Chukat
I have wonderful memories of my maternal grandmother whose 27th yahrtzeit was observed last week. She lived with us from the time I was a child and we used to make each other laugh. Occasionally she would tell me to do things and I would ask her “Why?” Sometimes I really wanted to know “why” and sometimes I just wanted to annoy her – and so I would keep asking “why?” until she would answer, “Y is a crooked letter.” And I would keep asking “why?” and running out of patience she would tell me that “Y is a crooked letter”.Although it was a simple game between a grandmother and grandson, somewhere in that response was a profound life lesson that we do not always get answers to our questions. It is a lesson that is echoed in this week’s parasha, “Chukat.”
Chukat includes one of the strangest if not most mysterious of Biblical laws, the law of the Parah Adumah (the red cow), usually referred to as the law of the Red Heifer. According to the text the ashes of this unique creature would be mixed in a solution of water to be sprinkled on those in a state of ritual impurity so as to purify them. However, the Kohen tasked with preparing the solution would be considered as impure for having been in physical contact with the carcass. In other words, the rituals of the Parah Adumah make the impure pure and the pure impure!
Rabbi Wolf Kelman, of blessed memory, suggested that the Parah Aduma was therefore a classic example of a PARA-dox! No reason is offered explaining why this ritual was observed other than “zot hukkat ha-Torah / this is a law (statute of the Torah)”. The words “hok” (the root of “hukkat”) refer to a particular category of Biblical law for which no explanation is given.
In contrast to such ethical teachings as “do not steal” or “love your neighbor as yourself” or ritual teachings commemorating historical events such as the celebration of Pesah (mitzvot which we probably regard as more compelling and meaningful than the red heifer ritual) a ”hok” demands equal respect even if no rationale is evident.
For many observing a law simply because God tells us to do so is not sufficient. We want to understand why and so many explanations have been offered (for example) for the laws of kashrut. But because the Torah itself does attempt to explain why we are to keep these laws they fall into the same category as the Parah Adumah – laws to be observed because God said so.
I admit that not having a logical rational for specific mitzvot is not always comfortable for moderns – for most of us have been demanding explanations since emerging from adolescence. We stopped accepting answers like “because” when we were children. Observing a commandment simply because the Torah says so, flies in the face of our modern sensibilities. We don’t like the idea of being told to follow a rule without a good explanation for its existence.
So we feel torn. Reason demands an explanation for the things we do. Faith challenges us to trust powers greater than ourselves. We live in a state of tension. Which path should we follow?
Perhaps all of this is preparation for bigger questions which will have no answers for soon after the details of these hukkim, we read of the deaths first of Moshe’s sister, Miriam, and then of his brother, Aaron. The tradition teaches that the death of Miriam leads to a lack of water and the lack of water leads to the story of the rock. And Moshe in his grief could have screamed and shouted that he had enough. But he was still tasked with leading his people and so even if he had paused to ask why it is unlikely that he would receive a satisfactory response.
Moshe’s strength to continue must be drawn from his faith and not from reason. Sometimes the answer to “why” is “because” and in matters of faith that must suffice.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Matt Futterman
Senior Educator
