Parashah 39: Hukkat ·Regulation· 19:1-22:1
19
Read with Parashah 40 in regular years; in leap years, read separately
1  Adonai spoke to Moses [Drawn out] and to Aaron [Light-bringer], saying, 2  * Num 19:2 (Num 19:2-10) (#3.240): How to prepare a red heifer for the ashes of purification
T, Note: The ashes of the red heifer is mixed with living water to make the Waters of Purification. The Cohen ·Priest· who burns the heifer will be unclean to evening. A second Cohen ·Priest· will gather the ashes and prepare the water of purification; this person will also be unclean to evening. Both people who prepare the Waters of Purification, which makes unclean people clean again, become unclean in the process. How can someone be made clean when those involved in the process of making the Water of Purification become unclean? “This is the hukkat ·regulation· of the Torah ·Teaching· † The title of this Torah portion is Hukkat ·Regulation·; it is derived from the root word choke which means ·statute, limit, ordinance, something prescribed·. Choke is sometimes translated similar to Torah ·Teaching·. The main difference is in the nuance that each word is attempting to convey: Choke ·Ordinance, [decree from a supreme ruler]·; Hukkat ·Regulation, [official guideline]·; Torah ·Teaching·. which Adonai has enjoined. Tell the children of Israel [God prevails] to bring you a red heifer without spot, in which is no defect, ‡ Quoted in Heb 9:14 and which was never yoked. 3 You shall give her to Eleazar [Help of God] the priest, and he shall bring her outside of the camp, and one shall kill her before his face. 4 Eleazar [Help of God] the priest shall take some of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle her blood toward the front of the Tent of Meeting seven times. 5 One shall burn the heifer in his sight; her skin, and her meat, and her blood, with her dung, shall he burn. 6 The priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the middle of the burning of the heifer. 7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening. 8 He who burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.
9 “A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, § Quoted in Heb 9:13 and lay them up outside of the camp in a clean place; and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel [God prevails] for a water for impurity. It is a sin offering. 10 He who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening. It shall be to the children of Israel [God prevails], and to the stranger who lives as a foreigner among them, for a statute forever.
11 “He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days. 12 He shall purify himself with water on the third day, and on the seventh day he shall be clean; but if he does not purify himself the third day, then the seventh day he shall not be clean. 13 Whoever touches a dead person, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles Adonai ’s tabernacle; and that soul shall be cut off from Israel [God prevails]; because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is yet on him.
14  * Num 19:14 (Num 19:11-13, 19:14-16, 19:17-22) (#3.241): The law of uncleanness due to a dead body; the person is unclean for seven days “This is the Torah ·Teaching· when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, shall be unclean seven days. 15 Every open vessel, which has no covering bound on it, is unclean.
16 “Whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days.
17 “For the unclean, they shall take of the ashes of the burning of the sin offering; and running water shall be poured into a vessel. (LY:2) 18 A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the utensils, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave. 19 The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall purify him. He shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening. 20 But the man who shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from the middle of the assembly, because he has defiled the sanctuary of Adonai . The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him. He is unclean. 21  † Num 19:21 (Num 19:17-22) (#3.242): The law of sprinkling the Waters of Purification
Consider: The Water of Purification is necessary for cleaning from defilement, yet the one who is clean becomes unclean until evening. Is there any way to be clean without another becoming unclean? It shall be a perpetual statute to them. He who sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening.
22 “Whatever the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the soul that touches it shall be unclean until evening.”

*19:2 Num 19:2 (Num 19:2-10) (#3.240): How to prepare a red heifer for the ashes of purification T, Note: The ashes of the red heifer is mixed with living water to make the Waters of Purification. The Cohen ·Priest· who burns the heifer will be unclean to evening. A second Cohen ·Priest· will gather the ashes and prepare the water of purification; this person will also be unclean to evening. Both people who prepare the Waters of Purification, which makes unclean people clean again, become unclean in the process. How can someone be made clean when those involved in the process of making the Water of Purification become unclean?

†19:2 The title of this Torah portion is Hukkat ·Regulation·; it is derived from the root word choke which means ·statute, limit, ordinance, something prescribed·. Choke is sometimes translated similar to Torah ·Teaching·. The main difference is in the nuance that each word is attempting to convey: Choke ·Ordinance, [decree from a supreme ruler]·; Hukkat ·Regulation, [official guideline]·; Torah ·Teaching·.

‡19:2 Quoted in Heb 9:14

§19:9 Quoted in Heb 9:13

*19:14 Num 19:14 (Num 19:11-13, 19:14-16, 19:17-22) (#3.241): The law of uncleanness due to a dead body; the person is unclean for seven days

†19:21 Num 19:21 (Num 19:17-22) (#3.242): The law of sprinkling the Waters of Purification Consider: The Water of Purification is necessary for cleaning from defilement, yet the one who is clean becomes unclean until evening. Is there any way to be clean without another becoming unclean?

© 2016 Thomas Robinson