The Talmud teaches that the inner meaning of the Parah Adumah, the red heifer whose ashes were used for ritual purification, is uniquely profound. Unlike all other mitzvot, this ritual is beyond the grasp of the human intellect. Even the wise King Solomon admitted, concerning this mitzvah, "I thought I would attain wisdom, but it is distant from me." (Kohelet 7:23; Nida 9a)



Why must this mitzvah be so intellectually challenging?



According to the Sages, the Red Heifer comes to atone for the sin of the Golden Calf. The Midrash uses a parable: when the maid-servant's son dirtied the king's palace, his mother was requested to come and clean up the mess. (Bamidbar Rabba 19:8) Yet, we need to examine the connection between the Parah Adumah and the Golden Calf. After all, the Golden Calf was not born to a cow, but was formed out of gold jewelry donated by the people.



What is the essence of the sin of the Golden Calf? The Kuzari and other medieval commentaries explained that only when taking into account the elevated spiritual level of the Jewish people at that time did their action count for a grievous offense. For other peoples, not only would it not have been deemed a sin, it might have been considered a meritorious deed. For their motivation was sincere. The people did not wish to abandon God. On the contrary, they sought to remain close to Him. They created an image - the prevalent form of worship at that time, like a synagogue nowadays - in order to have a physical manifestation through which they could direct their spiritual yearnings. Even those who erred by praying directly to the golden image did not abandon God. They clearly stated, "This, Israel, is your God, who brought you out of Egypt." (Exodus 32:8)



If so, what was their mistake? The sin of the Golden Calf was in their attempt to attain divine closeness through an action dictated by their own logic. God specifically forbade this form of worship. The image they created - despite their good intentions - contradicted God's command, and became a stumbling block for those who worshiped the Golden Calf as an actual idol.



Why did God 'lock the gate' before the human mind? What would be so terrible if we could add new mitzvot and make changes in existing ones, using methods that, according to our understanding and wisdom, would allow us to draw closer to God?



If we want to know what God wants, we need to carefully examine His actions and the ways by which He rules the world. Theoretically, the astute should be able to discern wonderful aspects of God's rule of the universe, and thereby understand His ways and Divine Will. This would work fine had God organized creation in such a way that all of the paths leading to the final goal reflect divine perfection. Then all aspects of the universe would grant an accurate understanding of God and His ways, allowing us to recognize the proper way to serve Him.



Yet God, in His extraordinary wisdom, organized the universe differently. He decreed that purity might be the end result of impure paths. Even those means that negate God's Will lead towards the final goal. Thus, it is impossible to deduce what God truly wants from the ways of the world. Our service of God can only be guided by those actions that God transmitted through His Torah.



How does this relate to the purifying ashes of the Red Heifer? Clearly, ritual purity and impurity is a matter of closeness or distance from God's enlightenment. True purity is the ability to draw near to God and fulfill His Will. Death, on the other hand, is a prime source of impurity. Death is an example of a phenomenon in the world that is diametrically opposed to the genuine intention of God, Who desires life. A person examining this phenomenon solely on the basis of cold logic would deduce the exact opposite of God's true intention in the world.



How do we purify ourselves from the impurity of death? To correct the misleading impression of death, we need to recognize the limits of the human intellect in truly comprehending God's rule in the world. By performing the ritual of Parah Adumah, a mitzvah that, by definition, is beyond human logic, we acknowledge the limitations of our intellectual grasp, and avoid the pitfall of inferring God's ways from the phenomenon of death.



Now we can also understand why those who prepare the purifying ashes of the Red Heifer become defiled in the process. Just as God's Will cannot be deduced from the ways of the world, only from the final goal, so too the means of the Parah Adumah are impure, and only the end result brings purification.



[Based on Midbar Shur, pp. 317-320]

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Chanan Morrison, of Mitzpeh Yericho, runs a website (RavKook.n3.net) dedicated to presenting the Torah commentary of Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, first Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, to the English-speaking community.