The Red Heifer: Loving Others
Feb 28th, 2010 by Rabbi Simcha Weinberg in Holidays, Portion of the Week
Helping Others
The secret of the Parah Adumah – the Red Cow – is Loving Others.
The Chassidim pondered for hours, but they could not figure out what their holy leader was trying to teach them.
They had no choice but to ask their master for an explanation.
The Cohen who purifies the impure with the ashes of the Parah becomes impure. He allows himself to become impure in order to help another. That is true love for someone else.
The secret of the Parah Adumah – the Red Cow – is Loving Others.
And, there’s more…
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This reminds me of the role Esther played. Being willing- happily- to “become impure” in order to help her nation. Understanding the necessity of the process and the opportunity she can choose to grab, even if the consequences for her are devastating. Yet, doing it out of love.
I wonder if the Cohen, in order to act as a catalyst of some sort, had to go through a similar process…
I’d like to suggest a corrolary to the Holy Vorke rebbe’s deep deep Torah above.
Perhaps this adds another level of understanding “v’Ahavya l’Rei’acha camocha, Ani HaShem”, Love your neighbor as yourself, I am G-d.
Why the coda ‘I am G-d’?
The Cohein charged with dealing with the ashes of the Holy Cow at whichever stage – became ritually impure so that others may become purified.
But the Torah doesn’t add the coda ‘I am G-d’ to those verses relating to each Cohein’s mission and status!
The Torah does summarize this aspect of Parah Adumah (B’Midabar 19;10)”v’Hay’tah liVnei Yisroel v’LaGeir hagar b’tochum l’Khukat olam”and this shall be an imponderable commandment for B’nei Yisroel and the Geir.
So,although the Red Heifer , in and of itself, is imponderable, nobody is going to raise their eyebrows when they see the Cohein going about his business. Perhaps B’nei Yisroel will even have admiration for the Cohein who is willing to sacrifice his own ‘purity’(for the day)so others may be purified. If nothing else,no one will be critical of the Cohein’s actions – the Torah has codified it as a Khok, an imponderable commandment.
But,loving your neighbor – if you really really do something for someone, saving their life, but at the same time willing to take it on the chin even if outwardly the world may condemn you for you’re doing something unpopular or ‘outside the norm’-that’s where the ‘I am G-d’ comes in.
G-d is The One Who Knows.
Who knows what people were saying about ‘Hadassah hee Esther’ when she gave up the spiritual comfort of living within the Jewish community for life in the palace?
Sometimes, ascending to “The Palace of the King” means you have to go thru the mud.
The Amshinover Rebbe said about R’Shlomo:
I am jealous of R’ Shlomo’s portion in The World To Come, for he was willing to go to places everyone else was afraid to go.