There are 3 seemingly distinct themes in our Sedra:
First is the Para Aduma, the Red Heifer used to atone for Tumah (spiritual impurity) that comes from a dead body. Then comes the incident of Mai M'riva, where Moshe (and Aharon) strike the rock rather than speak to it, resulting in their being denied entrance to Eretz Yisrael. Finally, there is the story of the fiery serpents, sent to bite Am Yisrael for complaining, later to become a symbol of healing, still used today by the medical world.
What connects these disparate incidents, and why are they bunched together into one sedra called Chukat?
I suggest that these three subjects have a common message. Each is telling us that purity, life and healing may very well derive from the most unlikely of sources, from the wellsprings of impurity, lifelessness and disease. The ashes of the Red Heifer purify anyone who has become tamei. But those same ashes - which, after all, come from the dead body of a cow ? are themselves tamei (impure), contaminating whoever administers them. The water - without which there can be no life - came out of a rock, which is the epitome of lifelessness. And the snake - always a negative symbol ? was somehow transformed into the means by which we were cured.
Hashem's message in all this is to teach us that, in His cosmic plan of things, the good, the holy and the pure often originate in the most unlikely and negative of sources. From Terach the idol-worshipper came Avraham, the true believer. From Balak the Bad came Ruth the Righteous. From the nations of the world came Israel. And from Olam Hazeh, with all its many faults, comes Olam Haba.
Moshiach, too, is hardly a product of pure yichus (lineage): Yakov married two sisters (against Torah law); Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute; Ruth derived from an incestuous relationship; David was branded a mamzer. Had we written the story, we surely would have "sanitized" the blood-line, but Hashem knows better. "The richest fruits," explains the Gemara, "come out of the blackest dirt." In medical terms, the cure for the disease (e.g., flu) comes from the disease itself.
Why it works this way is indeed a chok to us. Yet, it gives us hope that just when things look the bleakest, that is precisely when Redemption is at hand.
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Rabbi Weiss is Director of the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra?anana.
First is the Para Aduma, the Red Heifer used to atone for Tumah (spiritual impurity) that comes from a dead body. Then comes the incident of Mai M'riva, where Moshe (and Aharon) strike the rock rather than speak to it, resulting in their being denied entrance to Eretz Yisrael. Finally, there is the story of the fiery serpents, sent to bite Am Yisrael for complaining, later to become a symbol of healing, still used today by the medical world.
What connects these disparate incidents, and why are they bunched together into one sedra called Chukat?
I suggest that these three subjects have a common message. Each is telling us that purity, life and healing may very well derive from the most unlikely of sources, from the wellsprings of impurity, lifelessness and disease. The ashes of the Red Heifer purify anyone who has become tamei. But those same ashes - which, after all, come from the dead body of a cow ? are themselves tamei (impure), contaminating whoever administers them. The water - without which there can be no life - came out of a rock, which is the epitome of lifelessness. And the snake - always a negative symbol ? was somehow transformed into the means by which we were cured.
Hashem's message in all this is to teach us that, in His cosmic plan of things, the good, the holy and the pure often originate in the most unlikely and negative of sources. From Terach the idol-worshipper came Avraham, the true believer. From Balak the Bad came Ruth the Righteous. From the nations of the world came Israel. And from Olam Hazeh, with all its many faults, comes Olam Haba.
Moshiach, too, is hardly a product of pure yichus (lineage): Yakov married two sisters (against Torah law); Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute; Ruth derived from an incestuous relationship; David was branded a mamzer. Had we written the story, we surely would have "sanitized" the blood-line, but Hashem knows better. "The richest fruits," explains the Gemara, "come out of the blackest dirt." In medical terms, the cure for the disease (e.g., flu) comes from the disease itself.
Why it works this way is indeed a chok to us. Yet, it gives us hope that just when things look the bleakest, that is precisely when Redemption is at hand.
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Rabbi Weiss is Director of the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra?anana.