You shall be wholehearted with Hashem your G-d

זאת חקת התורה אשר צוה ה' לאמר דבר אל בני ישראל ויקחו אליך פרה אדמה תמימה אשר אין בה מום אשר לא עלה עליה על: (יט:ב)

This is the statute of the Torah, which Hashem has commanded, saying: Speak to the Children of Israel, and they shall take to you a perfectly red cow, which has no blemish, upon which a yoke has not come. (19:2)

Rashi explains: Because the accuser and the nations of the world aggrieve Israel by saying, “What is this commandment?” and “What reason is there to it?” therefore the Torah wrote of it “a statute”. It is a decree before Me, you do not have the right to reflect upon it.

The commentaries on Rashi explain that he saw fit to group the accuser and the nations against Israel asking for the reason for the ‘Parah Adumah’ [red cow] since they saw a chance to disparage the mitzvos and Israel who performs them, since this is a mitzvah that arouses wonder. As we see as the narrative continues, there is something and its opposite. Just as it purifies those who are impure, so too it makes impure those who are pure. They wanted to find fault in the Torah of Hashem, and by doing so they would weaken the mitzvos in the eyes of the believers chas v’shalom.

It is for this reason the Torah comes to calm the hearts and inform that the obligation to keep the mitzvos is not dependent on understanding their reasons. The mitzvos are like ‘edicts’, just as the king decrees without always thinking about those who are obligated in his decrees, so too our Creator does not consider those who are obligated to keep them, and they are obligated to keep them even though they make no sense to them. That is, we must believe that the decrees of our Creator are upright, even though at times their reasons are hidden from us.

Based on this we can also say why the Torah said ‘Zos chukas HaTorah’ – ‘This is the statute of the Torah’ although it is only discussing the mitzvah of the ‘cow’, since this now changes how we look at all the mitzvos in the Torah, even those we think we know the rationale behind. We must keep even those as if they were ‘statute’ and ‘decree’, and not because we understand their rationale.

Rashi previously pointed out the claim of the nations against Israel (Bereishis 1:1). There, he quotes the expression of Rebbe Yitzchak who wondered why the Torah described the creation of the world and the history at such great length until leaving Egypt, and the Torah did not begin with the mitzvah of ‘Hachodesh hazeh lachem’ – ‘This month is to you’ (Shemos 12:2) which was the first directive to Israel. To this he responds, ‘If the nations of the world will say to Israel, “You are bandits for you conquered the lands of the seven nations occupying Canaan,” Israel will say to them, “The whole earth belongs to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. He created it, and He gave it to the one found proper in His eyes.”’

Now we come to the posuk before us, examine it and you will find a change in expression. There by the Creation Rashi brings down that the intent of the Torah was to express the response to the nations, ‘Israel will say to them’, that is, we see it appropriate to respond to your arguments. But when we come to the Parah Adumah the words are very different, He is not responding to the nations of the world at all. Here it does not say, ‘Therefore, He wrote a statute in it to respond to them’, for then we would have understood that the response was directed also to the nations of the world. However, here it appears as one who is hiding from the nations. The main reason for this response is to correct the flaw that is created from the power of this argument. As we have said, the nations wanted to weaken the value of the mitzvos based on this argument. Therefore, they respond to Israel how they are supposed to look at the mitzvos, they must serve their Creator by nullifying their view. They must know that they cannot understand the view of their Creator, but there is no need to respond to the nations.

With a superficial look we can understand that the distinction between the two answers is correct. When the nations attack us and claim that we did bad to them, it is fitting to calm them and inform them that HaKadosh Baruch Hu gave us the land. However, here, they are not coming with an interpersonal claim, so we do not have to deal with them, and all we have to do is make sure no damage to Israel will result from this.

However, this answer is not correct. We must be diligent that the Name of Heaven is not profaned even among the nations. If we have a definite answer, then it is fitting that we silence them with it. So why did they hold themselves from doing that?

The answer for this is that these words were not meant to resolve the perplexity. It is only to remind the believing person that this dilemma should not make an impression. Right from the start a dilemma like this does not arouse in the heart of the believer. Emunah [belief] is not at all dependent on intellect, and one’s belief in the mitzvos of our Creator is tantamount to our belief in our Creator Himself. Just as we believe in Yisbarach without a concept of Him, so too we believe in His mitzvos without any concept of rhyme or reason. However, this is when the nations come and try to sway our emunah with the argument that if the ways of Hashem are upright, then why do we see in this mitzvah contradictory principles? For this the rectification is to bring Israel back to their emunah, and to remind them that our Judaism is not dependent on intellect at all, and just as we believe in Hashem, so too we believe in His mitzvos, even a mitzvah that is far from our intellect. However, this is not an answer for the nations, for had they understand the concept of this answer, they would have no question at all.

This topic is truly ‘Chukas HaTorah’ – ‘Statute of the Torah’, since the person must know that when it comes to matters of emunah, the satan wants to provoke Israel even until today. Constantly, when things are hidden, the satan shows up and asks, “Where is your G-d?” With this it wants to cool our emunah. Since we merit to be counted among the believers, children of believers, we must show it that nothing hidden will cause us to budge from our wholehearted emunah. Just the opposite, it is specifically during these times we reveal our emunah to our antagonists.

And so this is our avodah when we are confronted with the challenge of things being hidden, to repeat again and again the faith we have in our Creator, and to thank Him in the bad times with faith that it is good. In this way we can truly instill the emunah well in our midst. As HaRav HaKadosh Rebbe Moshe of Kovrin said on the posuk (Tehillim 116:10) 'האמנתי כי אדבר' – 'I kept faith although I say’, the Jewish person merits to reach the level of ‘I kept faith’ in the merit of ‘although I say’, constantly renewing the faith, since moving the lips is considered an action that makes a great impression on the person and gives rise to emunah.

We must know that this is the purpose of things being hidden. Our Creator wants us to instill emunah within us. Come see the expression of Rashi on the battle with Amalek (Shemos 17:8): The Torah juxtaposed this parsha with the previous posuk 'היש ה' בקרבנו' – ‘Is Hashem in our midst?’, to say, “I am always among you and ready for all your needs, yet you say, ‘Is Hashem in our midst or not?’ By your lives, the dog, Amalek, will come and bite you. And you will shout to Me and know where I am.” We see that even after Bnei Yisrael saw all the signs in Egypt and on the sea, they still did not have emunah within them. Hashem’s advice was to bring it in while hidden, and this will arouse the faith in their hearts, and they will come to the situation of ‘and you will shout to Me’ which will bring you to ‘and you will know where I am’…