Parshat  Chukkat   5774  /  2014  

From  Stone  to  Water     Numbers  20:8   [8]  “You  and  your  brother   Aaron,  take  the  rod  and   assemble  the  community,  and   speak  unto  the  rock  before  their     eyes  that  it  give  its  water.  Thus   you  shall  produce  water  for   them  from  the  rock  and  provide   drink  for  the  congregation  and   their  beasts.       HaKetav  V’HaKabbalah  (Yaakov  Tzvi  Mecklenberg—19th  century,  Germany)   “Speak  unto  the  rock  before  their  eyes.”  It  really  should  have  said  “before  their  ears,”   since  speech  is  apprehended  by  the  organ  of  hearing.  We  must  therefore  conclude   that  not  external  sight  is  meant,  but  rather  insight—the  mind’s  eye—just  as  the   phrase  “And  their  eyes  were  opened”  in  the  case  of  Adam  and  Eve  implied  that  they   became  conscious  inwardly  of  a  new  state  of  affairs,  and  not  that  any  physical   blindness  of  theirs  was  suddenly  cured.  Rashi’s  comment,  in  light  of  this   observation,  becomes  clearer:  “Had  Moses  and  Aaron  spoken  to  the  rock  to  bring   forth  water,  God  would  have  been  sanctified  in  the  eyes  of  the  congregation.  The   congregation  would  have  argued,  ‘If  this  rock,  which  can  neither  speak  nor  hear,  can   be  transformed  by  the  word  of  the  God,  how  much  the  more  so  can  we.’”       Babylonian  Talmud,  Brachot  55a   Rav  Judah  said  in  the  name  of  Rav  [Abba  Arika]:  The  world  was  created  with  the   letters  of  the  Aleph-­‐Bet.         Byron  Sherwin,  Faith  Finding  Meaning  (61)   In  medieval  Jewish  literature,  the  consonants  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet  are  compared   to  a  body  and  the  vowels  to  a  soul.  Yet  a  Torah  scroll  is  written  only  with   consonants.  Indeed,  a  vocalized  [with  vowels]  Torah  scroll  is  unfit  for  ritual  use.  The   Torah  requires  a  person  to  supply  the  vowels,  the  vocalization,  the  soul,  in  order  for   it  to  become  animate,  alive,  heard.  Without  the  person  to  animate  it,  to  provide  it   with  a  voice,  tradition  might  otherwise  remain  inert.  By  giving  vocalization  to  the   text,  the  reader  animates  and  interprets  the  text,  giving  it  life,  allowing  it  to  be   spoken,  heard,  and  understood.        

Source  sheet  prepared  by  student  rabbi  Daniel  Reiser  |  [email protected]  

Parshat  Chukkat   5774  /  2014     Synesthesia  at  Sinai   “All  the  people  saw  the  thunder  and  the  lightening,  the  blare  of  the  shofar  and  the   mountain  smoking”  (Exodus  20:15).     Rashi  (11th  century,  France):  They  saw  that  which  is  heard,  which  would  be   impossible  in  any  other  place.     Sfat  Emet  (19th  century,  Poland):  Seeing  and  hearing  are  two  distinct  experiences,   one  unlike  the  other.  And  each  one  has  an  advantage  and  a  disadvantage.  For  the   seer  looks  at  a  thing  in  its  completeness,  exactly  as  it  is.  But  for  the  hearer,  the  sound   changes  as  it  enters  his  ears,  and  isn’t  exactly  the  same  sound  that  was  originally   made.  That’s  the  advantage  of  seeing.  But  with  hearing,  there  is  an  advantage  that   the  sound  truly  enters  inside  of  him  or  her  through  the  ear,  whereas  the  sight   remains  outside.  With  this  in  mind,  our  verse  teaches  us  that  the  Children  of  Israel   had  both  advantages.  They  received  words  in  the  manner  of  “seeing  sounds,”  such   that  even  though  they  truly  entered  inside  of  them,  they  nevertheless  “saw”  the   sounds,  without  any  distortion.  

Source  sheet  prepared  by  student  rabbi  Daniel  Reiser  |  [email protected]