From: Netvort@aol.com
Sent: Friday, July 08, 2005 2:30
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To: JoshHoff@aol.com
Subject: Netvort : parshas Chukas,
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By
Rabbi Joshua (reversibly known as The Heifer) Hoffman
In
memory of Chaya Rivka bas Yitzchok HaLevi, whose yohrzeit will occur next
Friday, the eighth of Tammuz.
In this week's parsha we are
told of the mitzvoh of Parah Adumah, or the Red Heifer, which is used in the
process of purifying someone who has become defiled through contact with a human
corpse. Many commentators raise the question, why is this mitzvoh mentioned at
this point in the Torah. Rashi to parshas Beshalach tells us that the mitzvoh of
Parah Adumah was first given at Marah, before the Torah was given at Mt. Sinai.
Although this opinion of Rashi is based on an alternate reading of a midrash and
is not followed by most commentators, the Talmud in Gittin, 60a, states
explicitly that the section of Parah Adumah was one of the eight sections of the
Torah that were given on the first of Nissan in the second year after the exodus
from Egypt. Moreover, Rashi there writes that the first Parah Adumah was
actually burned on the next day, in order to purify the people in preparation
for bringing the Pesach sacrifice. Why, then, is this mitzvoh mentioned in
the Torah only now, in parshas Chukas, when the nation is about to enter the
Holy Land after a sojourn of forty years in the wilderness? I believe that the
key to answering this question lies in a remark cited by Rashi in the name of
Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan.
Rashi tells us that the mitzvoh of
Parah Adumah is a classic example of a chok, or a mitzvoh whose purpose is not
readily understood, and for which the nations of the world criticize the Jewish
people. Still, after explaining the basic meaning of the twenty-two verses in
which this mitzvoh is presented, Rashi cites an additional approach to
explaining these verses which does shed light on the purpose behind the mitzvah.
According to Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan, as cited by Rashi, the red heifer comes to
serve as an atonement for the sin of the golden calf. Just as a mother needs to
come and clean up the mess that its child makes, so, too, the cow, who is the
mother of the calf, needs to clean up the mess that was generated by her
offspring. Rav Yerucham Levovitz, who was the great mashgiach ruchani, or
spiritual guidance counselor, in the yeshiva of Mir in pre-World War Two Poland,
noted, in his commentary Da'as Torah, that the crucial idea mentioned in this
explanation of Rabbi Moshe HaDarshan is that the same element that is used for
sin can be used to rectify the sin. Although Rav Yerucham does not say
this, I believe that this is a restatement of the element of the Parah Adumah
process that is generally considered to be its essential mystery, namely, that
it can both purify the impure and defile the pure. I believe that it was this
crucial message that was needed to be taught to the generation that was about to
enter the land, and that connects the section of Parah Adumah to the sections
that follow it in the Torah.
After the section on Parah Adumah, the
Torah relates the death of Miriam. Rashi, citing the midrash, writes that this
juxtaposition teaches us that just as sacrifices bring atonement, so too does
the death of the righteous bring atonement. Although, in last year's Netvort
(available at Torahheights.com), we elaborated on this concept and how it
relates to the Parah Adumah, I would like to approach it, now, in a different
way, in the context of Rabbi Levovitz's explanation of the lesson to be gleaned
from the Parah Adumah. The notion that the death of the righteous brings
atonement is grounded in the assumption that, when a righteous person dies, we
reassess his/her life, learn from their example and incorporate these
lessons into our own lives. In the case of Miriam, we know that during her
lifetime, the people did not learn from her example. As Rashi taught us, the
meraglim, or spies, should have learned not to engage in leshon hora, or evil
talk, from Miriam, who loved Moshe and did not speak in criticism of him out of
malice but rather out of concern, but was still punished for what she said.
Because they did not learn this lesson, they spoke of the Holy Land in a
negative way, led the nation astray, and ultimately caused them to wander in the
wilderness for the next thirty-eight years. Now that Miriam died, they had
another chance to learn that lesson.
When Miriam died, the
well that had supplied the people with water dried up, and the people complained
of their thirst to Moshe. God told Moshe to gather the people in front of a rock
and speak to it, which would, in turn, produce water for them. Why did God
tell Moshe to speak to the rock, rather than to hit it, as He had told him to do
at Refidim, thirty-eight years earlier, when they complained about a lack of
water? Rabbi Moshe Sofer, known as the Chasam Sofer, explains that Moshe was now
being given a chance to correct the wrong that the people had done in connection
with the evil report of the spies. In that instance, the spies, and with them
the nation, sinned through the improper use of speech. Now, Moshe was to
demonstrate to them that the same gift of speech could be used in a positive
way, to produce the water they needed to slake their thirst. On a wider level,
this was actually, the message that the people needed to learn in regard to
Eretz Yisroel, in general. As Rabbi Chaim Ya'akov Goldvicht, founding Rosh
Yeshivah of the Yeshiva Kerem B'Yavneh, often taught, Eretz Yisroel was the
location where the worst possible moral outrages were performed by its local
inhabitants, the Cana'anim. It was the mission of the Jewish people to take that
same land and use it for the purpose of kedusha, of holiness. In essence, this
was the lesson of the Parah Adumah, as explained by Rav Yerucham, and the lesson
that Moshe was to have taught the nation by speaking to the rock. Because Moshe,
by hitting the rock instead of speaking to it, failed to teach them this lesson,
which had such important implications for their future life in Eretz Yisroel, he
was not allowed to lead them into the land. Thus, the placement of the
mitzvoh of Parah Adumah at this juncture, on the eve of the nation’s entrance
into Eretz Yisroel, though the mitzvoh had actually been given long before, is
understandable, because it serves as a framework for understanding the task of
the nation once they would enter the land.
Please address all
correspondence to the author (Rabbi Hoffman) with the following address -
JoshHoff @ AOL.com.
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