Chukkat 5767

Parashah Hukkat is somewhat of a Parah-dox (you knew it was coming, didn't you?). On one hand, it opens with the commandment to prepared the ashes of a perfectly Red Heifer (the name, spelled "redheffer", of my first-year calculus professor, I kid you not) for purposes of purifying anyone from the impurity conveyed through touching or certain types of proximity to a dead body. This passage is said to have been taught already back in Sefer Shmot, at Marah (Chap. 15), before coming to Mt. Sinai. At the very least, it must have been taught before the Mishkan was put into operational mode, and so, although placed here, it really belongs much early in the sequence of events. On the other hand, most of the Parashah deals with events that take place in the fortieth and final year of the desert trek. Commenting on the first verse of chapter 20 (the first verse after the passage dealing with the Parah ritual), which reads, "The people of Israel came, all of the assembly, to the desert of Tzin in the first month", Rashi writes: "the whole assembly, for those destined to die in the desert had already died, and these had been separated for life". In other words, the forty year decree was complete.

But where did the time pass? The previous verse spoke of the Parah, from the first year? The previous parashah was Korach, and even those who don't predate that to the time of the investiture of the Levites have it follow immediately upon the incident of the spies, in the second year of the wanderings. How can what is arguably the opening passage of the desert sojourn (Parah at Marah) lead smoothly into the death of Miryam, and then, after their momentary, momentous lapse at Masah and Merivah (where Hashem "sticks" it to Moshe and Aharon for smiting the rock with stick instead of tongue), the death of Aharon and soon enough, Moshe?

The midrash, brought by Rashi, tells us the reason for the juxtaposition: Just as the sacrifices atone, likewise the death of the righteous atone. This itself is a tremendously important concept, which needs to be carefully delineated so as to distinguish it for the vicarious atonement offered by a certain well-know daughter religion. But, even assuming we have done such delineation, there remains a problem: THE PARAH IS NOT A KORBAN!!

Just think about the word: Korban - that which draws close. The blood of the holiest of offerings are brought into the Holy of Holies itself, yet the Parah is offered and burnt in its entirety on the Mt. of Olives, Har Hazeitim (also know in the Mishnah as Har Hamishhah), at a precisely determined spot from which one could see directly into the Temple, but at a remove of well over a kilometer.

There's many other ways, detailed in the Mishnah, Massechet Parah, in which the Parah is shown to be it's own critter, referred to as "Hattat" in name only (not quite, but that's for another time). One of the MOST important differences between a Korban and the Parah is that the Parah DOES NOT ATONE!! It cleanses of impurity, it is in fact the ONLY method of removing the most severe impurity, namely, corpse-impurity, but it does not atone! Yet, nevertheless, the ritual of its preparation is parallels in many ways the rituals of Yom Kippur, the day of ultimate atonement.

The Parah is as rare as it is unique. The Sages of the Mishnah dispute whether their have been seven or nine Parot prepared during all of history.

And, of course, there is the well-known paradox that the Parah renders those who prepare it impure, even as it removes the impurity of those upon whom it's water-mingled ashes fall.

How do we understand this? Simple - we don't. The Midrash has the wisest of all men, Shlomo Hamelech, bewailing his inability to comprehend the inner meaning (which is the ONLY meaning) of the Parah. Hashem says to Moshe (in the Midrash): to YOU I reveal its meaning, but not to anyone else...

Why to Moshe? O.K., cut to the chase: BECAUSE MOSHE IS PARAH!!

Think about it:
The parah effects transition from impurity to purity for others, but for itself (i.e., those who prepare it), it leaves them in the realm of impurity. LIkewise, Moshe brings the people to the point of entry into the new realm of Eretz Yisrael, but he himself cannot go there.
The Parah enables purity, but does not effect atonement; Moshe enables the service in the Mishkan, but he himself is not a Kohen.
The logic of the Parah is incomprehensible; the mind of the man who spoke to G-d as one speaks to a friend and contains/conveys the entirety of Torah will all its indescribable beauty, complexity and wisdom, is incomprehensible.
The Parah must be perfectly red (two non-red hairs invalidate it), and Moshe must be perfectly humble to be able to serve as a transparent vehicle for divine communication. (two whacks of a stick on a rock disqualify Moshe from continuing to serve as the leader of the people)

When the Parah is prepared, the Kohen must look as he sprinkles its blood directly along the line of sight which leads into the Holy of Holies, right at the spot between the wings of the Keruvim on the Aron, whence the voice of Hashem speaks to us. He cannot see that far, with the resolution needed to distinguish details. Therefore, as I learned yesterday from Rav Meir Sendor, the gaze served as a "non-focusing" device to enable a kind of peripheral, all-encompassing vision,. the vision of Shema, a vision more akin to hearing, where Hashem is One, and the jewel of our individuality is resplendent even as it melts into the perfectly fashion setting of our (non)place in the universe.

This is how Moshe, impossibly, saw the Whole Land from his vantage point at the summit of the Mount of Transcending (Har Ha'Avarim). May a fragment, a taste of that vision, be accessible to us in our lives, a vision that "renders impure" via (temporary to be sure) sacrifice of the mastery inherent in linear seeing, even as it frees from the impurity of death via a global peripheralization of vision throughout the midst of which the sweetest, purest, clearest ONE resides and sings through us to the entire world.