Parshas Chukas

The maamarim 11

1. 1 וידבר הוי׳ וגו׳ זאת חקת התורה אשר צוה הוי׳ לאמר “And Havayah spoke… This is the statute of the Torah which Havayah commanded, saying” The red heifer is called “the statute of the Torah” because it holds, in open and general form, the two movements on which every mitzvah is built: ratzo, the soul’s running toward G‑d, which is the burning of the heifer to ashes, and shov, the return that draws the Torah down, which is the living water put in a vessel. Through it the Torah’s root, its “engraved letters,” is drawn into the Written and the Oral Torah, and the encompassing light of G‑d is joined to the light that fills the worlds. Maamar 1.21 paragraphs~1 h 30 min236 sourcesEnglish
2. 2 א ביאור ע״פ זאת חקת כו׳ An explanation on “This is the statute,” etc. In “This is the statute of the Torah that Havayah commanded, saying,” the Name refers to Atik, and “commanded” (tzivah) means joining (tzavta): through the red heifer, the Torah’s “engraved” root in Keser is joined to lemor, Chochmah. The heifer’s ash, gathering every level of creation, is the soul’s upward “running,” and the living water from Keser is the “returning”; only this power from above Chochmah can turn the impure into pure. Maamar 2.46 paragraphs~2 h 20 min241 sourcesEnglish
3. 3 ויקחו אליך פרה אדומה “And they shall take to you a red heifer” (Numbers 19:2) The laws of the red heifer trace two spiritual movements: burning reduces the harsh Gevuros of nogah to their root in bittul, and the living water of Chochmah’s source is drawn onto that root. Sanctifying the water raises the refined Gevurah to its source, which needs Daas; sprinkling drives off the impure, which needs the masculine strength of the emotive attributes. That is why a woman, who has Daas, may sanctify but not sprinkle, and a minor, who lacks Daas, may sprinkle but not sanctify. Maamar 3.11 paragraphs~50 min140 sourcesEnglish
4. 4 תוספת ביאור מעט ע״פ ויקחו אליך פרה כו׳ A brief additional explanation on “And they shall take to you a heifer” (Numbers 19:2) The cedar, hyssop and crimson cast into the burning red heifer do two things at once: they draw down Chochmah and self-nullification from the holy attributes of Atzilus, and they refine the rigid, haughty “cedar” of Tohu that fell in the shattering of the vessels, binding it to humility so that it is rectified. That is why they are cast in neither before the burning nor after the ash, but while the heifer burns. Maamar 4.4 paragraphs~15 min52 sourcesEnglish
5. 5 ויקחו אליך פרה אדומה תמימה אשר אין בה… “And let them take to you a red heifer, perfect” (Numbers 19:2) Pesach is G‑d’s love leaping over every order to reach us, and it calls a person to answer in kind: to leave his own “Egypt” at once, beyond reason, through faith that all is as nothing before G‑d. Parshas Parah is read before Pesach because the heifer purifies one who is still bound to his cravings and brings him “to you,” to Moshe, so that everything is done with Daas. Maamar 5.4 paragraphs~20 min69 sourcesEnglish
6. 6 והזה הטהור על הטמא ביום השלישי וביום השביעי “And the pure one shall sprinkle upon the impure one on the third day and on the seventh day” (Numbers 19:19) The impurity of death is removed on the third and seventh days because they are the levels of Yaakov and David: Tiferes, which reaches up to the great mercy of Keser that revives the dead, and Malchus, the servant’s bittul beyond reason, which draws from Keser, where nothing dies or changes. Maamar 6.8 paragraphs~15 min42 sourcesEnglish
7. 7 ויעש משה נחש נחשת וישימהו על הנס והיה… “And Moshe made a copper serpent and set it upon the pole” (Numbers 21:9) Every evil and affliction lives from a root that is good, as the harlot in the Zohar’s parable serves the king who sent her. The copper serpent was raised on a pole so that, looking upward, Israel would see even the serpent in its root, not separate from G‑d, and then no evil descends from above; fervent prayer does this work, refining the body, and is needed more as evil grows. Maamar 7.6 paragraphs~25 min55 sourcesEnglish
8. 8 אז ישיר ישראל את השירה הזאת עלי באר… “Then Israel sang this song: Spring up, O well” (Numbers 21:17) The soul is a well: its waters come down from above through Gan Eden, and in the body they spring up again from below, and this rising, through physical mitzvos, Torah and teshuvah, reaches higher than the flow that came down. To open the well a person must dig and delve away what hides the soul’s love, a work done by the “princes,” the Patriarchs and above all Yaakov, and begun by an arousal from above. Maamar 8.17 paragraphs~1 h 5 min179 sourcesEnglish
9. 9 ביאור ענין עלי באר כו׳ An explanation of the matter of “Rise up, O well,” etc. The “well” dug from below, the raising of mayin nukvin through our service, reaches higher than the “fountain” that flows down by itself: its sparks are rooted in Tohu, above Tikkun, and the lowest point stands closest to the light that encompasses all worlds. Maamar 9.Biur27 paragraphs~1 h 15 min168 sourcesEnglish
10. 10 על כן יאמרו המושלים באו חשבון וגו׳ “Therefore the rulers will say: Come to Cheshbon” (Numbers 21:27) The soul comes down into the darkness of a body and this world because only here, by subduing the sitra achra through the practical mitzvos, can it reveal “His great Name,” the light that encompasses all worlds, within the very worlds that conceal G‑d, something it never reached while standing before Him above. Those who rule over their inclination make this “reckoning of the world.” Maamar 10.48 paragraphs~1 h 50 min270 sourcesEnglish
11. 11 ביאור ע״פ על כן יאמרו המושלים באו חשבון An explanation on the verse “Therefore the moshlim say: ‘Come to Cheshbon’” Cheshbon, “the reckoning of the world,” is the measured allotment of divine light through the Gevuros, the measuring line and Malchus, the divine speech; but the Torah, rooted in the supernal Chochmah itself, brings down a light from above the whole chain of worlds, and the mitzvos draw down what the Sages, speaking of charity, call a “great reckoning”: the transcendent light of “His great Name,” beyond all measure. Prayer, tzelosa, “inclines” that light down as Keser: this is “the city of Sichon,” read as sichah, prayer; and opposite it stands a “city” of speech drawn to the side of kelipah. Maamar 11.Biur11 paragraphs~30 min76 sourcesEnglish

The Rebbe’s maamarim on this parsha 11

The Rebbe built 11 of his maamarim (5713–5748) on the Alter Rebbe’s maamarim of this parsha. Each maamar’s page summarizes them, with what the Rebbe adds; or see them all together.

• Maamar 1וידבר הוי׳ וגו׳ זאת חקת התורה אשר צוה הוי׳ לאמר10 maamarim · 5713–5748
• Maamar 8אז ישיר ישראל את השירה הזאת עלי באר…1 maamar · 5735

Learn it in seven days Sunday to Shabbos

The Rebbe asked that all the maamarim of the week’s parsha be learned in that week, spread over its seven days. Here is the parsha in seven portions of about equal length.

1. SUNMaamar 1, ¶1–21~90 min
2. MONMaamar 2, ¶1–29~91 min
3. TUEMaamar 2 ¶30 – maamar 3 ¶10~86 min
4. WEDMaamar 3 ¶11 – maamar 8 ¶3~98 min
5. THUMaamar 8 ¶4 – maamar 9 ¶13~90 min
6. FRIMaamar 9 ¶14 – maamar 10 ¶23~91 min
7. SHABMaamar 10 ¶24 – maamar 11 ¶11~91 min