A STATUTE — and specifically the kind of law given without a reason attached. The root is chaqaq, to CUT or engrave, so a choq is something inscribed rather than argued: it stands because it was cut, not because it persuades. Torah law is traditionally sorted into mishpatim, rulings whose sense is evident (do not steal), and chuqqim, decrees whose sense is not — and the red cow of Numbers 19 is the standing example of the second kind, opening with zot chuqqat ha-torah, 'this is the statute of the law', a phrase that occurs in only two verses in the Bible (the other is Numbers 31:21). ⚠ Numbers Rabbah 19:3 reads Ecclesiastes 7:23 — 'I said I will be wise, but it was far from me' — as Solomon confessing that this one chapter defeated him. The same noun in the phrase chuqqat olam, a perpetual statute, closes many of the priestly laws, including this chapter's own vv10 and 21. → first discussed at Num 19:2