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June 21 • 2018

jn

Parshat Chukat:
Numbers 19:1-22:1;
Judges 11:1-33.

ne of the most profound mys-
teries of the Bible is the rite
of the red heifer, called a chok
(statute) because it belongs to the
group of Divine decrees that human
logic cannot penetrate.
We must be mindful of the fact
that all other impurities other than a
death impurity find their purification
the very center of the city.
by the defiled individual’s immersing
I stumbled away from the experi-
himself/herself in a mikveh, a gather-
ence feeling as though I had just
ing of freshly running spring water or
awakened from a horrific nightmare.
specially collected life-giving
The symbolism of the monu-
rainwater; in effect, in all
ments continued to haunt
these instances, the defiled
me months after I returned
individual actually purifies
to Efrat; after all, those
him/herself.
who lost loved ones in the
Only in this rite of the red
Holocaust don’t even have
heifer does the kohen (priest),
graveside monuments to
representing God Himself,
weep over.
effectuate the purification.
Each empty stone screams
Rabbi Shlomo
It is as though the Torah is
out with any name, with
Riskin
teaching that we can save
every name, with my name
ourselves from many of our
and with my children’s
weaknesses, we can rise
names because a part of each
above many of our tempta-
human being was killed in
tions, but only God can ulti-
those death camps whose perpetra-
mately redeem us from death.
tors attempted to destroy every last
From this perspective, the symbol-
vestige of humaneness.
ism of the red heifer begins to make
I also came away from the experi-
sense. A heifer is the consummate
ence feeling cheated by the memorial.
symbol of life: the cow’s mother-milk
Something was missing; the essence
serving as the universal expression
was missing; the victorious ending
of maternal nurturing of her young;
was missing. You see, the Jewish
red is likewise the color of blood, and
people won the war that Hitler tried
blood is the life force, the very nefesh
to wage against us.
(soul) of the living organism.
Yes, he succeeded in destroying 6
Although human beings come in
million of us, but he wasn’t waging
various shapes, sizes, personalities
a war against 6 million Jews. He was
and powers, the angel of death ulti-
waging a war against the last Jew,
mately conquers them all; the scarlet
against Judaism, against what he
thread of human sin condemns each
called a slave morality of compassion-
of us to the destiny of mortality.
ate righteousness and moral justice,
Following the sacrifice, the per-
of sensitive concern for the weaker
sonage of purity gathers the ashes
vessels, of a God of ultimate power
of the remains, mixes them with the
insisting upon human protection
life-giving waters of the Divine and,
of the powerless. In that war, Hitler
born-again, purified life emerges even
failed.
from the surrealistic specter of death
God Himself mixed the ashes with
itself. Inherent in this symbolism is
the life-giving wellsprings of Torah,
that historic Israel: Mother-nurturer of our tree of eternal life and, in addition
the continuity of humanity is destined to our national physical being, like-
to be slaughtered but will always rise
wise revived our spiritual being and
again to life and to the fulfillment of
Torah centers to an unprecedented
her mission and destiny.
and unparalleled degree all over the
This symbolism of the red heifer
world. •
assumed new significance for me
after a trip to Berlin several years ago.
Rabbi Shlomo Riskin is chancellor of Ohr Torah
I visited the Holocaust Memorial at
Stone and chief rabbi of Efrat, Israel.

