Parshat Chukat: Nature of the Red Heifer
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Parshat Chukat
(Numbers 19)
According to the Triennial Torah Cycle
Year 1
1 And YHVH spoke unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying:
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2 This is the statute of the law which YHVH has commanded, saying: Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring a red heifer, faultless, wherein is no blemish, and upon which never came yoke.
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Chukat is the thirty-ninth reading from the Torah. The word chukat (חוקת) means “statute.” The name is derived from the second verse of the reading: “This is the statute of the law which YHVH has commanded” (Numbers 19:2). Chukat presents the mysterious laws of the red-heifer ceremony for purification after contact with human death.
Tradition states that the laws pertaining to the red heifer are a Chok- a law with no apparent rational and so mysterious is this command that even in his great wisdom King Solomon could not conceive of a purpose behind the laws pertaining to the red heifer. The Midrash relates this story as follows:
Solomon said: "I delved and examined the entire Torah, and I found it logical." But when he came to the section of the Parah Adumah [Red Heifer], he said: "I thought I would be wise, but it is far from me."
It says that "God gave Solomon wisdom... like the sand on the seashore" (I Kings 4). In what way was his wisdom like the sand? The Sages explained that his unique wisdom paralleled the Jewish people, who were blessed too numerous like the grains of sand. God gave Solomon wisdom so that he would be able to answer the questions of each Jew. King Solomon was granted this unique gift so that he could answer any question that a person might have regarding any of the Torah's mitzvot. With regard to the Parah Adumah, however, he was at a loss.
The name Solomon indicates “whole, complete and peaceful.” The implication is that Solomon was a completely rectified state of consciousness. In Kabbalah this is referred to as a Complete Tzaddik and is one who has no animalistic qualities nor evil inclination. There are two classifications of a Tzaddik as referred to in Likkutei Ararim chapter 11:
“He explains there that tzaddikim are classified in two general categories. The first is that of the “complete tzaddik,” also known as the “ tzaddik who possesses (only) good.” Such a tzaddik has succeeded in completely transforming the evil of his animal soul to good and holiness. A tzaddik of the second category, that of the “incomplete tzaddik,” or the “ tzaddik who possesses evil,” is one who has not yet completely converted his animal soul to good; he still retains a vestige of its native evil. This remaining fragment of evil, however, is completely nullified within the far greater proportion of good.”
The red heifer symbolizes life in its most primal form (i.e. the animalistic nature). First it is an animal and an animal simply lives on an instinctual level without reflecting on life. Secondly, it is red and the color red represents blood, which the Torah says represents the vitality of the animalistic body (human physicality). Thirdly, it is an animal upon which no yoke has been upon, meaning it is not domesticated and in the Kabbalistic sense this indicates that the animalistic nature being alluded to here has not been constrained, overcome or brought under subjection to the higher nature of man. The red heifer represents life at its most vigorous and elemental.
Solomon represents the complete Tzaddik who has no animalistic nature or qualities within his consciousness and as such Solomon cannot relate to this concept of Parah Adumah- the red heifer.
3 And you shall give her unto Eleazar the priest, and she shall be brought forth without the camp, and she shall be slain before his face.
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It is interesting that the teaching of the red heifer was given to Moses and to Aaron but Aaron who was the High Priest was not directed to perform the offering of the red heifer himself. Rather it was to his son Eleazar who was commanded to supervise the ritual slaughter of the red heifer.
The reason behind this is because Aaron who represents the illumination of the intellect and a bearer of light to the Israelites was defiled in the previous account of the story of the Golden Calf. The Golden Calf story represents the aspect of Aaron’s illuminating Intellect being brought low by deprecating thoughts of falsehood (idolatry) and not fulfilling the implication of Truth through spiritual execution choosing instead to dwell in a state of lower consciousness (mochin d’katnut).
In contrast, Aaron’s son represents a new state of consciousness indicated by the name ‘Eleazar,’ which means ‘God helps’ or ‘surrounded by God.’ Eleazar succeeds his father because he identifies God as his only Source, Strength and Sustainer- this acknowledgement becomes the primary motivator for this new state of consciousness. Subsequently the contrast of his father’s old state of mind in the story of the Golden Calf and the son’s new state of mind in the story of the red heifer is a striking and beautiful contrast of spiritual qualities.
4 And Eleazar the priest shall take of her blood with his finger, and sprinkle of her blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times.
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5 And the heifer shall be burnt in his sight; her skin, and her flesh, and her blood, with her dung, shall be burnt.
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6 And the priest shall take cedar-wood, and hyssop, and scarlet, and cast it into the midst of the burning of the heifer.
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The red heifer is slaughtered, burned and reduced to ash in a most dramatic enactment of death. The red heifer represents the animalistic nature of depraved human physical existence. The sacrifice of the red heifer thus represents the slaughtering of our undomesticated animalistic qualities wherein we reduce our elemental desires to the state of ash or complete inconsequence. The ashes of the red heifer are then mixed with ashes of burned cedar wood, hyssop and crimson thread. They are then dissolved in ‘living water’ to be sprinkled over the person who has been contaminated with, or has been in proximity to, a corpse. The corpse representing the state of death and can be interpreted as the dying of consciousness as it devolved into the elemental qualities- suppressed by the animal nature.
7 Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he may come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.
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8 And he that burns her shall wash his clothes in water, and bathe his flesh in water, and shall be unclean until the evening.
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9 And a man that is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer, and lay them up without the camp in a clean place, and it shall be kept for the congregation of the children of Israel for a water of sprinkling; it is a purification from sin.
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10 And he that gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening; and it shall be unto the children of Israel, and unto the stranger that sojourns among them, for a statute forever.
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The washing of ‘water’ is a metaphor as water is the source of life for all living beings. In the desert, specifically the Middle East, the reality of this metaphor is vividly realized. Thus the metaphor of living water signified the Creator who gives and sustains life as in the verse: “They have forsaken YHVH, the fountain of living water” (Jer. 17:13).
The ceremony of the red heifer is to serve as purification from sin. The question is: What is sin? Most people would assert that sin is anything that is way-ward from the Biblical narrative of appropriate living. In Hebrew the word sin is aveirah עבירה and means to cross over. An aveirah is not committed whenever one violates a positive command rather only whenever a person transgresses one of the 365 negative commands.
The 365 mitzvot (commands) are given to direct and overcome the lower animalistic nature within man (i.e. middot). The lower animalistic nature is a departure from man’s true higher nature. Sin is a departure from our true essence. The Creator states: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth." The creatures of land and sea represent states of mind and they all are contained in the consciousness of every man. Any failure on our part to exercise this dominion is a falling short, or a "sin."
This commentary on Parshat Chukat is meant to use the analogy of the red heifer to draw one’s awareness from the lower elemental state of animal existence to the realization that there is a higher intelligence that is more enlightened. This is called Derech HaShem- the Way of the Creator. Each of us are an extension of the Divine and we are meant to experience the mundane, however the principle of the mundane is a distinct challenge to our consciousness. It can serve to ensnare us in our own narcissism or it can be of service to elevate us as the Torah’s narrative of the red heifer has demonstrated.
It has spoken to me "directly". Tremendous, what a tremendous job you made with this parashat!. I really appreciate "specially" these words. My respect, Sir Rabbi Jason Bright.