Shabbos Parashas Chukas - 5775

Shabbos Parashas Chukas - 5775

Rabbi Hal Miller

And the Canaanite, king of Arad, who dwelled in the south, heard that Israel had come

by the route of the Atharim, and he attacked Israel and he took captives from it. [Bamidbar 21:1]

I don't ordinarily make announcements or commentary other than on the parsha, but we

welcomed a new member to the tribe just before last Shabbos, Yaakov Yosef Binyamin

ben Ari Daniel HaLevi (bris of my new grandson), so I'll make an exception.

A couple of months ago, we read in Parashas Beshalach, "Peoples heard, they trembled,

terror gripped the dwellers of Philistia. Then the chieftans of Edom were confounded,

trembling gripped the powerful of Moav, all the dwellers of Canaan melted." [Shemos

15:14-15]. At that point, the entire known world was petrified of the children of Israel, as

they could see that their Protector was in fact the Creator of the universe, unlimited in His

power. Did this Canaanite king somehow not get the message? Why did he attack? Our

verse seems to imply that he attacked because he "heard that Israel had come by the

route of the Atharim." What does that mean? How did this reason overcome the fear of

G-d that had been instilled in the other nations of the land?

Chazal in Tractate Rosh Hashanah [3a] give an answer. "What report did he hear? He

heard that Aharon had died and the Clouds of Glory had departed, and he thought that

permission had been granted to fight against Israel." This tells us that the nations wanted

to destroy Israel, and that it was only G-d's protection that kept them back. Once this

king came to the conclusion that the Divine protection was gone, he jumped into the fray.

Our verse says that this king "dwelled in the south". But we know that the chronology of

the Torah's story has the people in the vicinity of the north at this time, where Moshe

leads the conquering of the land Sichon and Og, known to have been in the TransJordan,

what is now the Golan. This would mean that the "Canaanite, king of Arad", came all the

way from the south to attack in the north.

This is further proven from the phrase, "by the route of the Atharim." Who are the Atharim?

The Midrash Rabbah [Bamidbar 19:20] says, "This alludes to the Ark," meaning this is the

path that the people had followed, in other words, they had previously passed by Arad. The

Yerushalmi [Yoma 1:1] says it refers to the 'tour guide' by whose merit the people had been

traveling, meaning Aharon. But Rashbam and others say, "The tourists, who were really the

spies." Rashi's comment is, "The route of the spies. The route of the south, by which the spies

went." Nechama Leibowitz explains that our verse is a continuation of the story: "What

immediately preceded the attack of the king of Arad? The story of the spies."

Thus, we have a Canaanite king, who, upon hearing that Aharon has died, travels far and

attacks along the route that the spies took. If this information, with this meaning, had reached

the south, why did not other nations closer to Israel attack?

Rav Hirsch explains, "This was the first of the nations really belonging to Palestine and as

such they considered themselves threatened by the intended settlement of Israel in the land of

Canaan." But that would only make sense if this nation was nearby. Thus he, Onkelos, the

Gemora (Rosh Hashana) and others say that this was actually Sichon, by a different name.

Ramban places Arad closer to the north, but that seems to contradict our verse.

Rashi has our answer. "This is Amalek, as it says, 'Amalek dwells in the area of the

south'." [Bamidbar 13:29] We have read in many places of Amalek going out of his way to

jump into the hot water to attack Israel, knowing that they were not going to be successful,

but willing to die so that others might be roused to attack as well, the martyr complex.

Whenever Israel demonstrates any wavering in its faith in G-d, as they did with Aharon's

death, Amalek appears and attacks. This is a test from G-d: will the Jews continue to live

as though all was in their own strength, or will they instead turn to their Father in Heaven?

We face the same question today, throughout the Jewish world. It is up to us to turn the

right way.