Numbers 19 relates to the laws of the Red Heifer or "Parah Adumah", which is read on the Shabbos following the holiday of Purim. On a macro-level, this section details the laws of how to ritually purify oneself after coming in contact with a dead body. However, much of the literal meaning seems to be self-contradictory - the process involves a completely red heifer (though red typically denotes sin and impurity); it must be slaughtered outside of the Israelite's encampment (later, Jerusalem), but it must be done within sight of the Tabernacle (later, the Temple) and its blood must be sprinkled towards the Holy of Holies and some think that the Kohen Gadol personally must slaughter the red heifer while wearing his white linens that are otherwise reserved for use only on Yom Kippur; the ashes of the red heifer purify the uncleanliness of coming into contact with a corpse, but leave those involved in its preparation spiritually impure.
In fact, the introduction to the section, and reason for the name of parasha, gives us a clue that the ensuing commandments will be difficult to understand. The portion Chukas starts by stating "This is the decree ( chok ) of the Torah." The Hebrew word chok (חק), meaning decree, is translated by Rashi as a "supra-rational command", beyond reason and is used for such commandments as the red heifer, prohibition against eating non-kosher animals (e.g., pigs) or prohibition against wearing a garment made of both wool & linen. There are why the kashrut laws should be the way they are; no rational reason why a mixture of animal fibers and plant fibers shouldn't be copacetic. In the end, though, the other two mainstay chukim are at the very least self-consistent and could be superficially given some sort of ex post facto rationale, e.g., dietary laws could be due to health reasons, etc.
For the red heifer, though, even King Shlomo, the wisest man in the Tanakh, couldn't grasp it. The Midrash Tanchuma states that Shlomo's lament in Ecclesiastes 7:23 concerned this portion; he said "All of the Torah's commandments I have comprehended. But the chapter of the red heifer, though I have examined it, questioned it and searched it out--I thought to be wise to it, but it is distant from me."
Unfortunately, today's society is ruled by the specter of rational humanism that relegates tradition, belief and cultural differences to the annals of history. It is becoming harder and harder to rest upon the ultimate justification for not just the mitzvah of the red heifer, but in the end all of the mitzvos - we do them "because G-d said so." Judaism does not deny rational, critical thinking about the mitzvos - if it did, the Talmud would be a lot smaller.
However, it's important to realize that justifications are often double-edged swords: while making it easier for modern man to swallow, justifications based on physical reality can become outdated, thereby seemingly voiding the necessity of the commandment. For instance, the chok of not eating pork was mostly commonly justified by saying that in days of yore there were health concerns about eating pork. In today's post-The Jungle society of tighter health standards and sensitive meat thermometers, trichinosis is a thing of the past (and/or thing of the current developing world), and unfortunately for many Jews so is the prohibition against eating pig.
The temporariness of justifications is why these laws of the red heifer and the purification of those contaminated by a corpse are summarized in Num. 19:21 as a chukas olam, or everlasting decree (chok). These laws are the supra-rational commands of G-d and will remain, both the law and the supra-rationality, forever. It is our job as children of Israel to struggle against the supra-rationality of G-d's decrees by trying to understand and comply with them rather than justify and sublimate them.
No comments:
Post a Comment