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Beit Midrash
- Torah Portion and Tanach
- Shmot
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The ashes of the red heifer, blended with various other ingredients, creates a compound that somehow manages to make spiritually pure those who had been defiled after coming into contact with a dead body. Yet at the very same time that the person is purified, the Kohen who administers the compound is himself rendered tamei!
How can this be? How can the very same item have the exact opposite effect on two different people?
But to me, this is not the most challenging part of the puzzle. I find it even more mysterious that the ashes of a dead thing can bring one back from the dead; i.e. remove the stain of death from one who had touched death. Now,
I can understand how some acts - such as immersion in a Mikva - can serve to alter, or negate, the imprimatur of death, for in that instance it is life (in the form of water, a primary source of all life) which dispels death. But how
can death cancel death?! This is indeed mystifying.
While I certainly do not claim to be smarter than Shlomo HaMelech, who lamented that he could not unravel this ancient riddle, I do have a thought on the matter.
In the circle of life, there is a very close proximity of death to life. A leaf dies when it falls off a tree, but when it flutters to the ground it enriches the soil, which will then give life to new plants. A woman’s giving birth to a child will cause
her reproductive system to (temporarily) go sterile. A person dies, but at the moment of his death, he enters into life eternal (thus a cemetery is referred to in Jewish tradition as a Beit Chaim, a house of life).
On a national level, our greatest moments of life are connected to the bitterest pangs of death. So it was when we reached the lowest level of degradation in Egypt, only to be followed swiftly by our Redemption. And so it was 70 years ago, when from the ashes of the Shoa there arose the rebirth of our great nation Israel. It is as if Hashem cannot bear for us to remain tamei for long; we must always return to vibrant, dynamic, active life.
Sefer Shmot began with our entrance into slavery – a kind of living death - but it ends with the building of the Mishkan, a place that holds the Luchot - Torat Chayim - & the Shechina, the spirit of the living G-d. The final word is,
& shall always be, L’Chayim – To Life!
The section of the Torah read as Maftir this Shabbat of Parshat Para has baffled scholars & commentators for all of our history. Taken from the Sedra of Chukat, it is known as the Chok par excellence, the most perplexing of all the seemingly unknowable statutes of the Torah.
The ashes of the red heifer, blended with various other ingredients, creates a compound that somehow manages to make spiritually pure those who had been defiled after coming into contact with a dead body. Yet at the very same time that the person is purified, the Kohen who administers the compound is himself rendered tamei!
How can this be? How can the very same item have the exact opposite effect on two different people?
But to me, this is not the most challenging part of the puzzle. I find it even more mysterious that the ashes of a dead thing can bring one back from the dead; i.e. remove the stain of death from one who had touched death. Now,
I can understand how some acts - such as immersion in a Mikva - can serve to alter, or negate, the imprimatur of death, for in that instance it is life (in the form of water, a primary source of all life) which dispels death. But how
can death cancel death?! This is indeed mystifying.
While I certainly do not claim to be smarter than Shlomo HaMelech, who lamented that he could not unravel this ancient riddle, I do have a thought on the matter.
In the circle of life, there is a very close proximity of death to life. A leaf dies when it falls off a tree, but when it flutters to the ground it enriches the soil, which will then give life to new plants. A woman’s giving birth to a child will cause
her reproductive system to (temporarily) go sterile. A person dies, but at the moment of his death, he enters into life eternal (thus a cemetery is referred to in Jewish tradition as a Beit Chaim, a house of life).
On a national level, our greatest moments of life are connected to the bitterest pangs of death. So it was when we reached the lowest level of degradation in Egypt, only to be followed swiftly by our Redemption. And so it was 70 years ago, when from the ashes of the Shoa there arose the rebirth of our great nation Israel. It is as if Hashem cannot bear for us to remain tamei for long; we must always return to vibrant, dynamic, active life.
Sefer Shmot began with our entrance into slavery – a kind of living death - but it ends with the building of the Mishkan, a place that holds the Luchot - Torat Chayim - & the Shechina, the spirit of the living G-d. The final word is,
& shall always be, L’Chayim – To Life!
Rabbis in Midrash
Lessons
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The Land of Israel LGBT'S IN ISRAEL
The question was asked, how can one make Aliyah with the LGBT parades?
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 7 - Five Accumulative Proofs of G-d
As a preparation for the Kuzari's classic proof of G-d from the mass-revelation at Sinai, we start here with 5 other directions to strengthen our belief which also contribute to what the Kuzari will present as well.
Ein Aya Muscle & Meaning: The Dual Nature of Gevurah (Physical Strength)
Is physical strength and fitness a necessity or an ideal? Although it if often totally overlooked among topics of Judaism, Rav Kook writes that it clearly is also a necessity to deter the many enemies of Israel, but even in Y'mot HaMashiach, in the Messianic era, to a certain extent, it's ideal continues even after our enemies will have been finished off.
Chukat "HOW ENTEBBE STOLE THE BICENTENNIAL
The Difference Between Historic & Eternal"
As we approach America's 250th birthday, it's worth remembering her 200th Bicentennial birthday, on Jul. 4th 1976, when Israel "stole the show" by shocking the world & miraculously saving 101 hostages in a foreign continent. As Pres. As Pres. Trump decides which countries get priority in his new Middle-East, it's worth reminding him of the difference between historic events and eternally historic ones. This obviously connects with this week's parsha, as well!
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 6 - The Parable of the King of India
The advantages of testimony over circumstantial evidence or philosophical speculation.
Kuzari -Rabbi Ari Shvat Kuzari class 5- "Proofs of G-d"
This may be the most important class of the entire book, where we finally get to the Jewish proof of the existence of G-d and truth of the Torah. We should follow His own direction where He tells us how to get to Him: through the Nation of Israel: Jewish history, Jewish prophets (and today, prophecies fulfilled), and national reward & punishment towards Am Yisrael.
Ein Aya One Humanity, One Creator, One Jerusalem
Rav Kook innovatively and beautifully explains this aggadeta where our sages say that after Jerusalem was destroyed her cinnamon fragrance is only found locked in a particular kingdom's treasury.
