Zakkai's house of study, where they would speak of

God's greatness. Shall take –that is Nebuchadnezzar. Cedar wood,

hyssop and crimson stuff -these are Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And throw them into the fire consuming the cow

–a tongue of flame consumed the men (Daniel

3:22). Shall

gather -that is God, for it is written, He will hold up a signal to the

nations and gather the banished of Israel (Isaiah

11:12). A

man -that is God, for it is written of Him, The

Lord is a man of war (Shemot 15:3). Who is clean -that is God, for it

is written of Him, You whose eyes are too pure to look upon evil (Habakkuk 1:13). The ashes of the cow -this is Israel's exiles. And deposit them outside the

camp in a clean place -this is Jerusalem, which is clean. It shall be kept for the

community of the Israelites -for in this world, Israel is made unclean and

clean by a priest, but in the future God will make them clean. How do we know

this? I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you will be clean (Ezekiel 36:25).

(Yalkut Shimoni

Torah/Hukat/#759)

Hidden, Secret, Unsolved -This is the Ritual Law

Rami Pinchover

The

author of Sefer HaHinukh has the following to say about the rationale

for the commandment of Parah Adumah (the red cow): "My hands are

too feeble and I fear opening my mouth regarding this commandment."

Yitzhak Heinemann, in his book Ta'amei HaMitzvot BeSifrut Yisrael (beginning on pg.12) surveys the opinions opposing the attempt to find reasons for the

commandments. He preferred the view of "many of our people's great men,

who saw this endeavor as not merely permissible, but as required by the Torah."

Our parasha sets many paradoxes before its readers, yet above

them all stands out what I would call the "halakhic

paradox of Parah Adumah" (following my

teacher, Prof. Ya'akov Milgrom, in his commentary to

Bamidbar published by JPS, and in other places), i.e., that "all who deal

with the cow, from beginning to end, become ritually unclean, while it [the

cow] itself cleans the unclean" (Pesikta DeRav Kahana

-PDRK -4:1)

There

is a famous story about a gentile who asks Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai to explain

the rationale of the Parah Adumah. The

concluding sentence of that story appears in many different variations in Jewish

literature, underscoring the Sages' difficulty in struggling with the issue.

One

early version of the story¹ offers the formula: "A statute have I enacted, a decree have I made, and you are

not at liberty to transgress my decree." A slightly later source gives us:

"Do it honestly, do it innocently, do it faithfully, a decree have I made,

a statute have I enacted, one should not wonder about it" (Midrash Tehillim 9:2, and, following it, Yalkut Shimoni

Kohelet 989, and Rashi Bamidbar 19:2). However, a different version² appears in later sources: "I

enacted them, and you have no permission to wonder about them" (Tanhuma Mishpatim 7, Yoma 67b).

Step

by step. At first, the reason for the commandment is unknown and not

understood, but it remains permissible to think about, to examine, and to

analyze the commandment in depth while firmly believing in the duty to fulfill

it. Next comes the intermediary stage in which doubt

starts nibbling away and the suspicion arises that thought and study might damage

the integrity, innocence, and faith in which the commandment is to be observed.

Finally (due to the decline of the generations, apparently) the prohibition

appears: "you have no permission" -you are not allowed to even think

about the reasons for the commandment lest you not observe it at all. And thus

devolved the secrets of the Torah, which were at first known to Rabbi Akiva and

his friends (PDRK 4:7), until the time of the author of Sefer

HaHinukh, who feared to "open his mouth" and discuss the reasons

for this commandment.

However,

this was not the opinion of "the greatest of the early liturgical poets,

the keystone of Hebrew religious poetry through the ages" (according to Prof. Eliezer Fleischer in Tarbiz 50), i.e., Eliezer ben Kallir.

In a series of wonderful poems written in connection with Parashat Parah

(poems to be recited in the amidot of Shabbat, which are known as Shevatot,which

have been edited and commented upon by Prof. Shlomit Elitzur in her books Shira

Shel Parasha, beginning on page 239, BeTodah VeShir

from page 79, and in Dr. Zeligman Baer's Siddur, Avodat Yisrael, starting on page 694) Rabbi Eliezer ben Kallir offers explanations for this commandment, some

of which are based on known midrashim, while the sources of the rest remain

unknown.

Kallir begins:

Do

not think or speak about that which has been decreed

For

it was given with a kiss [its reasons were given in secrecy]

And

they are all present to he who understands

And

the intelligent will understand all the others [commandments].

Except

for the reasons for the [red] cow, which are not to be comprehended.

However,

in the continuation, he relates to each details of the commandment as a tikkun

maidservant's son befouled the king's palace, [so] the king said, let his

mother come and clean up his mess, so said God -let the cow come and atone for

the calf (PDRK 4:8).

As Kallir put it:

They

exchanged honor for the cow's son

Balking

at Him like a cow (see Hosea 4:16)

Let

his mother the cow come

And

be atonement for the people.

His

unprecedented midrash is

even more surprising; it suggests that the cow did not come to atone for

the calf. Rather, the cow came first to repair the "original sin"

(the sin blamed on Eve throughout the generations by Jewish and Christian

exegesis), for that sin brought death to the world, and in the end the cow

brings final redemption to the world, a redemption which will be free of death,

and which will fulfill the verse, He will destroy death forever. My Lord God

His people over all the earth -for it is the Lord who has spoken (Isaiah 25:8).

Kallir begins

with an apology:

I

will request permission to expound

One

among a thousand reasons

Which

man has been allowed

To

contemplate, understand, study and validate.

Later,

he hints at the commandment's rationale:

What

is the reason -She makes clean the uncleanness of death

Her

sprinkling cleans mortals

As

she [Eve] brought the taste of death to the generations

Pouring

them the cup of death

And

so one [the cow] takes the place of the other [death]

To clean the uncleanness of death.

And

towards the poem's end:

And

why are the dead [cow]'s ashes mixed with living water?

To hint that the dead will rise to life.

And

so Kallir manages to touch upon what might be called "the

great human paradox" of the parasha of Parah Adumah.

This entire parasha is devoted to the technical details

of the ritual uncleanness which is transmitted from the deceased to his family,

relations, and home; an uncleanness known to us from other ancient cultures as

the spirit of death and the fear of death, as we may learn from the episode

involving the gentile and Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai. However, this commandment,

which is described in greater detail than any other commandment or sacrifice,

remains completely oblivious to emotion, to the mourning and sorrow for the

death of a loved one. It transforms those emotions into strictly ritual acts,

as do the exegetes and midrashim who ponder the

commandment without really considering its rationale or touching upon the human

side of death.

It

seems to me that precisely this commandment points to the great danger brought

by the refusal to deal with the reasons for the commandments. It is surprising

and interesting that precisely the commandment whose performance is delineated

in such exacting detail completely ignores the mourning and deep emotions that

stand at the center of the very event -death – which has created the need for

the water containing the cow's ashes. It seems to me that this parasha

indicates to us that submersion in the technical performance of commandments

can overshadow suffering and prevent preoccupation with death. However, it may

also dull one's sensitivity, and cause thought and common sense to atrophy.

Therefore, we must dig deeply to understand this wonderful parasha in the

manner of that wonderful poet, who tries to touch upon the sorrow and agony

which makes the Parah Adumah necessary, and to offer the mourners some bit of

hope and comfort.

In

the future, as Kallir hints³ (see

BeTodah VeShir pp. 92-3 and PDRK 4:10,

and the end of Pesikta Rabbati 14) there will be no more water of the Parah Adumah (and perhaps

there will be no reason to concern ourselves with its rationale), rather God

will take its function upon Himself, as the prophet Ezekiel says in the

haftorah for Parashat Parah: I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you

will put My spirit into you (Ezekiel

36:25-7).

Rami Pinchover is an engineer

1. A gentile asked Rabban

Yohanan ben Zakkai, saying to him, "These rites that you carry out

look like witchcraft. You bring a cow and slaughter it, burn it, crush the

remains, take the dust, and if one of you contracts corpse uncleanness, you

sprinkle on him two or three times and say to him, 'You are clean.'"

He said to him, "Has a wandering

spirit never entered you?"

He said to him, "No."

He said to him, "And have you ever

seen someone into whom a wandering spirit entered?"

He said to him, "Yes."

He said to him, "And what do you

do?"

He said to him, "People bring roots

and smoke them under him and sprinkle water on the spirit and it flees."

He said to him, "And should your

ears not hear what your mouth speaks? So this spirit is the spirit of

uncleanness, as it is written, I will cause prophets as well as the spirit

of uncleanness to flee from the land (Zechariah 13:2)."

After the man had gone his way, his

disciples said to him, "My lord, this one you have pushed of with a mere

reed. To us what will you reply?"

He said to them, "By your lives! It

is not the corpse that imparts uncleanness nor the

water that affects cleanness. But it is the decree of the Holy One, blessed be He.

"Said the Holy One, blessed be He, 'A

statute have I enacted, a decree have I made, and you are not at liberty to

transgress my decree: This is the hok