Parashat Parah: What is the message of the cow?

In the Maftir this week, we read from Parashat Chukat, the section about the Parah Adumah, otherwise known as Parashat Parah.  I believe there is a message here that is a crucial element of our philosophy as Orthodox Jews.

The Parah Adumah (Red Cow) discussed in Parashat Chukat is utilized in a process of purifying a person who became impure through contact with a dead person. In addition to what’s on the surface, Chazal teach us that this cow is brought to rectify the horrible sin of the Golden Calf , which is found in Parashat Ki Tisa. After Moshe goes up to Har Sinai to get the luchot from Hashem, the Jews grow inpatient and ask Aaron to create this calf as some form of intermediary to Hashem. An in-depth look at the commentaries will reveal different understandings of what exactly they did wrong here, but that notwithstanding, how does the Red Cow rectify this sin of the Golden Calf?

The simple understanding is that the sin was done with a baby calf and so the positive act of purification with “its mother” the Red Cow is done to make up for the misdeeds done with her calf. But what exactly does this mean? How are the two connected in a deep way, allowing us to really understand the message?

The Brisker Rav suggests that the sin of the Golden Calf  was that the Jewish people attempted to add to their avodat Hashem, something not suggested by G-d Himself or one of his prophets. Perhaps this was not avodah zara in the sense of bowing down to a foreign idol, but rather it was an attempt to reach G-d out of fear that Moshe wasn’t going to return. But despite some good intentions, they tried to do things differently, and in a way that was not warranted. It is for this reason that Hashem commands us to bring a Red Cow and it is commanded in the verse as זאת חקת התורה, “This is a chok from the Torah.” A chok is a mitzvah that Hashem specifically does not reveal His reasons and logic for. We are asked to do, and we do because Hashem said so. Now we see that to make up for the Golden Calf, where we tried to create or reform our service of Hashem without his permission, we are asked to rectify our wrongdoing by performing a mitzvah we do not understand. 

The message here is crucial. As Jews, we are taught that Talmud Torah is of paramount importance. We are supposed to learn and to question, so we can perform the mitzvot better. Yet, there is an important aspect that our commitment to performing mitzvot should never be based on that understanding. We do mitzvot because Hashem asked us to, period! After we accept that, only then we can spend our lives searching and questioning. We have to recognize that a crucial element of our lives as Jews is to do the mitzvot unconditionally, and to not reform them without G-d’s permission or the guidance of our Chachamim. That was the mistake of the Golden Calf, and now we understand why bringing the Red Cow was so important. 

Purim: The Final Kabbalat HaTorah

The Ariz”l writes יום כיפורים – כ-פורים, Purim is compared to Yom Kippur the holiest day of the year. Not only that, it seems to be on a higher level, for Yom Kippur is like Purim.

What does this mean? How are we to understand that Purim, a day of costumes, food and wine is holier than the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur?

Rav Dessler explains that Yom Kippur is the day of כי ביום הזה יכפר עליכם...לפני ה' תטהרו where Hashem forgives us and we become purified; we achieve a closeness to Hashem, yet this comes out of יראה, fear. On the other hand, it is on Purim where we get close to Hashem out of אהבה ושמחה, love and happiness; out of recognition for the miracles that Hashem did for us and for seeing His constant Hashgacha in all that goes on in the world.  Despite our being in galut and His presence sometimes hidden, הסתר. Closeness achieved out of love and happiness is a much higher level than one derived out of fear.

To explore this a little deeper, let us look at the words of the Vilna Gaon:

"ענין פורים שהוא נגד יוהכ''פ, כי שמונה עשר ימים טובים בשנה, שנים שנים, שבעה שבעה."

“Purim corresponds to Yom Kippur, for there are 18 days of Yom Tov during the year, a pair of twos and a pair of sevens.” What does this refer to? The first set of two refers to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the second set of two refers to Shemini Atzeret and Shavuot. The first set of seven refers to the seven days of Sukkot and the second set of seven refers to the seven days of Pesach.

וכנגדן ח' ימי חנוכה" והנה ח' ימים שאין גומרין את ההלל”

There are eight days where we do not say a full Hallel, the last six days of Pesach, then Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. To make up for those eight days, Chazal instituted a full Hallel on Chanukah.

The Vilna Gaon concludes that since Chanukah has the full Hallel, it does not need the formal obligation of simcha; there is no obligation to eat. To make up for that simcha, we have 6 days of simcha on Pesach, and two days on Rosh Hashanah, where there is an obligation to eat and enjoy the day. Finally, there is Yom Kippur, a day of atonement and refraining from food and drink,  so we actually must refrain from simcha. To make up for that, Chazal instituted Purim, where we are obligated not just to rejoice with food and drink, but to rejoice a lot, go to far lengths to have and create simcha. Where does this simcha come from? As we will see below, after the miracles of Purim occurred, the Jewish people re-accepted the Torah out of a love for Hashem. In fact, as we will see now, the connection between Yom Kippur and Purim rests on the common theme of Kabbalat HaTorah. I will develop this even further:

What connection is there between Yom Kippur and Kabbalat HaTorah?

The original Kabbalat HaTorah began with Moshe going up to Har Sinai with the Jews saying נעשה ונשמה; it was a total and unconditional acceptance of the Torah. When Moshe comes down from the mountain he observes the Jews committing the sin of the Golden Calf, where upon he smashes the luchot, necessitating a teshuva process for the Jewish people. After Moshe helped us achieve forgiveness, he came back down on Yom Kippur with the 2nd luchot.That is the simcha of Yom Kippur – it is a day of Kabbalat HaTorah that came about from genuine teshuvah.

Yet there was one significant drawback - the Kabbalat HaTorah on Yom Kippur was out of אונס it was somewhat forced. As we find the Gemara in Shabbat פח says,

ויתיצבו בתחתית ההר – א''ר אבדימי בר חמא בר חסא, מלמד שכפה הקב''ה עליהם הר כגיגית, ואמר להם, אם אתם מקבלים התורה מוטב, ואם לאו שם תהא קבורתכם.

That Hashem lifted the mountain above the heads of klal yisrael and said, “accept the Torah and it will be good for you, if you don’t it this will be your grave.”

How could this have been באונס? Did we not have free choice?

The Maharal explains that we were not a physically forced to accept the Torah, rather we were אנוסים מחמת הכרה, it was total awe. We had reached the level of פנים אל פנים דיבר ה' עמכם, with awe we saw the importance of Torah and that the entire world rests on it. So did we have real choice? Yes, we did choose, but in that position who could have rejected the Torah??

We now have a better understanding of the nature of Kabbalat HaTorah on Yom Kippur. Now, take a step back and ask, didn’t the Jews accept the Torah unconditionally, with נעשה ונשמע? Why did we need this second, more forceful acceptance? Furthermore, we will soon see  there was a third Kabbalat HaTorah on Purim. Why the need for a third?

נעשה ונשמע was a great accomplishment, to take Torah upon yourself unconditionally, but the downside is that just like you accept it upon yourself, you can easily just as easily give it up. That is why Hashem chose to “lift the mountain over us.” There has to be a certain element of it being forced to show that Hashem is in charge and there are consequences to not following Him. Yet that is all out of יראה. It was a Kabbalat HaTorah, but somewhat short lived, as seen with the quick mistake at the sin of the Golden Calf, as many have wondered how could the Jews sin so quickly after receiving the Torah. I believe the answer to be they accepted the Torah out of awe; it was so overwhelming, and so it was short lived. It wasn’t something they could hold onto for the long-term.

The Gemara says, אמר רבא אעפ''כ הדור קבלוה בימי אחשורוש, דכתיב (אסתר ט) קיימו וקיבלו היהודים

“During the times of Achashveirosh the Jews re-accepted the Torah, as it says, קיימו וקיבלו.”

One could ask, the order of the pasuk is incorrect, first it should say they קיבלו and then it should say קיימו? Therefore, Chazal explain, קיימו מה שקיבלו כבר, they accepted that which they had previously accepted. Rashi explains, מאהבת הנס שנעשה להם, meaning  the Torah that was accepted out of אונס at Har Sinai, was not accepted out of love.

Were there no other miracles earlier in history between the time of the 2nd luchot and Purim? Why was it specifically this miracle which caused the Jewish people to re-accept the Torah?

The Gemara in חולין says, אסתר מן התורה מנין? ואנכי הסתר אסתיר, Chazal are teaching us that the times of אסתר  were a time of הסתר פנים – and it was through the hiddenness that Hashem showed his "אנכי", meaning, through His running the world, in what seems to be the simple acts of nature. Yet He tweaked it for the benefit of the Jewish people. Until this point, all the miracles were נסים גלוים, open and undeniable. Those do not have the same long lasting impact on us. As we explained above, it was those miracles that were the drawback to the Kabalat HaTorah on Yom Kippur, with the 2nd luchot. They were too open and undeniable – as we saw, the Jews didn’t know how to handle this and integrate it into their everyday lives – the result was the חטא העגל.

Perhaps now we appreciate what Purim is all about! It is all about our recognizing the hand of Hashem in our lives through the hidden miracles of Purim. From those miracles we see the Hand of Hashem in every act of nature. This should bring us to a closeness and a love for Him. This can bring about the strongest kind of Kabbalat HaTorah. It is for this reason, we needed a third Kabbalat HaTorah, one that through love could last us for all times. This is the simcha we all need to connect to on Purim!

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Links to Other Purim Torah

1. CLICK HERE to a short synopsis I wrote on the Laws of Purim.

Parashat Zachor: What Exactly Are We Supposed to Remember?

"זכור את אשר עשה לך עמלק בדרך בצאתכם ממצרים, אשר קרך בדרך ויזנב בך כל הנחשלים אחריך ואתה עיף ויגע ולא ירא אלקים, והיה בהניח ה' אלקיך לך מכל אויביך מסביב בארץ אשר ה' אליקך נותן לך נחלה לרשתה, תמחה את זכר עמלק מתחת השמים לא תשכח." (דברים כה יז)

This week, we read Parashat Zachor, the torah portion that reminds us about the bold act that Amalek took in attacking the Jewish people so soon after the miracles of the exodus from Egypt and the splitting of the see. Although in Jewish law there are a few times we are commanded to “remember” something, what exactly are we supposed to do or to think about to fulfill this mitzvah properly? What is the goal? Let’s explore this based on an essay found in the sefer Shevilei Pinchas.

First let’s look at the war with Amalek in Parashas בשלח:

"ויקרא שם המקום מסה ומריבה על ריב בני ישראל ועל נסותם את ה' לאמר היש ה' בקרבנו אם אין. ויבא עמלק וילחם עם ישראל ברפידים. (שמות יז ז)

Rashi explains that Hashem says to Klal Yisrael, I am always here for you and ready to take care of you, and you say היש ה' בקרבנו אם אין? How could you? How could you ask am I really here? Didn’t you just experience the miracles of Egypt and Yam Suf? What will be when a dog comes and bites you? Will you then cry out for me? Perhaps we can appreciate this through the parable of of a man who travels with his son on his shoulder and every time the son sees something he wants, the father buys it for him. The boy asks repeatedly, and the father provides. Afterwards, they meet another man and the boy asks him, “have you seen my father?” His father asks his son, “you don’t know where I am? I’ve been with you all this time.” So he sends the boy off on his own and comes along a dog and bites him.

This question is so troublesome, that there must be something more here than meets the eye?

Let’s explore another question that might help shed some light on the first.

Why did Chazal institute the bracha of שעשה נסים לאבותינו בימים ההם בזמן הזה just on Chanukah and Purim, but not on Pesach?

The קדושת לוי explains that there is a difference between the miracle of יציאת מצרים and the miracle of Chanukah and Purim. The miracle of the exodus from Egypt was למעלה מן הטבע, above the norms of nature. Hashem changed nature;  both its order and normal function – 10 plagues, water changed to blood, frogs, lice, darkness, all first born dying in one night and the biggest of all with the splitting of the sea. But the miracle of Chanukah and Purim was disguised in the normal order of nature. רבים ביד מעטים but it was in normal nature. So too on Purim, Haman wanting to kill us, but through the pawns of Esther and Achashverosh, Haman was stopped and the decree was annulled. Nothing out of nature, but yet it was all done through the יד ה'. Therefore, Chazal instituted this bracha to say the miracles that Hashem did were disguised בזמן הזה, in the guise of nature so they were “in this time,” in the world of time. As opposed to the miracles of the exodus which were above nature and, not disguised in the typical time of nature.

Based on this, it sounds as though the miracles of Chanukah and Purim have some additional level, even higher than the miracles of Pesach, which were above time. There is one danger with a supernatural miracle;  although it shows that Hashem can change nature, perhaps when He restores nature, he removes himself and gives control back over to the stars and constellations. Although this is a heretical way of thinking, this is what one might think. The בני יששכר explains that when we come to the miracle of Adar, which was within nature, but shows the world that Hashem is pulling all the strings, leaving no doubt that He is in control of the world at all times, never leaving it to the stars. The lesson: all of nature, every day is a direct result of Hashem’s control. What emerges is that all of the workings of the world are in Hashem’s direct control.

The miracles of Purim and Chanukah are disguised in nature to teach us that Hashem is not just able to change nature and perform miracles, but he controls every detail of daily life. This is the foundation of our אמונה. This is similar to the teaching of the Ramban (Parashas Bo) that we are obligated to believe in the ways of how Hashem controls nature; that all of the supernatural miracles were actually done to teach us that all hidden parts of nature and hidden miracles are  in fact miraculous.

Now we can begin to understand what the Jews responded when being attacked by Amalek. They had witnessed the open and undeniable miracles of Egypt, but they thoughtt maybe Hashem then retreated into the background, giving control to the stars. That is the pshat, היש ה' בקרבנו אם אין, Is Hashem with us in nature and still in control, or is he more removed?

This also explains the parable of Rashi, where the boy asks the stranger if he knows where his father is. We asked, how could he ask that? How does he not know and see his father is right there? He’s been doing everything for him? The answer: since the boy has gotten used to his father taking care of everything,  he has made it so natural that he forgets the source of where it is coming from. The lesson: we get so used to Hashem taking care of us through natural means, we take for granted that the sun rises and sets and that rain falls, etc. The result is we “forget” Hashem, we forget that he is running the day to day nature of the world. As a result, just as in the Mashal where the father throws the boy off and a dog comes and bites him, so too, if we forget Hashem’s daily involvement in the nature of the world, that causes Hashem to have something natural punish us – ויבא עמלק וילחם עם ישראל ברפידים, Amalek just happens upon us and attacks us.

The שם משמואל explains the war with Amalek had to come before מתן תורה to avoid any excuses; without this lesson of Amalek, people could have mistaken מתן תורה as a coincidental act of nature, and then it would not have had the same importance. All the more so, the miracles of Chanukah and Purim which were disguised in nature, we have to first erase the name of Amalek so as not to allow people to mistakenly attribute these miracles to acts of nature.

משנכנס אדר מרבים בשמחה: Parashat Pekudei

חז''ל say משנכנס אדר מרבים בשמחה, that when Adar begins we have to increase our level of happiness. The truth is that we have to be בשמחה all year round, but in Adar there is an added Simcha. As the pasuk says (עבדו את ה' בשמחה (תהלים ק' ב – the entire avoda of a person has to be with שמחה.

In Parashat Ki Tavo, in the section of the potential curses that could come upon the Jewish people, the pasuk says "תחת אשר לא עבדת את ה' אלקיך בשמחה ובטוב לבב מרוב כל." – That we will be cursed if we do not serve Hashem with simcha. A lack of simcha is not just a detail, it represents missing the whole avodah. For example, if you have a fully furnished house, but it is missing a coat rack and you throw your coat on a chair, you are missing the coat rack. That is a detail;  it doesn’t prevent you from living. But simcha in a person is the whole purpose of a Jewish person. If that is lacking, he is missing everything. Even when looking at the setup of the moadim, Purim being the last holiday of the year has its root in simcha.

In every generation we have to contemplate what will bring us to simcha. In our generation, specifically with so much darkness and hatred in the world, a time with terrorist bombings and stabbings, it is difficult to be b’simcha. What do we do?

Let’s look at it from the other perspective. The Gemara in Taanis (26b) says משנכנס אב ממעטין בשמחה, when the month of Av begins, we decrease the amount of simcha we have. So to counter the extra simcha in Adar, we decrease the simcha in Av, ultimately leading to Tisha B’av where we reach the pinnacle of sadness, עצבות. When looking at this further we see that mankind is built on both, שמחה ועצבות, happiness and sadness. There are some people that look at the glass half empty and those that look at it as half full. Those who look at it half empty always see their lack of success and their mistakes as glitches or happenstance. With this approach, Tisha B’av would appear as a result of some random mistakes the Jews made in the world, which brought about Tisha B’av. Other people look at the glass half full, where everything happens for a reason. Chazal teach us to have this approach; they say Tisha B’av occurred as a result of the Meraglim (spies) reporting all the bad they perceived would be found in the land of Israel. Chazal say that night was Tisha B’av and Hashem said to the Jews, “tonight you are crying meaningless tears, so I will give you a real reason to cry in the future.” This means that there are certain times of the year set aside for destruction, such as Tisha B’av and that is why the events of the Meraglim could take place, and the crying occurred on that day. Similarly, this is why the destruction of both the first and second Beit Hamikdash took place on Tisha b’av, a day set aside for destruction. So just as Adar is set aside for happiness, Av is set aside as a time of sadness. Just as Purim has a megillah of simcha, Tisha B’av has the megillah of Eicha; one of sadness.

There is a question asked by many commentators: How could Yirmiyahu Hanavi compose the megilla of Eicha if he lived the worst time of destruction, and we are taught that prophecy can only be received in a time of happiness? Was Yirmiyahu happy in such a destructive time? The answer is yes. Somehow there was an element of simcha that he had, despite the destruction that was going on. If he could be happy at a time that the Beit Hamikdash was destroyed, then we can be happy in our times as well. But to understand this, we need to recognize the Torah viewpoint of happiness is different than that of the general world. The truth is that a Jew’s happiness does not come from his wealth, his intellect or any other material possession. True lasting happiness stems only from a spiritual connection that we have with Hashem. Material things wax and wane; they are only temporary. Our connection to Hashem and to his Torah is everlasting.  We may not understand why Hashem allows innocent people to be murdered, but these events tend to bring us closer to Him; they usually arouse our connection to tefilla to beg Hashem to give comfort to grieving families and to prevent future deaths.

We know that at the time of the Purim story Jews were destined to death. But through Hashem’s masterful pulling of his puppet strings, all within the normal course of nature, Hashem saved the Jews. So Purim represents our emunah; our unwavering belief in Hashem. It is a belief that He is watching over us every minute of every day, and all that happens to us is for the best. We may not always see it or understand it, but if we believe it, we will live a life of simcha; a life where we always see the  glass as half full.