Vayidaber Hashem el Moshe ve’el Aharon: zot chukat hatorah asher tziva hashem
Hashem spoke to Moshe and Aharon saying: This is the statute of the Torah, which the Lord commanded (19:1-2)
The Torah goes on to explain the confusing and paradoxical instructions of how to use the parah adumah (red heifer) for purification. The commentaries ask why this practice, of all customs and mitzvot we find in the Torah, is introduced as chukat hatorah, the statute of the entire Torah? These striking words suggest that there is a fundamental lesson to be learned from the nature of the parah adumah.
We know that the parah adumah is the paradigmatic chok (a law that we do not fully understand) in the Torah - as the entire process is mysterious and its reasoning unknown. The most puzzling part of the process is that while the one who is impure is purified, while the one who is pure becomes impure. On another level we see a similar paradox – Chazal explain that the parah adumah served as an atonement for the sin of the golden calf – ironically the same animal is used to atone for their national sin.
We can better appreciate the significance of this conundrum when we see it in the context of the parsha, in which we find another similar, though perhaps lesser-known situation. When the Jews complain to Moshe once more in this parsha about the lack of water in the desert, Hashem sends a plague of serpents that swarm the area and kill the people by their fatal bite. In order to stop the plague, Hashem instructed Moshe to place a serpent made of copper on a pole suspended for all to see. When the Jewish people looked up and saw this serpent they were saved from the deadly serpents that were in their midst.
Like the dual nature of the parah adumah, the very thing that saved the Jewish people was what had caused the destruction in the first place; the very thing that caused impurity is what provided purification and atonement! The dual-nature of the serpent is discussed in the Gomorrah (Rosh Hashana 29a) and quoted by Rashi in our parsha:
Does the serpent kill or give life? Rather, when Israel looked towards the heavens and subjugated their hearts to their Father in Heaven they would be saved, and if not they would wither.
So why it was this creature that served was both the source of punishment and the salvation for the Jewish people at this time? The serpent symbolizes the yetzer hara - as we recall it was the serpent that first introduced this desire into the psyche of humankind in the Garden of Eden.
Perhaps this leaves us wondering all the more so how and why this lustful, sinful serpent was also the savior of the Jewish people at the time?
The lesson is a fundamental one to Jewish thought and Torah practice – the lesson is that nothing in this world is inherently bad. Our desires when directed upwards (as signified by the fact that the Jewish people had to look up at the snake suspended on the pole) - even our "ugliest" and base desires become part of our spiritual existence and growth. Were in not for our drives and desires, we could not reproduce and continue to populate the world. This is reflected in the definition of the word yetzer – which actually means to create – this drive can be used for evil (yetzer ra) or for good (yetzer tov).
It need not be said that we are not supposed to seek out challenges for ourselves or put ourselves in situations that will make us impure –but it also need not be said that we are human and subject to human mistakes during our lifetimes. The fundamental truth of the Torah that is taught in our parsha is that we can use those falls to lift ourselves up – the very things that once bring us down can purify us if we can learn the lesson of our mistakes. Perhaps the first step in this process is first realizing that there is goodness in everything – even the cow that was used for the nation’s gravest sin and the creature that first introduced sin into a pure world – and if even these can be transformed for the good and into good, then each of us can find our inner goodness and purity.
This Shabbat we begin the month of Tammuz – a month that goes hand in hand with the lessons of the parsha we read at its commencement. It is during this month that the Jewish people built the infamous golden calf and the tablets were shattered – which marked this day and this month as one of calamity and tragedy for generations. But we know that while Chodesh Tammuz is at once an ominous month of commemorating sin and the downward spiral that ensued, but it is also an auspicious one as it marks the beginning of the teshuva process – when Moshe returned to the heavens to receive the second set of luchot. The Midrash tells us that the first set of broken luchot was kept alongside the second set as a constant reminder to the Jewish people to learn from their initial mistake and to recognize that even our past sins have value in that our teshuva process not only serves as a repentance but a renewal and rejuvenation that lifts us to an even higher spiritual place and allows us to reconnect with Hashem in an even stronger way.
The Netivot Shalom points out that the Torah introduces the purification process of parah adumah as chukat hatorah to tell us that even after the time of the beit hamikdash in which this process could be done – the way of the Torah is to be constantly purifying ourselves. So as we enter this month that certainly begs for reflection and introspection – we must do so with the understanding that the mistakes of our past - on both the national and personal level – is part of a purification process that will bring us to new heights in our spiritual commitment. May the lesson of our parsha remind us to tap into the goodness of this month as we begin to think about the pieces of ourselves – the thoughts, the desires, the actions, and the middot – that can be purified as we tap into the promise of this month for purification that will lead us on an upward spiral of purification and elevation. Shabbat Shalom & Chodesh Tov, Taly
