Parashas Chukas! This is what it's all about!

In this weeks parasha we find the purification process of the "parah adumah/red heifer". A person who became spiritually impure through contact with a corpse becomes pure through this process. While this process purified the person who underwent it, it also caused people who were previously pure to become impure.

"V'tameh hacohen ad haerev/and the cohen is impure until the evening."(Bamidbar 19:7)

Rav Yitzchak of Vorki z"ya says that the essence of the parah adumah is the concept of "v'ahavta lreiacha camocha/love your neighbor like yourself". His grandson Reb Mendel of Vorki z"ya explained that this is because the cohen who was involved in this purification process became impure himself by the same process that purified the person who came to him. When someone loses out himself in order to help someone else, that is the ultimate in love for one's fellow man. (Bais Yitzchak Chukas)

"Zos chukas ha'Torah..../This is the decree of the Torah…a completely red heifer" (Bamidbar 19:2)

A Torah law, or mishpat, is a logical commandment designed to insure the harmony and welfare of a society. Such laws include the prohibitions against murder, adultery, and dishonesty.

In contrast, a chok, or decree of the Torah, is a Torah commandment that defies rationale or human understanding. There are many decrees in the Torah, such as the prohibition of wearing fabrics made from a combination of wool and linen, the prohibition of eating milk and meat, and the prohibition against crossbreeding, just to name a few. Yet, the decree that requires us to use the ashes of a burnt red heifer in the ritual purification process is the only decree that is introduced by the preface of "This is the decree of Torah." Why?

The preparation and implementation of the holy purification water made with the ashes of the Red Heifer have a strange characteristic. All the priests that participate in the slaughter of the Red Heifer and the burning of its flesh become ritually contaminated, or impure. Yet, when the Red Heifer ashes are mixed with the holy water, they purify the ritually impure. So, we have a situation where the fulfillment of this same Torah decree makes the pure become impure and the impure become pure. Confusing?

The decree of the Red Heifer is essentially symbolic of the material world. Things that look real, such as wealth and physical pleasures are nothing but illusions, here today and gone tomorrow. Yet, absolute truth – the existence of Hashem as Creator and sole Ruler of the world, who personally controls everything that ever occurred, occurs, or will occur in the universe – isn't visible at all to the physical eye. So, like the Red Heifer, what you see in this world is not really there, and what you don't see is alive and real.

Rebbe Nachman of Breslov warns us (see Sichot HaRan, discourse 51), "Take my advice and do not let the world fool you."

This world is similar to the decree of the Red Heifer – just as the red heifer is deceiving, for the impure becomes pure and the pure becomes impure – this material world of ours is an optical illusion where fantasy is reality and reality is fantasy. A simpleton that lacks faith often sees Hashem's way of doing things as apparent cruelty. Yet, one of the foundations of emuna, faith, is that Hashem does everything for the very best.

So, don't let the world fool you, as Rebbe Nachman of Breslov warns; when a person trusts in Hashem, ultimately – by virtue of emuna – he or she merits to understand how everything Hashem ever does in their lives was for the absolute best. May Hashem grant all of us unshakeable faith in His holy name, amen.

A wonderfull Shabbos to one and all!!!
peace and joy,

Etan