This week's Parshat Chukat is a pivotal point in the history of the Israelites' travels to the Promised Land. The forty
The forty-year sojourn in the desert is drawing to a close. The generation of the Exodus has died out completely.
-year sojourn in the desert is drawing to a close. The generation of the Exodus has died out completely. I
In addition, the first generation of leadership passes on as well. Miriam and Aharon die in the desert at this time (Bamidbar 20:1,"", and 20:28"). Moshe, too, is doomed as he loses the right to lead the nation into Eretz Yisrael as a result of the incident where he hit instead of talking to the rock for water (Bamidbar 20:12,
The disturbance amongst the people crying out for water at the moment immediately after the death of Miriam provided our Sages with the basis for suggesting that the merit of Miriam was responsible for the miraculous travelling water well, called Miriam's Well, accompanying the nation for forty years. .
Irrespective of how Moshe responded to G-d's command, water had to somehow be provided. Kli Yakar (Bamidbar 21:17) explains that Moshe's merit replaced the merit of Miriam in bringing water to the people. This was accomplished not by digging deeply into the ground , but by a superficial removal of the top layer of desert earth. Therefore, the nation directed their song here to Moshe for providing them with water.
In spite of the sharp contrast drawn by Kli Yakar in distinguishing between the song after the splitting of the Red Sea (Shemot 15:1), where it says that Moshe and the people sang, as opposed to the song described above where only the people sang, one cannot escape the similarity of poetic structure,
Both songs came as a result of crushing blows to different enemies. In the case of the Egyptians, the Torah speaks openly (Shemot 14:28) of their total destruction in the collapsing walls of water in the Red Sea. In this week's Parsha, there is an allusion to total defeat of the Emorite people who waited patiently on the mountain slopes in order to ambush the Israelites passing through the valley. G-d caused a tremor which drew the mountains together thereby crushing the enemy. According to R' Bachya (Bamidbar 21:17), the song of this week's Parsha was not an emotional/spiritual reaction for the water well provided by Moshe, but for the Divine victory over the Emorites which was similar in many ways to the vanquishing of the Egyptians.
It is interesting that in the immediate aftermath of both scenarios, the fall of both the Egyptians and the Emorites, the thirst for water is a central subject. In both cases, our Sages have interpreted that the thirst was not in the physical material sense, but rather in the Torah knowledge sense.
In Shemot 15:22, we learn that the people travelled three days in the desert after leaving the Red Sea and found no water supply. Our Talmudic Sages (Baba Kama 82a) have interpreted this passage as meaning that the people felt deprived of "spiritual" water. In order to prevent a future situation where three days would pass without Torah, the practice of the public Torah reading on Monday, Thursday, and Shabbat was put into motion for posterity.
In this week's Parsha, the song of the well is interpreted as relating to the spiritual waters of Torah study. Kli Yakar claims that after the death of Miriam the waters returned to the people due the merit of Moshe, which in turn means the merit of Torah study! Therefore, our Sages saw fit to re-interpret the song in terms of proper Torah engagement Proper Torah study requires not only diligence and dedication, but also humility. So have our Talmudic Sages (Nedarim 55a) explained the words "Umimatana Nachaliel" in the Torah reading, literally interpreting "Nachaliel" as G-d's inheritance and "Matana" as a gift rather than as place names, and saying that he who gives himself to G-d so as to learn Torah receives G-d's inheritance.
The enormous thirst for Torah knowledge will be one of the signs of the "end of days". The prophet Amos (8:11) spoke of the hunger and thirst not for bread and water but for the Word of G-d. Let the drinking begin!