Parashah #39: Hukkat (Regulation) B’midbar (Numbers) 19:1-22:1
Haftarah: Shof’tim (Judges) 11:1-33
B’rit Chadashah: Yochanan 3:9-21; 4:3-30; 12:27-50
This parashah is dominated by the mitzvah of the Para Adumah (Red Heifer) and the details of this unusual sacrifice. In traditional Judaism, this ritual is considered the paradigm of chok, that is a command that is humanly impossible to understand. According to the Chumash, since all of the laws of the Torah are the products of G-d’s intelligence, any human inability to comprehend them validates the intellectual limits of the student and not the Teacher. Indeed, there is nothing trivial in G-d’s Torah. The “deeper” things of G-d’s Torah present a perpetual invitation for humans to aggressively ask, seek and knock, and G-d will provide (Matt. 7:7-8).
What seems unexplainable to our rabbinically taught brethren is how a substance which purifies one person contaminates another? Messianic Jews who subscribe to the Old Testament and the B’rit Chadashah (refreshed, renewed covenant), are provided the perfect explanation of this mitzvah by comparing the command and all of the associated details in the Old Testament to Yahshua, who traditional Jews have not yet recognized as the revealed manifestation of the Para Adumah. I will also share some of the traditional Jewish explanations of this mitzvah that are made as an attempt to “fill in” this knowledge gap. I am going to insert the corresponding scriptures from the B’rit Chadashah and other Messianic perspectives to facilitate understanding the correlation between the Para Adumah, the ritual and Yahshua.
According to Numbers 19:1-10 the heifer was to be young, red (signifying blood that established the validity or efficacy of the rite, without fault or defect, and had never borne a yoke. Yahshua was young, without fault; defect(sin); pure and innocent. It was to be slaughtered outside the camp in front of the Cohen. Yahshua was sacrificed outside the city walls of Jerusalem. El’azar the cohen was to take some of the blood with his finger and sprinkle the blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. In the case of other sacrifices, the priest would throw blood upon the walls of the altar of the burnt offering (Lev. 1:5). In this case, the priest dipped his finger seven times in the blood and sprinkled it before the L-rd (Cohen HaGadol). This sprinkling toward the door of the tent of meeting symbolized the cleansing of the people from sin and impurity. This is what Yahshua’s sacrifice provided. This cleansing of sin and impurity is not a “given” without any change on our part. Yahshua provided the way to reconciliation with G-d and forgiveness of sin, the death indictment inherited from the Fall of man beginning with Adam, and impurity IF we repent, accept Yahshua as our Messiah, trust in the faithfulness of his sacrifice (Rom. 3:25), and follow His commands/instructions/law. The finger, according to the rules which were obtained during the second Temple, was that of the right hand, as the blood was taken away and sprinkled with the right hand. Seven, being a complete number, is used for the perfect finishing of a work. Hence the seven days of creation but more so Yahshua’s sacrifice as the perfect, complete sacrifice for sin (Elliott’s commentary). The heifer was then burned to ashes before the Cohen’s eyes- the skin, meat, blood, and dung burned to ashes. Yahshua’s sacrifice symbolized an Olah offering, an offering whereby the sacrifice was entirely burnt whole on the altar. According to the Jewish Study Bible (1999) the statement in Num.19:9 “It is for cleansing” The translation of “hata’t” (purification rather than a sin or offense as is the usual translation) reflects the fact that this is not a sacrifice in the true sense of a sin offering, which was made on the altar inside the camp. This again refers to Yahshua and his unique sacrifice. This is in contrast to other forms of sacrifice which was partly burnt and most of it eaten in communion at a sacrificial meal. As an Olah offering, we see the correlation to Yahshua’s sacrifice for the sins of man, which was a total giving of himself, complete submission and surrender to G-d as the Father’s will. Then the Cohen took cedar-wood, hyssop, and scarlet yarn and threw them onto the heifer as it was burning. Cedar wood signifies strength and durability (El Gibor; the Mighty One); hyssop represents cleansing, and scarlet yard signifies blood and sacrifice, all contributing to the dominant theme of purification from defilement. These are all symbolic of Yahshua as our Saviour and Redeemer.
Then the cohen washed his clothes and himself in water, after which he was allowed to re-enter the camp. But he remained unclean until evening. The person who burned up the heifer was to wash himself and his clothes in water, but he also remained unclean until evening. This seemingly ironic situation points directly to Yahshua who assumed the sins of the world, becoming sin, suffering and dying on the execution stake and then was resurrected and went through the purification process as He ascended to Heaven. A man who was clean was to collect the ashes of the heifer, (the ashes of a heifer were used for individual purification from ritual impurity, particularly for those who had come into contact with death. An interesting parallel is that we have all come into contact with “death” through the imputed sin of Adam and our own individual sins. For the community to be forgiven, the collective observance of the Red Heifer ritual was essential as it symbolized the restoration of purity required for participation in communal worship and the Temple service. and store them outside the camp in a clean place. They were kept for the community of the Israelites to prepare water for purification from sin. G-d’s forgiveness is available to individuals, communities, and nations who choose to carry the testimony of Yahshua and guard the commands of HaShem (Seven-fold witness in the Book of Revelation). The one who collected the ashes of the heifer washed his clothes and was unclean until evening.
For the people of Israel and for the foreigner staying with them this is a permanent regulation that has not been continued since the destruction of the Temple. Yet this “pause” in performing this mitzvah also has prophetic significance (See Ezekiel 40:38-43; Zech. 14:16-21).
Haftarah: Shof’tim (Judges) 11:1-33
The haftarah describes how the Israelites were attacked by the Ammonites. The Ammonites were descendants of Lot’s second son and Molech was their idol. Jephthah’s response to the impending attack is an example of how we should handle conflict. He first sent a missive to Ammon, declaring peaceful intentions. However, he also mentioned how the Israelites conquered Sichon and Og mentioned in our parashah. Jephthah the Giladite was the son of a prostitute. He fled from his home because of his siblings’ complaints that they would not inherit anything because of his birth status. He settled in the land of Tov where he grew into a great warrior simply from experience with raiding with some of his friends. When the Ammonite nation attacked the people of Israel, Jephthah was the one the Israelites came running to lead them into battle. Jephtah agreed to lead them based on their offer to make him the leader of Gil’ad if he agreed. Jephtah agrees and G-d honored Jephthah’s peaceful attempt to resolve the conflict by allowing the Israelites under Jephthah’s command to eliminate the Ammonites. Unfortunately, Jephtah also vowed to Adonai that if the Ammonites were delivered unto him, he would sacrifice whatever came out of his doors to greet him upon his return to Adonai as a burnt offering. His only daughter and child was the first one to come out of his doors to meet him. She told Jephtah to keep his vow to Adonai but that she wanted to go away into the mountains with her friends for two months and mourn as she would die unmarried. She went away for two months, returned as promised, and Jephtah sacrificed her as he vowed to Adonai. Subsequently, it became a law in Israel that the women of Israel would go every year for four days to lament the daughter of Jephtah from Gil’ad. This action describes this father’s obedience to G-d and the seriousness of a vow. It also describes a child’s obedience to her father even unto death, not unlike the willingness of Yahshua to obey YHVH’s will.
B’rit Chadashah: Yochanan (John) 3:9-21
Let’s focus on verses 13-15 for a moment. No one has gone up into heaven; there is only the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man. Just as Moshe lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that everyone who trusts in him may have eternal life.” Our first question may be “why would Yahshua ask us to look up to a serpent?” Let’s think about what we’ve previously covered in this lesson. Yahshua became sin for us; unclean in spirit and in body until He ascended to heaven. In our parashah G-d tells Moshe that anyone who has been bitten and looks up to the snake on the pole will remain alive (Num. 21:9). According to the apocryphal book, Wisdom of Solomon, which says that the serpent served as lesson and symbol: “He who turned toward it was saved, not by what he saw, but by You, Savior of all.” And the Mishnah (contained in the Talmud) teaches “Could the serpent slay or the serpent keep alive? It is rather to teach you that when the Israelites directed their thoughts toward on high and kept their hearts in subjection to their Father in heaven, they were healed; otherwise they perished.” The lesson for us is that we must actively trust in Yahshua and keep our eyes on Him, even when we are in the midst of “being bitten.”
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Tamah Davis-Hart