AS HEARD FROM… Danny Azarfar
It says in this week's Parasha... “This is the statute of Torah... and they shall take to you a red heifer.”
QUESTION: Why does it say “Zot chukat haTorah” — “This is the statute of the Torah” — instead of “Zot chukat parah adumah” — “This is the statute of the red heifer”?
ANSWER: The laws concerning the parah adumah are paradoxical. On the one hand, when the mixture is sprinkled on the defiled person, he becomes cleansed. On the other hand, those who are involved in the preparation of the parah adumah become defiled.
The people appointed to prepare the parah adumah may rationally argue, “Why should we become defiled for the sake of those who were not careful to avoid contact with a corpse?!”
Through the statute of parah adumah, the Torah is teaching that a Jew must help another Jew even if it requires sacrifice. This is “chukat haTorah” — “a basic principle of Torah” — and though we may not easily comprehend it, we must practice it in our daily lives.
There is a popular adage, “Give ‘til it hurts.” Unfortunately, many people give when it hurts, i.e. when things are not going well and they need special Divine mercy, but very few give ‘til it hurts. The statute of parah adumah, which is described as “the statute of Torah,” teaches us to help another Jew even if it hurts. However, we can take it one step forward.
What does it mean, “’til it hurts”? It means that it’s beyond your comfort zone, and it is a stretch to be able to do what you are doing. That’s also how athletes feel when they’re pushing themselves to their limits and beyond. However, instead of feeling bad about it and stopping, they keep pushing themselves. Some experience what’s called a “runner’s high,” a euphoric feeling when you’ve pushed yourself to your breaking point and suddenly, you’re at peace and feel like you can do anything. That’s how we ought to be when helping each other.
Don’t give ‘til it hurts; give ‘til it feels good.
When the Jews saw that they were not going through the land of Edom, they became distraught. They thought, “We were so close and now we’re turning back. When that happened to the last generation, it added thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness. Now that’s going to happen to us too!”
They couldn’t handle the thought of that and they turned on Hashem and Moshe. They complained and asked why they had been taken from Egypt to die in the desert. Hashem sent snakes into the camp and many people were bitten and died. The people came to Moshe and admitted that they were wrong, so he prayed for them. Hashem told him to make a serpent and affix it to a pole.
Moshe made a copper snake and whoever looked at it realized his mistake and was healed. The very thing which was the cause of the suffering (the snake) became the conduit of the salvation. One message of this was that we shouldn’t assume the worst, nor that we automatically know what will happen.
Hashem has His plans and nothing that happens to us is necessarily good or bad. It depends on what Hashem’s intention is.
When faced with adversity, we should remember that Hashem is keenly aware of our needs and nothing happens by chance. If we were close to a goal and were turned back, there is a reason, but we cannot assume the same outcome.
