage of Edom and met a hard refusal. Scripture sets Aaron's death immediately after that turning away. "Because you have joined with a wicked king, the Lord will destroy your work." Because they made an alliance of hope with a ruler who would not let them pass, they lost this righteous man. So Israel turned away from Edom, and the whole congregation came to Mount Hor (Numbers 20:21-22).

What is "the whole congregation"? A complete congregation, the one that would enter the land, since those who had come out of Egypt had died. These were the ones of whom it is written, "But you who clung to the Lord your God are all alive today" (Deuteronomy 4:4).

Mount Hor is a mountain on a mountain, like a small apple on a large apple. The cloud that went before Israel leveled high places and raised low ones so the people would not weary themselves climbing. The Holy One left this peak as a sample, so they would know what miracles had been done for them. He also left three mountains with purpose. Sinai for the Divine Presence. Nebo for the burial of Moses. Hor for the burial of Aaron.

Seek Peace and Pursue It

After the loss, the road still required war. Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon (Numbers 21:21). The midrash hears Psalm 34 under the feet of those messengers. Depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Most commandments wait for a situation to present itself. "When you come on a bird's nest." "When you encounter the ox of one who hates you." "When you beat your olive tree." If the case appears, the law applies. A person is not told to roam the world hunting nests and hated oxen.

Peace is different. Seek it wherever the camp stands. Pursue it wherever else it may be. Although the Holy One had said begin to take possession and engage him in battle (Deuteronomy 2:24), Israel still went after peace first. Messengers before swords. A request before a siege.

The people who had just buried Aaron on a mountain sample of miracles did not become drunk on force. They chased peace even when battle had already been permitted.

Three Stations on One Road

Rock. Closed border. Mountain grave. Peace envoys. The chain holds because each link presses the next. Anger at Meribah thinned the protection around Aaron. Edom's refusal set the death beside a failed alliance. The leveled desert left Hor standing so the camp would remember what the cloud had done. Then the same camp, thinner by one high priest, still ran after peace before it ran toward Sihon's walls.

Aaron's garments passed to Eleazar on that height. Moses came down without his brother. The people who fit between the poles of the ark at the Jordan would one day stand whole again, but not with Aaron among them. The midrash keeps the adjacency sharp. After Edom, Hor. After Hor, messengers of peace. Loss did not cancel the pursuit of the good path.

On the day the cloud lifted from the mountain apple, Israel still knew how to send word before it sent iron.

Aaron had stood through plagues and a golden calf and the long count of desert years. At Hor the garments left his body while he still lived, and Eleazar put them on in the sight of the camp. The high priest died as the office continued. That cruelty was also mercy. Israel would not walk into the land without a priest, only without this priest.

The cloud had flattened almost every climb so the people would not tire. Hor remained as a witness peak, a sample of what leveling had spared them. Sinai, Nebo, and Hor became three fixed points in a moving journey. Presence. Moses' grave. Aaron's grave.

After mourning, the messengers to Sihon still went out. Seek peace and pursue it is not a soft slogan for quiet years. It is an order for a camp that has just buried its priest and still chooses words before iron. The midrash will not let grief become an excuse for skipping the pursuit of peace.

AaronMosesEdomMeribahPeaceSihon
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From the tradition

Sources

3 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 9Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

(Numb. 20:7-8:) “Then the Lord spoke unto Moses saying, ‘Take the rod... and you shall provide the congregation and their cattle with water.” From here it is shown that the Holy One, blessed be He, is concerned for Israel's wealth. (Ibid., vs. 10:) “So Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation before the rock.” [This verse] teaches that each and every person sees himself as if he were standing at the rock. And similarly it says (in Lev. 8:3), “And assemble the whole congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.” And so too when they crossed the Jordan, all of Israel fit in between the two poles of the ark, as stated (in Josh. 3:9), “And Joshua said to the Children of Israel, ‘Come closer and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” And it is [also] written (in Josh. 8:33), “All Israel [...] stood on either side of the ark.” Here also all Israel was standing and seeing the miracles which happened at the rock [in front of them]. They began to say, “Moses knows the natural properties of rock. If he wants, he will bring forth water out of this [other] one.” Moses found himself confronted with a dilemma: If he would listen to them, he would disregard the words of the Omnipresent; and the Holy One, blessed be He, (according to (Job 5:1)3) “Catches the wise in their own cunning.” As for the whole of these forty years Moses had been keeping himself from becoming angry with them, because he was afraid of the oath that the Holy One, blessed be He, had sworn (in Deut. 1:35), “Not one of these people from this evil generation shall see [the good land].” They said to him, “Here is a rock. Just as you wish to bring [water] from another rock, you should bring it from this one.” He gave a command to them (in Numb. 20:10), “Please listen, you rebels, shall we bring forth [water for you] from this rock.” What is the meaning of “hamorim (rebels)?” There are many understandings of it. Hamorim is rebels; hamorim is fools, as in the islands of the sea they call fools, morim. Some say hamorim are those that [inappropriately] instruct their teachers. Hamorim [can also be] arrows, as stated (in I Sam 31:3), “and some of the arrows (morim) struck him, men with bows.” (Numb. 20:11:) “Then Moses raised his hand and struck.” [When] he struck one time, the rock began dribbling a little water, as stated (in Ps. 78:20), ��See, he struck a rock, and water trickled out (yazuvu),” like a person with a discharge (zav), in that it dribbles [in] drops. They said to him, “Son of Amram, is this water for nursing children or for babes weaned from milk?” Immediately, he became angry with them, struck it (according to Numb. 20:11) “twice [with his rod], and a lot of water came forth.” Yet for all that, Moses only made [water] from the rock that the Holy One, blessed be He, had told him. And how do we see that they also brought out water from the rock that Israel had said to him and every rock and stone that was in that place? It is so stated (in Ps. 78:15), “He split rocks in the desert.” Moshe already had his [sin] in his hand; because [the Children of Israel] were silent and did not sing praise, they were [also] caught.

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Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 14Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

(Numb. 20:22:) “Then setting out from Kadesh, the whole congregation [of the Children of Israel came to Mount Hor].” This text is related (to II Chron. 20:37), “Because you have joined with Ahaziah, the Lord will destroy your work.” [Similarly,] because they made an alliance with this wicked king to pass through his land, they lost this righteous man (i.e. Aaron). For that reason the death of Aaron is made [immediately] adjacent after the parashah about the king of Edom, [as stated] (Numb. 20:21-22), “so Israel turned away from them. Then setting out from Kadesh, the whole congregation [of the Children of Israel came to Mount Hor].” What is the meaning of “the whole congregation?” A complete congregation, a congregation which would be entering the land, since those who had come out from Egypt had died. So these were the ones of whom it is written (in Deut. 4:4), “But you who clung to the Lord your God are all alive today.” (Numb. 20:22:) “Mount (hr) Hor (hr).” What is the meaning of “Mount Hor?” A mountain (hr) on top of a mountain (hr), like a small apple on a large apple. Even though a cloud proceeded before them which lowered the high [places] and raised up the low, the Holy One, blessed be He, left [this] mountain as a sample, so that they would know what miracles the Holy One, blessed be He, had done for them; as He had not left a mountain in the desert, lest they become weary climbing and descending. Although the cloud had made all the desert a plain, He left an elevated spot where the tabernacle would have its resting place. He also left three mountains: Mount Sinai for the Divine Presence, Mount Nebo for the burial of Moses, and Mount Hor for the burial of Aaron.

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Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 22Midrash Tanchuma

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.Townsend 1989 translation of Midrash Tanhuma, S. Buber Recension · CC-BY

(Numb. 21:21:) “Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon […].” This text is related (to Ps. 34:15), “Depart from evil and do good; [seek peace and pursue it].” The Torah did not command [them] to go in pursuit of the commandments. Rather [it says] (in Deut. 22:6), “When you come on a bird's nest”; (in Exod. 23:4) “When you encounter the ox of one who hates you”; (in Exod. 23:5) “When you see the donkey of one who hates you”; (in Deut. 24:20) “when you beat your olive tree”; (in Deut. 24:21), “When you gather the grapes of your vineyard”; and (in Deut. 23:25) “When you go into your neighbor's vineyard.” If [these situations] present themselves to you, you are given a command concerning them; but [you are] not to go in pursuit of them. In the case of peace, however, (according to Ps. 34:15), “seek peace,” wherever you are; “and pursue it,” wherever else it may be. And this is what Israel did. Although the Holy One, blessed be He, had said to them (in Deut. 2:24), “begin to take possession, and engage him in battle,” they went in pursuit of peace. So is it stated (in Numb. 21:21) “Then Israel sent messengers….”

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