Parashat Chukat

The red heifer, whose ashes purify those who have touched the dead, is presented as a law without a stated reason. Then the story jumps almost forty years. Miriam dies at Kadesh and the water gives out. God tells Moses to speak to the rock; he strikes it twice, water flows, and Moses and Aaron are told they will not enter the land. Edom refuses passage. Aaron dies on Mount Hor and Elazar takes his place. The people complain again, serpents attack, and a copper serpent on a pole heals those who look at it. Israel defeats Sichon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan and camps across from Jericho.