Food Tourah: Hukkat

July 2, 2025 in Food Tourah

Because life so often happens around food, we’re spending the year exploring the weekly parshiot and finding connections to each week’s Shabbat menu. 39 parshiot down, 15 more to go!

Drought, death of leaders, poisonous snakes, and battles make Hukkat a very rough time to be an Israelite.  The perfect red heifer is the star of chapter nineteen.  This flawless animal needs to be sacrificed and then its ashes collected for use in purification ceremonies. Anyone who has come into contact with a dead body is ritually impure for seven days.  To become ritually pure again, on both the third and seventh days, a person must be sprinkled with water mixed with the red heifer’s ashes using a hyssop branch.

Both of Moses’ siblings die in this parsha.  Miriam dies and is buried in the Wilderness of Zin.  Her presence has always been associated with water and when she dies the Israelites have no water.  God tells Moses to gather the Israelites and touch a rock with his staff, so that the Israelites will witness the miracle of water coming from a rock. Rather than following the directions precisely, Moses hits the rock twice.  After this incident, God holds Moses and Aaron accountable telling them that neither will enter the Promised Land.   Aaron dies on Mount Hor. His priestly clothing and duties are passed along to his son Elazar.

The Israelites continue to grumble about how much better life was in Egypt.  In this parsha, God sends poisonous snakes into the camp, then instructs Moses to make a staff with a brass serpent on it.  When anyone afflicted by a snake bite looks towards the heavens in front of this brass serpent, they will be healed.

This parsha also includes much conflict with the Edomites and Amorites.  There is nothing easy about this part of the journey.

Since hyssops is specifically mentioned in the ritual with the red heifer, a recipe using za’atar seems like a perfect way to make Roast Chicken this Shabbat.  To me nothing says summer like Corn and Tomatoes.  To explore their tie-in to the theme of leadership and accountability, you are welcome to read Jason Vertrees’ article making navigating a cornfield a metaphor for how good leadership navigates complex problems, something Moses had to do much of.  A major theme of Hukkat is the passing tradition along to the next generation.  Please use any recipe that has been passed to you from a previous generation.  If no traditional one comes to mind from your own family, you can serve this Apple Cake, which definitely came from someone’s Jewish grandparent!  Did you know that there is a Red Heifer Winery in Maryland? It does not produce kosher wine, but could be a fun beverage connection for this Shabbat.

 

B’tayavon and Shabbat Shalom,
Alison (Baraf) & Sarah (Roark)

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For a more in-depth look at this week’s parsha, visit Sefaria.com