The fourth and fifth aliyot of Chukot are just . . . wow. These have to be some of the wildest, and oddest, and most difficult to interpret, portions of the entire Torah.
All of a sudden, after the Israelites are turned away from the Edomites and their ability to enter the land, Aharon is told he will die and, in the presence of the entire nation, ascends with Moshe and his sons, gives his clothing to Elazar, and promptly dies. Then there is a wild section about the Canaanites hearing about Yisrael, going to war, taking a captive, and then Yisrael - in the singular - making an oath to G-d in which H' listens to their cry (sounds an awful lot like the inciting event of the Exodus), delivers the cities into their hands, and they consecrate them. Then the Torah promptly moves on to the route they took to go around the Edomites, by the Sea of Reeds, to which the people get upset at again and a snake is released which bites them to death, and "many die." And then to finish the aliyah, they repent, beg Moshe for forgiveness, at which point G-d commands Moshe to make a staff with a copper serpent upon it and anyone who looks at the serpent will be healed. Gee, doesn't that sound like idolatry?
This is such an odd section off Torah, with so much deep and untapped mysticism and hints and not-so-hidden hints and mystery. The commentaries try and make sense of it, but the explanations I read are so dissatisfying. Some say that the Torah was simply pulling from the book of Yehoshua regarding the wars - as in -- oopsies, guess the Torah jumped ahead a few years for no real reason! Others treat the serpent incident with such dry logic that it makes one wonder - is there any room for mysticism, magic, and wonder left in mainstream Judaism?
To me, these portions really reveal the wild side. I truly hate to use the phrase regarding anything that is "real," but reading this "real Torah" - it's a revelation. Priestly ceremonies ending in death. A war resulting in a single not even, G-d forbid, death or injury, but captivity - and even that is a massive tragedy. Mass death and a healing process that is borderline - if not completely (if I'm being honest) similar to idolatry (I won't say that it actually is since the Torah quite clearly tells us that the healing power is from H'.)
Take a step back. Read. Read again. Is this really my religion, my Torah, my guide? Is there actually room for "magic," for holy death, for war and sudden retreat, for oaths and immediate satisfaction of oaths, for crying a cry that only H's hears? And as my guide, what does it mean for me?
To say that it is an opening to a truly wondrous, anti-logical, purely holy new way - that's a start.
The magic is everywhere. Breathe in. Hold it momentarily. This, too, is my heritage.
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