This week is Parashat Para, where we talk about the Para Aduma- the Red Heifer.
The Parasha starts with the words
זאת חקת התורה
The Para Aduma was a perfectly red cow which was slaughtered and burnt. Then its ashes were used to purify someone who was contaminated by the dead.
This law is referred to as a “Chok” something we don’t understand at all. It is beyond our capacity of understanding; the greatest and smartest of men did not understand this.
The Shulchan Aruch says that according to some, there is a positive commandment to remember the Para Adumah. Many have asked where in the Torah it says to remember the Para Adumah. We know there is a source for remembering Amalek, but it doesn’t say anywhere in the Torah to remember the Para, so why would we have to remember it?
Rabbi Yaakov Kaminetzsky has a very innovative approach to this question. If you look in Parashat Ekev ( perek ט, pasuk ז)
זְכֹר֙ אַל־תִּשְׁכַּ֔ח אֵ֧ת אֲשֶׁר־הִקְצַ֛פְתָּ אֶת־יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ בַּמִּדְבָּ֑ר לְמִן־הַיּ֞וֹם אֲשֶׁר־יָצָ֣אתָ ׀ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֗יִם
Remember how you got Hashem angry in the desert, from when you left Egypt.
וּבְחֹרֵ֥ב הִקְצַפְתֶּ֖ם אֶת־יְהוָ֑ה וַיִּתְאַנַּ֧ף יְהוָ֛ה בָּכֶ֖ם לְהַשְׁמִ֥יד אֶתְכֶֽם
And in Chorev, you got Hashem upset with the Chet HaEgel ( Golden Calf)
One of the ten things to remember every day is the sin of the Golden Calf, and this pasuk is the source for that.
But there was something that happened before that. The pasuk says “And in Chorev.” So what happened before the sin of the Egel?
Rabbi Kaminetzsky tells us that if we look back, the first thing that happened right after the splitting of the sea, just when they entered the desert, was that they went for three days without water and they came to a place called Mara, where the waters were bitter. They couldn’t drink the water there, so they complained to Moshe. Moshe cried out to G-d, and it says that G-d told Moshe to throw a tree in the water. The Midrash says that this tree was a bitter branch. So Moshe threw a bitter branch into the bitter water, and the waters became sweet.
It says that “they placed there a חוק/ Chok - a law that is not understandable.”
What was this non-understandable law that they were taught there? Rashi says that it was the laws of Para Aduma. That seems very strange. Why was Para Aduma taught before Matan Torah? And why was it taught at this event, with the bitter waters that became sweet with a bitter tree?
There, Hashem says, “If you listen to my Mitzvot and do what I tell you to do, and you follow all of the Chokim, then all of the diseases I put on Egypt, I will not put upon you, because I am Hashem your Healer, your Doctor.”
What is going on?
Rav Yaakov Kaminetzsky tells us that this is the event that we are supposed to remember. This is the first event where we got Hashem angry and upset, and we are supposed to remember this. That’s why we read Para Aduma. But how does Para Aduma remind us of this?
He says that the lesson of Para Aduma is that we don’t understand the ways of G-d. We don’t understand His mitzvot and we don’t understand how He acts with us. After Benei Yisrael left Egypt and the Yam Suf, and went three days without water, they complained, but they didn’t really understand what was going on. The next pasuk says that they came to a town called Eilim. In Eilim, they found twelve well springs. Rashi says that there was one wellspring for each tribe, and 70 palm trees, for the 70 elders. The Midrash says that this was all prepared for them from the beginning of time, and it was sitting and waiting for them!
The Chafetz Chaim says that the lesson here is that in life, sometimes things happen that we don’t understand, but if we wait a little bit longer, we’ll see that the oasis is right around the corner.
Hashem was telling them that we don’t understand how bitter branches can turn bitter water sweet, and we don’t understand how a doctor heals, but we follow the doctor’s orders anyway, and so too, we don’t understand how Mitzvot work, and we don’t understand how G-d’s direction of the world works. That is why it was at this time that Hashem wanted them to learn the lesson of Para Aduma- when they were at that spot and they realized how feeble their understanding really was- because they didn’t understand how the bitter water became sweet and we don’t understand doctors heal. Hashem wanted them to know that first, before they received the rest of the 613 Mitzvot, because we don’t understand His mitzvot either. It says זאת חקת התורה- This is a general approach to Torah,
And then Hashem says that He will show us that we don’t understand how he deals with us, because the oasis was around the corner. Rav Yaakov Kaminetzsky says that this is one of the 613 Mitzvah- to remember this event. That’s why we read the story of Para Aduma. The lesson of Para Aduma is that we don’t understand the ways of G-d. Our understanding is limited. Life is a Chok. Chok means an un-understandable law, but it also is found in the phrase “Chukot Ha Tevah- laws of nature”
Laws of nature never change. Gravity is a law of nature. That’s the way it is, and we don’t understand why. We don’t understand nature, we don’t understand the Torah, and we don’t understand how G-d deals with us. That is the lesson of the Para Aduma, and that’s really something we should remember daily- we can’t understand.
Have a wonderful day.