Miller's Musings Parshas Chukas: The Why and the What

 

בס''ד

Miller’s Musings חֻקַּת פרשת   

It is an indubitable fact that the Poro Aduma is one of the most inexplicable mitzvos in the Torah.  Why mixing the ashes of a burnt red cow with spring water and other seemingly random ingredients should affect such a change in a person, from being impure after touching a human corpse to being spiritually pure again, seems to defy logic and remain impenetrable.  In fact this mitzvo is chosen as the archetype of those mitzvos, chukim, that seem to transcend rationale reason, in which case we need to understand why it is that this particular mitzvo is chosen, when there are many others, such as sha’atnez, that are equally inscrutable

When we think of a chok we usually think of a mitzvo that seems arbitrary and random, when in truth our lives are also full of chukim, events and circumstances that seem to have no rhyme or reason.  There are many times we experience moments that run entirely opposed to our view of how the world should run and what is deserved or not.  The Red Heifer was brought as an antidote to someone’s contact with death and perhaps we could suggest that the reason it is used as the quintessential chok is to acknowledge that when it comes to our own existence there are things that we will never understand, the most unfathomable perhaps being death.    

Since time immemorial tragedy has befallen mankind, be it personal or collective.  To try to understand why it happens is an exercise in futility and something that will always be beyond a being whose grasp of the panorama of history is so constrained.  The death of a person creates a void in the world that leaves those in touch with it with a spiritual vacuum.  The manner in which it is healed is so perplexing, perhaps to tell us that it is ok that we don’t understand it.  This is how it is meant to be.  It takes something extraordinary, an incredible leap of faith, and perhaps a little humility, to restore our sense of acceptance of our place in the world.  This should in no way impinge upon our own humanity, our tremendous sympathy to those who have been so appallingly wronged, but we must also recognise our role is not to question why or how, but to question what we can do to make this world a better place for all within it. 

May Shabbos provide comfort and peace for all of us. 

לעילוי נשמת לאה בת אברהם