Almost Eden

BS"D Parashat Chukat and Balak 5769

The unique difficulty which sets para aduma apart from other mitzvot is the mystifying halacha that the individuals who are involved in preparing the ashes of the red heifer in order to extricate a person from the state of halachic tum'a become themselves tema'im.

Another enigma is defining the nature of the para aduma in the light of the duality which surrounds the mitzva. On the one hand, the para aduma is not part of the Bet HaMikdash sanctification ritual, because it is prepared on the Mount of Olives with no connection to the altar as are all other animal sacrifices. In contrast to this there are functions which identify the para aduma with the other sacrifices. Those involved in its preparation must be kohanim. The kohen who receives the blood of the para aduma sprinkles it seven times while looking on a straight line into the Holy of Holies.

Follow up:

So what is the nature of the para aduma?

Another curiosity: Why was the episode of Yiftach chosen as the haftara for parashat Chukat?

The answer can be found in the midrash (parashat Toldot) which relates two incidents involving Jews who betrayed their God and their fellow Jews; one is Yosi Meshita and the other Yakum Eesh Tzraida (from the town of Tzraida).

The first incident: Yosi Meshita collaborated with the Romans when they captured the Bet HaMikdash. The Roman general was hesitant to enter the holy place and sought a Jew who would precede him. Yosi Meshita was promised that if he would enter he could take any object he desired from the Temple. He did so and emerged with a magnificent golden menora. The Roman objected to this on the grounds that it was too elaborate for a private home and told Yosi Meshita to enter again and take a more appropriate object. At that moment the "pintele Yid" (the irrepressible Jewish point in the soul of every Jew) embraced Yosi's conscience and he was aghast at what he had done. When he told the Roman that he could not enter again, it became a power struggle between Yosi and the Roman, and when Yosi refused he was tortured to death.

The second incident: As the Romans were taking the great tanna, Yosi ben Yo’ezer, to be crucified, the rabbi's nephew, Yakum eesh Tzsruruot, who was a collaborator with the Roman enemy, viewed the scene from astride his horse. He called out to his uncle, the great rabbi, "Look where my horse has taken me and where your horse has taken you." Rabbi Yosi ben Yo’ezer replied that if this is the way HaShem rewards the evil doers of the Jewish people then how much more will He reward the righteous! Yakum then called out again, "Look how you are suffering while I enjoy great privilege." Rabbi Yosi ben Yo’ezer replied, "If this is the way HaShem punishes his righteous people for their sins, how much more will He punish those who left the Torah."

These words entered the soul of Yakum and in the words of the Midrash: "as the venom of a serpent penetrates one's body" that he constructed an apparatus with which he was executed in each of the four halachic ways the court exacts punishment for capital crimes.

The Midrash is telling us that no matter how far a Jew may wander from the source of all life - the Torah, he remains a Jew with the potential to return in absolute teshuva.

When an individual comes before a kohen to become tahor, there is the danger that the kohen who comes from the purest Jewish genealogy and steeped in Torah scholarship and piety, might look down in abhorrence and, at best, condescendingly, at the individual in front of him. Therefore the Torah decrees that the kohanim who attend to the para aduma shall become tamay while the person coming before them becomes tahor.

This also explains the duality of the para aduma. The Torah is telling us that each person has within him the dual characteristic of kedusha (sanctity) but also a primitive, corporeal nature which seeks to drive a wedge between him and the spiritual sides of existence.

The rabbis, chose the episode of Yiftach to be the complimentary haftora of parashat Chukat, because Yiftach, the outcast who was surrounded by the lowest elements of Jewish society, rose to the occasion and saved the Jewish people from their enemies.

I am writing these lines on the background of the mass demonstrations held last Shabbat and spilling over to the following days, accompanied by arrests and cursing "ostensibly" for the honor of the Shabbat that was violated by the municipality. The demonstrators marked the Jews who desecrated the Shabbat as "enemies" of HaShem and the Torah, to the degree that demonstrators cursed the police calling them "nazis".

These people have to learn that HaShem views all Jews as His chosen people, and at some point the tehorim become temay'im through wild demonstrations while the tema'im have the potential to do teshuva if we relate to them as brothers and sisters.

I say "ostensibly" because, in my view, the organizers of the demonstrations have nothing to do with the love and defense of the holy Shabbat. As they manipulate the well-meaning simple people, the movers and shakers in control have very different motives.

If the organizers of these demonstrations really cared about the sanctity of Shabbat, they would have given to each of the young men and woman in the crowd a bouquet of roses and a little pamphlet describing the beauty of Shabbat, and send them out to distribute these items to their brothers and sisters who are desecrating the Shabbat.

A rose and a little picture of a Shabbat table would do more for the Shabbat than 100 demonstrations.

Their real intention, I contend, is to sieze every opportunity to embarrass and bash the Medina. It is not love which motivates the organizers but hatred for every thing they see around them.

But why? You might ask.

This is not a question for rabbis but for psychiatrists.

The compulsion against the Medina is the same which arouses a certain "Rabbi" Aharon Kohen of London to appear on Iranian TV during the last Israeli war in Gaza to condemn the Jewish Medina and sends "rabbis" to Teheran to disclaim the Shoah.

It is a deep feeling of guilt for abdicating the leadership of the Jewish people to the secular Zionists. The generation of religious leaders at the beginning of the Zionist movement at the start of the last century was insensitive to the awakening of nationalistic feelings among the people. The religious leadership took to the sidelines instead of seizing the reigns of national leadership to head the return of our people to Eretz Yisrael.

So today, there are people who rejoice at every failure of the Medina and feed upon the open wounds, saying if we cannot lead then we will not let anyone else succeed.

Bnai Torah should be found in the military - whenever I see a soldier - even a stranger - with payot and a big kipa, I stop and say to him, "This is how a Jewish soldier should look." They never fail to smile in acknowledgment that they are sanctifying HaShem’s name. We must be leaders in the sciences, academia, and politics on the ministerial level with the intent to reach the position of Prime Minister.

To stand aside and call out "yimach shemo" and "Nazi" will only dig the hole we are in much more deep than it is now.

We are 80-90 years late, but not yet too late. Where is the leader who can awaken the charaydie public to the fact that we are living the greatest miracle of the last 2000 and more years? Who will show us the way to inculcate the theoretical Torah we learn in yeshivot into our daily lives, to prepare the way for the next stage in our history of the Bet HaMikdash and the restoration of halacha as the law of the land?

Parashat Balak

Every day we recite the uplifting words of Bil'am when he viewed the Israelite camp in the desert:

How goodly are your tents, Ya'akov, your dwelling places Israel

Bil'am had every intention of cursing the Jewish people but was awed by the tents and dwellings which were situated in a manner that did not intrude upon each other's privacy; a single detail which revealed the sensitivity that one Jew felt for another.

This arch-rasha (evil doer) was intent on cursing millions of innocent Jews, but in a moment of clarity was shown the inherent sanctity of God's chosen nation and gave vent to his feelings with those everlasting words.

But there are evil people who today view the tents and homes of Jews in Eretz Yisrael as impediments to world peace. No longer "How goodly are your tents, Ya’akov, your dwelling places Israel"; but rather How deadly are your tents, Ya’akov, your dwelling places Israel.

A kindergarten in Shomron, Yehuda or the Golan causes the American President to suffer sleepless nights, but when his thoughts turn to the nuclear program of Iran his eyelids suddenly become heavy and he is off to dreamland.

The porch in Gush Etzion now being enclosed also disturbs the sleep of the President's Jewish advisors such as Mssrs. Emanuel, Axelrod, Kurstzer and others, who whisper into the president's ear how to dodge the logic and truth of Israel's positions.

I would hope that this week in Bet Knesset, that these Datans and Avirams (the adversaries of Moshe Rabbeinu) would take a lesson from the arch anti-Semite Bil'am and see the beauty of Jewish homes, shuls, yeshivot, kindergartens. Because the authentic Jewish people have returned home, and we will build and build despite the threats and terror Washington might exert on our weak political leaders.

The kindergartens in Eretz Yisrael will be here a thousand years after the world will forget that there every was a place called Washington.

Shabbat Shalom
Nachman Kahana
Copyright © 2009 Nachman Kahana