Drasha - Chukas, 5757 - Torah.org: "Volume 3 Issue 41
by Rabbi Mordechai Kamenetzky
The laws of the parah adumah, the red heifer, have enraptured mortals since the day it was commanded. There was no reason or rationale given for it. The nations of the world, baffled by it, mocked our observance of it. Even King Solomon, the wisest of men, claimed to be stupefied by its reasoning. And Moshe was the only mortal that understood the essence of its every nuance.
Its laws are complex, its symbolism mysterious, and the logic of its repercussions quite enigmatic. The red heifer's ashes purify those who have become tamei (impure), yet the administrating Kohen who was tahor (pure) becomes tamei! There is no logic behind that occurrence; yet that is the law. So sacred was the red heifer that Moshe and Aaron sacrificed, that it ashes were saved from generation to generation. Each additional red-heifer offering was added to the remnants of the previous, so that the new ashes would mix with the vestigial ashes of Moshe's original heifer.
Hundreds of generations and thousands of Kohanim and Israelites who performed the mitzvah of parah adumah believed with unquestioning faith in the law's ritual divinity and power."
Courtesy of Torah.org
Aharon Moshe's Notebook- Parshas Chukas 2008
http://thewriterscafe.org
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