CHUKAT (ordinance of)

Moses Strikes the Rock

In this Torah reading יהוה instructs Moses and Aaron regarding the red heifer, whose ashes purify a person who has been contaminated by contact with a dead body; Miriam dies and the people thirst for water; Moses hits a rock in anger to bring forth water rather than speaking to it and is denied entry to the Promised Land; Aaron dies, and venomous snakes attack the Israelite camp due to the people speaking against  יהוה and Moses.

Numbers 19:1 And יהוה spoke to Moses and to Aaron saying, 2 זֹאת This is the ordinance from the Torah which יהוה has commanded:  Tell the Children of Israel to bring you a Red Heifer without spot and blemish and has never been worked: 3 You will give אֹתָהּ it (her) to Eleazar the priest, so that he may bring אֹתָהּ it (her) outside the camp and someone will kill אֹתָהּ it (her) before him. C-MATS

Question:  What is the meaning of the law of the Red Cow? The law of the Red Cow is described as the perfect decree of the Torah, meaning that it is beyond human understanding. The world questions its purpose, but the Torah states that it is a decree of the One Who gave the Torah, and it is not for anyone to question it. Since all laws of the Torah are the products of יהוה‘s intelligence, any human inability to comprehend them indicates the limitation of the student, not the Teacher. There is nothing meaningless or purposeless in the Torah, and if it seems so, it is only a product of our own deficiency. Chumash

Question: How many red heifers have been prepared? Nine red heifers were prepared from the time that the Hebrew people were given this commandment until the Second Temple was destroyed. Moses prepared the first heifer; the second by Ezra, and another seven were prepared from Ezra until the Temple’s destruction. The tenth Heifer will be prepared by the Messiah. Chumash