In the synagogue the Torah is read aloud in a fixed annual cycle of fifty-four weekly portions (parashiyot), one each Shabbat morning, with certain adjacent portions doubled in ordinary years so the sequence fits the calendar. Each portion is named for a distinctive word near its opening and is paired with a haftarah, a reading from the Prophets. The cycle closes and restarts on Simchat Torah. Chukat ('The Statute', Numbers 19:1-22:1) opens with the paradoxical rite of the red heifer whose ashes purify from contact with death, then the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, the waters of Meribah for which Moses is barred from the land, and the bronze serpent raised to heal the people.
The red heifer's ashes, which purify one who has contacted a corpse while simultaneously rendering the priest who prepares them ritually impure (Numbers 19:1-10), is classified by rabbinic tradition as the paradigmatic chok, a statute whose logic the Torah does not supply, and a widely cited midrash has even Solomon confessing he could not fathom the rite's underlying rationale despite understanding all else in the Torah. Moses striking the rock rather than speaking to it as instructed, at the waters of Meribah (Numbers 20:7-12), is the episode the text itself cites as the reason Moses and Aaron were barred from entering the promised land, and the exact nature of their fault has generated centuries of exegetical disagreement, Rashi emphasising the deviation from the specific command to speak, Ramban proposing additional explanations involving anger or failing to sanctify God publicly.