The annual cycle Torah reading for this week is parsha “Chukat,” Numbers chapters 19 through 21) and it contains what is sometimes called the most enigmatic “chuq” (or, “do this because He says so”) in the Torah: the Red Heiffer, or parah adumah. Even Solomon is thought to have said he just didn’t quite get it.

The Erev Shabbat reading:

The Sabbath Day midrash tackles that Greatest Mystery head on. But, even more interesting, what might be the SECOND most mysterious ‘chuq’ in the Torah is in this same parsha! The “bronze serpent” (but the Hebrew term is much more alliterative: ‘nachash nachoshet’) – aka the ‘snake on a stick.’

There is a common thread that runs through this entire portion, too. Actually, several, but all evidently related: Death. And some important numbers. And water, in multiple ways, and ‘salvation.’ But still one more that Mark suggests, which may even help explain some of the confusion, is “I blame Moses.”

The combined two-part reading and Sabbath midrash: