Chukat: Singing to the Well

The Israelites arrived in a body at the wilderness of Zin on the first new moon,*first new moon Of the fortieth year; cf. Num. 33.36–38. and the people stayed at Kadesh. Miriam died there and was buried there. The community was without water, and they joined against Moses and Aaron.

Setting out from Kadesh, the Israelites arrived in a body at Mount Hor. At Mount Hor, on the boundary of the land of Edom, יהוה said to Moses and Aaron, “Let Aaron be gathered to his kin: he is not to enter the land that I have assigned to the Israelite people, because you disobeyed My command about the Waters of Meribah. Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up on Mount Hor. Strip Aaron of his vestments and put them on his son Eleazar. There Aaron shall be gathered unto the dead.”*unto the dead Lit. “and die.” Moses did as יהוה had commanded. They ascended Mount Hor in the sight of the whole community. Moses stripped Aaron of his vestments and put them on his son Eleazar, and Aaron died there on the summit of the mountain. When Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain, the whole community knew that Aaron had breathed his last. All the house of Israel bewailed Aaron thirty days.

(10) The Israelites marched on and encamped at Oboth.(11) They set out from Oboth and encamped at Iye-abarim, in the wilderness bordering on Moab to the east.(12) From there they set out and encamped at the wadi Zered.(13) From there they set out and encamped beyond the Arnon, that is, in the wilderness that extends from the territory of the Amorites. For the Arnon is the boundary of Moab, between Moab and the Amorites.(14) Therefore the Book of the Wars of יהוה speaks of*The quotation that follows is a fragment; its text and meaning are uncertain. “…Waheb in Suphah, and the wadis: the Arnon(15) with its tributary wadis, stretched along the settled country of Ar, hugging the territory of Moab…”(16) And from there to Beer,*Beer Lit. “well.” which is the well where יהוה said to Moses, “Assemble the people that I may give them water.”(17) Then Israel sang this song:
Spring up, O well—sing to it—
(18) The well which the chieftains dug,
Which the nobles of the people started
With maces, with their own staffs. And from Midbar*Midbar Septuagint “the well” (= Beer); cf. v. 16. to Mattanah,(19) and from Mattanah to Nahaliel, and from Nahaliel to Bamoth,(20) and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the country of Moab, at the peak of Pisgah, overlooking the wasteland.*wasteland Or “Jeshimon.”

עלי באר COME UP, WELL from the valley and bring up what you have to bring up! — Whence do we know that it was the well that announced to them these miracles as it is stated above? Because it is said: ומשם בארה “and from there to the well”. For you cannot say that it means: “from that place was (they got) the well”, because was it indeed from there that they got it? Had it not been with them from the beginning of the forty years’ wanderings? But it means that from there it flowed down to the Israelites to proclaim the miracles! Then again, also, the paragraph beginning with the words: אז ישיר … השירה הזאת were spoken at the end of the forty years whilst the well was given them at the beginning of the forty, and what reason then can there be to write it as late as here. But the subject of the song has to be explained in connection with what precedes it (that it was a summons to the well to bring up the bodies of the slain) (Midrash Tanchuma, Chukat 20).

אז ישיר ישראל, Then Israel sang, etc. What precisely was the point of this song? Besides, why had the Israelites not acknowledged the mannah by a song just as they acknowledged the water? The entire paragraph needs explaining. Perhaps the entire song really was an acknowledgement of the Torah. This is why one cannot criticise that generation for not breaking out in a song of thanksgiving when the Torah was described as its מורשה, something precious left to them as an ongoing possession (Deut. 33,4). The reason is that the people had already acknowledged the gift of the Torah in the song recorded here, the song acknowledging "water." After all, Torah has frequently been compared to a well of water. It is called "well" because it originates with G'd the ultimate well from which all springs forth. It is also called "water" as it symbolises water and its life-giving properties. When the people sang עלי באר, "arise o well," this was not a reference to the physical well and the waters beneath the earth's surface, but to a celestial well. The words ענו לה are similar to Exodus 15,23 ותען להם מרים, the responsive nature of the chant.

באר חפרוה שרים, “a well dug by princes.” A reference to Moses and Aaron. The reason the Torah calls them by the title שרים and נדיבי העם, is because they used their staffs to dig the well. Seeing that the Torah (or the authors of the words of the song) equated Moses and Aaron by referring to them by the same titles, the Torah had to add the word במחקק, “through a lawgiver” (sing.) to teach us that after the death of Miriam the well became reactivated only through the merit of the lawgiver, i.e. Moses. וממדבר מתנה, “and from a desert, an inhospitable place to a great gift.” The gift of the well was considered an historic gift. From there the people proceeded to the rivers and tributaries of Arnon where the great miracle we just described took place. All the words of the song relate in one form or another to acts of kindness G’d performed for His people. From the rivers of Arnon the people traveled to Bamot, the land of the mighty Kings Sichon and Og who qualified for such a title. From the Bamot Hagay as far as the field of Moav there was no other river that could have provided water for them except the well of Miriam/Moses. A Midrashic approach: The introductory words אז ישיר ישראל את השירה הזאת, “then Israel sang this song,” appear deficient. Surely we would have expected the additional words: “to the Lord” as we have in Exodus 15,1 where Moses composed the song. The appropriate wording would have mentioned first the name of G’d and afterwards the name of Moses or it should have described Moses as the composer of this song also. The reason this was not done was that this very well was the cause of Moses having to abort his mission of leading the people to the Holy Land, the reason he had to die and be buried on foreign soil. It would therefore not have been fitting to mention his name in a song of thanksgiving for that well. Since Moses is not mentioned, G-d's name is omitted as well in deference to Moses. We can understand this by means of a parable: A king was invited to a festive meal somewhere. He responded to the invitation by saying that he would only attend if a certain friend of his would be there also.