Shalom Chaverim,
You may recall that it had been a goal of mine this year to find and share a contemporary song which is relevant for each week’s Torah portion. I hoped that the songs would serve as a kind of commentary to each parashah.
None of us achieve all our goals in life, do we? Moses exemplifies – and thus teaches us – this grave fact of life precisely in this week’s portion, Chukat. The culminating goal of Moses’ life and career – to lead the People into the Promised Land – is denied him after he angrily derides the thirsty people for their complaints and strikes the rock to get water.
Also in this portion, both Miriam and Aaron die without seeing the Promised Land; the curious case of the ‘Red Heifer’ is presented as a way to purify that which is tainted…which is all of us; and a serpent fashioned from bronze and mounted on a pole proved successfully medicinal…and became the symbol for medical care still used to this day.
Had I looked thoroughly enough, I may have found a song on any of those or other topics. But the Torah in Chukat itself records the lyrics not to just one song of its own, but to two. The first is about getting water from the mysterious and seemingly miraculous well in the desert:
Then Israel sang this song:
Spring up, O well—sing to it—
The well which the chieftains dug,
Which the nobles of the people started
With maces, with their own staffs. [BaMidbar 21:17-18]
And later on in the chapter, a song of triumph for victory in war:
Therefore the bards would recite:
Come to Heshbon; firmly built
And well founded is Sihon’s city.
For fire went forth from Heshbon,
Flame from Sihon’s city,
Consuming Ar of Moab,
The lords of Bamoth by the Arnon.
Woe to you, O Moab!
You are undone, O people of Chemosh!
His sons are rendered fugitive
And his daughters captive
By an Amorite king, Sihon.
Yet we have cast them down utterly,
Heshbon along with Dibon;
We have wrought desolation at Nophah,
Which is hard by Medeba. [BaMidbar 21:27-30]
We do not have a record of the melodies for these lyrics.
Rabbi Dr. Kenneth Brander connects these two songs and their significance: “In a more uplifting moment, our parsha also tells of the “Song of the Well” — a brief, poetic expression of gratitude, where the nation comes together to voice unity and thanks [Bamidbar 21:16–18]. And when Moshe reaches out to neighboring nations with messages of peace — speech before confrontation— the Torah reinforces the value of dialogue [Bamidbar 21:21–22; Devarim 2:26–29].”
On the value of dialogue, let’s indeed notice that these two songs preserved from ancient, ancient times and immortalized in the Torah, are about….water and peace [if victory in war is considered ‘peace’; or maybe the necessary step on the path to peace…].
The themes of these two songs – water and peace – have a profound connection, an important connection.
I know many of us are worried about our world for a multitude of reasons. Not a day goes by, it seems, without notice of some added concern about climate change and its environmental impact, as well as about the ongoing wars in the world and hints toward escalation and spread of war that could ultimately threaten the survival of most life on earth.
Here is a song of hope:
There is an environmental and peace NGO that is based simultaneously in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and Amman and run by three equal co-directors – an Israeli, a Palestinian, and a Jordanian. They work together on ‘environmental peace-building’, primarily by bringing people together to collectively solve cross-border water issues that no side can solve without the other and yet which must be solved. They help change the outlook from the zero-sum-game of win-or-lose to a collaborative viewpoint of win-win; from conditions of us-vs.-them to a real status of we-are-in-this-together; from all-or-nothing to ‘together we can build more to share.’
The group is called ‘EcoPeace Middle East’. I worked for them for a number of years, and I’m still inspired by what they do and what they achieve. One goal they have is to rehabilitate the badly polluted and diminished Jordan River.
Yes, the Jordan River. It’s probably the most well-known river in the world. As a symbol and in song, the Jordan River has inspired humanity for millennia. As but one example from many, check out “Roll Jordan Roll” from the movie “12 Years a Slave” which captures how songs of the Jordan River inspired slaves and then helped strengthen the Civil Rights Movement.
And yet the Jordan today trickles through the divided land, demarcates disputed borders, and is polluted with mines, brine, and runoff leaching out before its terminus in what has become the dying Dead Sea.
I still pray that when the current war ends – please God may it be soon – Israel and the Palestinians and the Jordanians will come together, speak with one another in a dialogue of mutual concern and respect, to rehabilitate the Jordan River…thereby rehabilitating ourselves towards learning to live in peace with each other and with our planet. Water and War should become a River of Peace, as Amos [5:24] said so long ago: “But let justice well up like water, Righteousness like a mighty stream.”
SHABBAT SHALOM!
Rabbi Michael Schwartz