by Rav Avichai Katzin, Rabbi in Raanana and Head of Beit Medrash Shaarei Mishpat, yeshiva.org.il, translated by Hillel Fendel.
As is well-known, the entire idea of the Red Heifer and its ability to purify us from the impurity of death, while at the same time defiling those who are pure, is an inexplicable Torah statute that we fulfill without understanding.
Our Sages teach that this is why it is called chukat haTorah, "the statute of the Torah" (Bamidbar 19,2), as if G-d is saying, "It is My decree and you have no permission to second-guess it" (Rashi).
Given that it is termed a chukah, it would seem that we need not or should not speculate about its justification. Still and all, many have tried to understand and explain the Red Heifer. In the following words, we will not seek to join in these efforts. But we would like to understand one aspect of the message of the Red Heifer: What is its relationship to death?
Death in Jewish tradition is associated with tum'ah, impurity. The gravest level of impurity is a corpse, followed by certain dead animals (sheretz, nevelah, etc.). Even the impurity of niddah, a menstruant woman, is rooted in the missed opportunity to create life. But, what is the message of this tum'ah for us, the living? What does the impurity of death teach us?
And perhaps we may add: What do we feel towards death?
In the Torah's verses of explanation to the commandment of the Red Heifer, we read: "Anyone who touches a corpse, [i.e.,] a soul of the person who has died [lit.: will die], and is not sprinkled upon [by the Red Heifer ashes] – he defiles G-d's tabernacle sanctuary [if he enters it] and will be spiritually cut off from Israel" (Bamidbar 19,13).
Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, the great 19th century German rabbi and scholar, asked two questions on this verse: Why does the Torah refer to one who touches a soul of the person? Should it not be simply, "One who touches a corpse, a soul of a person who has died"?
And furthermore, why does it say that the person "will die," when in fact the Torah is referring to one has already died?
Rav Hirsch answers both questions at once: "The 'soul of the person who will die' refers to man in general who is destined to die. When a person stands aside a human corpse, he becomes defiled and impure – with the sense of finality, of inevitable cessation, of human mortality. With this sense he loses his vitality and his joy and love of life. What significance can there be to life, he asks, if it is so transient and leads inescapably to "the end"? As in Ecclesiastes, "what point is there to all his work under the sun?"
This is the sensation of one who stands opposite "the soul of the man who is destined to die."
The purpose of the Red Heifer is to symbolize the fact that we have the ability to purify this sensation that accompanies death, and that we can overcome it.
Similarly, Rav Hirsch explains the connection between the Red Heifer passage and the story of the death of Miriam that follows right afterwards:
"Our Sages explained (Tr. Moed Katan 28a): 'Why were these two passages placed one after the other? To tell us that just like the Red Heifer atones, so too, the death of righteous people atones.' This tells us another great truth, as well: that just like the Red Heifer tells us that man's soul is eternal and he possesses ethical freedom, so too the death of the righteous teaches us these two things. In fact, only a blind person cannot see that the body of a righteous person is only a garment that he tosses off when he reaches the World of Truth."
We all know that a tzaddik's death does not signify the end of his influence in the world. Avraham Avinu, Moshe Rabbeinu, Hillel and Shammai, Abaye and Rav, the Rambam and Rashi continue to live long after their physical deaths.
I was recently thinking how many times a day Jews all over the world mention Rashi's name. I have no doubt that his name is mentioned over a million times each day! After all, Jews the world over learn the Bible and the Talmud with his commentary, and speak of Rashi – a Jew who was born nearly a thousand years ago – countless times without even realizing it!
This message, too, is taught by the Red Heifer, as it is burnt totally, yet is then able to purify us from the defilement of death.
The same lesson is taught by one of the Ten Martyrs, R. Chanina ben Tradyon, as recounted in Tr. Avodah Zarah 18b. When the Romans were burning him to death together with a Torah scroll, his students asked him, "Our teacher, what do you see?" That is, what do you comprehend at this difficult hour? He answered them: "The parchment is burning, but the letters are floating up into the air." He told them that the outer wrapping, the body, can be burnt – but the spirit is eternal, it floats up into the sky, and it cannot be destroyed.
From this Talmudic account the Rambam learns the value of every individual mitzvah. If a person fulfills even just one mitzvah with all its details and with perfect intentions, he will merit the World to Come. For when R. Chanina told R. Yossi ben Kisme about the time he was extra attentive to each detail of the mitzvah of giving charity, R. Yossi told him: "From this I see that you will have a share in the World to Come." The body can be consumed, but the spirit, the letters, the mitzvot that a person amasses in This World fly up into the air and overcome our human mortality and death.
And this message, too, is taught us by the Red Heifer.
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