All the Mitzvot in the Torah were designed as an expression of the Ultimate Will and Infinite Wisdom. They are all beyond human ken and understanding.

However, there is one category of laws called “Chok” which are blatantly beyond any human understanding.

Parah Adumah is the paradigm of Chok. We cannot understand how a Red Cow can bring purity. We cannot understand why the Cohen who purifies becomes impure.

A Chok changes us; it forces us to confront the fact that we cannot understand. The Chok reminds us that we of finite mind and understanding cannot begin to comprehend the Infinite Will and Wisdom of the Creator.

The Chok does more: Each time we observe a Chok, whether it is the separation of milk and meat, or wool from linen, or a Red Cow, we are observing with a sense that what we do matters in ways that are beyond us. The Chok teaches us that we cannot fully appreciate the power and implications of our actions.

The Chok nurtures a Sixth Sense in us, a sense that we can use with each Mitzvah we observe, the sense that what we are doing attaches us to the Infinite. The Chok can transform all we do.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

There are contradictions in the Parah Adumah. The Cohen who purifies others becomes impure as he purifies.

There are contradictions in the Parah Adumah just as there are contradictions in life.

Judaism, torah, nurture our independence. They use our drive to become something to attach us to God, when we can only truly be. And yet, in order to attach to God, we must let go of ourselves, and stand in total and absolute humility before Him.

We nurture our growth and independence, our Bechira Chofshit, our Free Choice, and yet, ultimately, we understand that we can limit ourselves when we focus on our development. We can become too self-defined.

Development that can limit. There are contradictions in our spiritual lives. These are the contradictions of the Parah Adumah. They are part and parcel of Creation.

The Parah Adumah reminds us not to become too lost in one approach or the other. It gently reminds us that our struggle to grow is the struggle of all human beings. We cannot be frustrated by the contradictions. They are not only ours. They are everywhere and everybody’s. They are part of the Parah Adumah.

And, there’s more.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

The Mitzvah of Parah Adumah can be quite confusing and demanding. The more we learn the more demanding it becomes.
Children had to be raised from birth in a secluded environment specially designed to protect them from any possible impurity in order to have people with the proper level of purity to prepare the Parah Adumah. They were not able to live among a normal functioning society.
This situation is not unique to the Parah Adumah. There are many of us who feel that in order to live as we should we must separate ourselves from society. In order to maintain the purity of our prayers, blessings, learning and Mitzvot we must seclude ourselves from any external and corrupting influences. How can we possibly maintain our spiritual integrity in an environment, which seems so contradictory to so much of what we believe?

These children were not being secluded from a corrupt society. They lived at a time when people were living with great spiritual honesty and awareness. They still had to be separated. There is no perfect society. There is no way to live in absolute spiritual purity and holiness. This was the gift of the Parah Adumah. When we felt overwhelmed by the demands of life, of making a living and raising our children, when we felt torn away from the joy of connecting with God as we desire in the deepest part of our being, we could travel to Jerusalem and taste perfection, if only temporarily.

The contradictions of the Parah Adumah are the contradictions of life. They are part and parcel of human existence and are not bad. They are the core of our job to discover the holy even in the impure.

And, there’s more…

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“This is the decree of the Torah.”
Because Satan and the scoffers ridicule Israel for observing the law of the Parah Adumah, which does not seem to make any sense, God declares, “It is a decree from Me. You have no permission to question it!”

My father zt”l used to say, “Look how powerful is the influence of those who make fun of us and question us! God has to demand our observance of the Parah Adumah in order to protect us from their laughter at our commitment to His Mitzvot.”

There is very real power in the laughter, jests and jokes of those who want to weaken our observance.

The Mitzvah of Parah Adumah is where God gives us the strength to stand up to their ridicule.

And, there’s more…

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

The Holy Rebbe was stingy with his words. He would speak in cryptic sentences and his Chassidim would sit for hours after he spoke to figure out what he meant.

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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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

More than fifty people gathered last night to hear the Megillah – The Book of Esther – read with sound effects and more last night at The Foundation Stone headquarters. We then gathered and studied major themes in the Megillah such as the tension between men and women, and what exactly did Achashveirosh suspect about Haman and Esther, and Mordechai and Esther. We recreated the scene of Haman leaving the first party and seeing Mordechai sitting at the gate of the king. We examined why he had such a drastic reaction and felt a desperate need to immediately rid himself of Mordechai. We discussed how he could be so reckless in suggesting the manner in which the king should honor someone, and how his behavior reflects common mistakes made by all of us. We studied together until past midnight with the strong feeling that we were actual participants in the story of Esther.

The Foundation Stone thanks all of the participants for sharing their questions, thoughts and insights and making this a very special Purim.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

“And Daudet said the most foolish thing to me. Perhaps he thought that it might console me. He told me that I would have my memories. But my memories are of no use to me. I told him that I never had any interest in memories. I love today and tomorrow, and if I am in form I also love the day after tomorrow. Last year is gone, who cares about last year?”

“Daudet does, I imagine.”

“Yes, too much.”
(The Master, Colm Toibin, page

Here I am just before Shabbat Zachor – Remembering – and I am wondering whether the Russian princess was right: Is there such a thing as caring too much about memories?

There are those people who only speak about the past and have difficulty speaking about the future, or even the present. I remember numerous friends who would speak of how well they were able to learn when they were younger. They would revel in all the hours they had spent learning ten years earlier, and how much Gemara they studied, despite the fact that they no longer learned as they once did. They lived their spiritual lives in their memories, not the present.

Do we focus too much on memories? We will spend the next few days remembering all the Amalek stories. The question will be: How will we use those memories to change today and tomorrow, and perhaps even the day after tomorrow?

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

I am sorry to announce that Weinberg’s Snow Removal Service has closed its doors. A hostile takeover by Michael Beller (my son) and Associates has put me out of business. Now, I may not get the exercise, but I can enjoy the snow. I no longer immediately get tired just thinking about shoveling all that snow, because those crooks at Beller & Assoc. have to do all the work. They actually have the chutzpah to charge me for the work they stole from me, but such is life.

Excuse me a second, Beller & Assoc. are asking for my help. I’ll have to return to this later.

I am exhausted and my back is aching. Beller needed my help! Just when I thought that I could enjoy the snow, it became an enemy again. It’s just like the feeling I used to get when it would start snowing again just after I finished shoveling. In fact, it’s just like many of life’s problems; one ends and the next one begins!

Everything seems to come with a price. The beautiful and peaceful snow represents hours of backbreaking work, or even worse, exercise!

I must be in bad shape when even a snowstorm can strike me with melancholy. It doesn’t seem to be the best frame of mind to enter Purim, but actually it may be the perfect way to use the lessons of Purim.

The joy of Purim is not the resolution of our problems. The Jews were still in exile the day after their wars. They still lived under Achashveirosh’s unpredictable rule. But they were different, because they had to battle people intent on fighting them even though they knew that the Jews would win. Mordechai was in charge. The army supported the Jews. The people who fought were the problems that keep on coming.

The Jews did not fight to punish their enemies. They did not take one penny of the spoils. They fought to make a statement that they had chosen to fight for themselves and to confront all their problems, especially the ones that refuse to go away. They fought to define themselves as problem fighters, which empowered them for generations to fight for their faith despite the countless and unceasing challenges from their enemies.

I don’t shovel the snow only to clear the walkway. I shovel as a statement that I will continue to battle against anything that comes my way. I am a fighter.

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

And Moshe said to Yehoshua, “Choose men for us.” Rashi comments on the power of the word “us”. Moshe said to Yehoshua, “Go out and choose men for you and me.” We derive a great principle from here that a master must treat his student’s honor as dearly as he treats his own.

Moshe is charging Yehoshua to go and do battle and he choose this moment to teach Yehoshua and us that a teacher must be as careful with a student’s honor as he is with his own!

It had to be this moment, as Yehoshua was readying for battle. The student had to enter the battle on his own, not in the shadow of his master. Yehoshua had to have a deep sense of his own honor. This was the gift that the great master, Moshe, gave his student before the latter entered battle.

And there’s more:
“Hamelamed Torah L’amo Yisrael” God is the teacher of all Israel. A teacher must treat his student’s honor as dearly as He treats His own.

Moshe, the one person who spoke directly with God, Moshe, our rebbi, Moshe, the giver of the Torah, who knew God as did no other human being, told Yehoshua that the Ultimate Teacher, God, treats the honor of His students as dearly as He treats His own.
This is the God Who is fighting at your side Yehoshua.
This is the God, the teacher, Who sits with us as we study Torah.
This is the God, the teacher, Who sits with us as we pray.
This is the God, the Teacher, Who guides us through life.
This is the God, the Teacher, Who directs us in our service of Him.
He honors us. He holds our honor as dear to Him as He holds His own.

This is what we remember on Parshat Zachor!

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Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.

Who advised Amalek to attack Israel? Balaam. His strategy was that the children of Avraham should attack the nation that existed on the merit of Avraham.

Imagine what it was like for the Children of Israel, who understood the power of their connection to Avraham Avinu, to be attacked by his other grandchild.

Amalek was more than just a competing grandchild of Avraham. Amalek was the result of a mistake of Avraham and Yitzchak and Yaakov! Re’uma wanted to be connected to the family of Avraham. She asked this first outreach rabbi to convert, and this man, who converted so many, refused to convert her. She waited for Yitzchak and asked him for the right to convert, and he too refused her, as did Yaakov, the third of the patriarchs. She was so desperate to be connected to this family that she became a concubine to Eliphaz, Eisav’s son, and bore Amalek.
Amalek resulted from the refusal of each of the three Avot to convert a woman desperate for a connection to the family. The attack of Amalek was a reminder of a mistake made by each of the three Avot.
Israel could not rely on the merit of their grandfather because he was Amalek’s grandfather as well. Israel could not rely on the merit of Avraham because it was Abraham’s mistake that resulted in Amalek. They stood alone and vulnerable as never before.

Balaam was a genius, but Moshe was a greater genius. Moshe hands connected his people directly to God. They did not need to rely on Avraham. They could connect directly to God. In fact, the reason they could derive benefit from the merit of Avraham was because of their connection with God. They were not vulnerable. Amalek could not connect to their grandfather Avraham, as could the Children of Israel. They were not vulnerable because of Abraham’s mistakes. They existed in the hands of God, which they felt reaching to them as Moshe’s hands were reaching to God.

Author Info:
Learn & discover the Divine prophecies with Rabbi Simcha Weinberg from the holy Torah, Jewish Law, Mysticism, Kabbalah and Jewish Prophecies. The Foundation Stone™ is the ultimate resource for Jews, Judaism, Jewish Education, Jewish Spirituality & the holy Torah.