With Liberty and Justice for All – It’s Holy, and It’s in the Bible [חקת / Numbers 19:1-22:1]

B”H

This week’s parshah (Torah portion) is Numbers 19:1-22:1, or חקת (Khukat, Statute). Perhaps the most memorable and well-known event of Khukat is the story of Moses striking the rock without faith in G-D and thus disallowing him and Aaron to enter the Holy Land. But before we delve into the meat of this section, I wish to turn attention to one interesting verse of the parshah, Numbers 20:1, which reads:

ויבאו בני ישראל כל העדה מדבר צן בחדש הראשון וישב העם בקדש ותמת שם מרים ותקבר שם   

My translation [and commentary]: “And they came, the children of Israel, the entire community, to the desert of Tzin in the first month, and the people sat [settled] in Kadesh. Miriam [Moses’ sister] died there and was buried there.”

The story immediately continues after Miriam’s death with the story of the stone. Compare her death to Aaron’s death at the end of the same chapter, Numbers 20:28-29, which reads:

ויפשט משה את אהרן את בגדיו וילבש אתם את אלעזר בנו וימת אהרן שם בראש ההר וירד משה ואלעזר מן ההר ויראו כל העדה כי גוע אהרן ויבכו את אהרן שלשים יום כל בית ישראל

My translation [and commentary]: “And did remove Moses Aaron of his clothing, and did he [Moses] place them onto Eleazar, his [Aaron’s] son, and did die Aaron atop the mountain. And Moses and Eleazar descended from the mountain. And saw, the whole community, that Aaron did fade [die], and the entire House of Israel, wept Aaron for thirty days.”

Moses endures the death of his beloved siblings in this parshah, but the Torah paints a different picture of community bereavement for these two critical figures in the story of the Bible. Miriam receives no proper mourning – just a single Biblical verse posthumously to consecrate her memory, whereas shloshim (the thirty days of mourning following burial of the loved one) appropriately accompanies the death of Aaron.

I call foul play and for a new interpretation of the message of the parshah. I argue that the sin of Moses and Aaron, which prevented their entrance into the Holy Land, was perhaps not a misstep somewhere in the process of striking the rock but their unjust, unholy, and unequal treatment of their own sister, a woman, and a community member.

Miriam was denied communal mourning by her brothers Moses and Aaron. There is not a single rabbi or Biblical scholar who can find a way to expunge their sin, for their mourning is blatantly absent - especially in juxtaposition to the mourning of Aaron in this parshah. However, G-D remembers her and punishes Moses and Aaron for their actions. 

How can I claim this, you ask? Immediately following Miriam’s death, the Israelites suffer without water. Without literal or Biblical transition, a mainstay of the structure of the Torah, one is ultimately pressed to link her death to the drought. Moses cryptically learns of his sin in Numbers 20:12, which reads:

ויאמר ה' אל משה ואל אהרן יען לא האמנתם בי להקדישני לעיני בני ישראל לכן לא תביאו את הקהל הזה אל הארץ אשר נתתי להם

My translation [and commentary]: “And said G-D to Moses and Aaron: “Thou hast not had belief in Me to sanctify Me in the eyes of the Children of Israel. Therefore, you shall not bring this community into the Land which I have given them.”

Despite their pleas, Moses and Aaron cannot convince G-D to reverse the decree. In fact, G-D restates the sin and commands Moses, Aaron, and Eleazar (Aaron’s son) to ascend Mount Hor, where the transference of garments results in the death of Aaron. After mourning Aaron, venomous snakes subsequently plague the Israelites, but are no match for Moses, and the Israelites are again saved.

So to recap: death without mourning – drought and death; death with mourning – protection. The only difference here was in who received proper mourning and who did not. The importance of both Miriam and Aaron is certainly gleaned in previous Torah passages, but it is as if Moses and Aaron forgot the life of their sister. Mind you this is the same Miriam to whom Moses owes his very life as a vulnerable newborn male to be otherwise killed in the time of Pharaoh. They stripped Miriam of a piece of her humanity in denying her continued memory in mourning. Does she not deserve memory because of her status as a woman? Even then, in the society marred with such disparity in the treated of men and women, G-D deemed her nefesh (soul) worthy of memory, just like Aaron, the High Priest.

Death and memory are quintessential and inseparable from Judaism. But more than that, one must also realize that the act of mourning is deeply holy. If you need any assurance of such assertion, look no further than the Mourner’s Kaddish, a prayer so intimately woven into the ritualistic ceremony of remembrance in Jewish tradition. Jews worldwide recite this prayer in heartfelt emotion in recollection of their deceased loved one. But, the words of the prayer do not involve death or dying, but instead have the reader simply praise G-D. There is a beautiful communal element to this prayer in that those in active mourning are instructed to rise amid an otherwise seated congregation. The beginning of the prayer is read publically by those standing in mourning, and mid-way through, the community and the mourner together acclaim G-D’s blessed Name. Death is thus a social function, a beautiful social function in which the mourner is supported by the community, as the congregation, together, celebrates the memory of the deceased in arguably the holiest of ways: sanctifying G-D. Reread Numbers 20:12, and the sin of Moses and and Aaron is clear: they did not sanctify G-D in the mourning of Miriam.

Each person is a member of a community and deserves the respect to be treated as such, in life or in death. Especially in the tides of this week’s landmark decision to legally ensure the right for same-sex individuals to marry in the United States, I hope that this message of honoring, respecting, and loving all people translates across genders, sexes, sexual preferences, races, identities, religions (or lack thereof) … pick your favorite social label.  Ultimately, we are all people, and to deny any shred of humanity to any person, be it proper mourning or a marriage, is the real abomination which G-D judges most harshly. Sing and praise your fellow human in life and in death, for it is an act of memory most holy unto G-D. 

Congratulations to all my friends who can now be legally married - this ruling is well-overdue, and there is much work to still be done to ensure rights for all, but in the present moment, I wish to celebrate with you as did Miriam with her timbrel.