This is the statute of the Torah

(Numbers 19:1)
Tammuz 9, 5775/June 26, 2015

"HaShem spoke to Moshe and Aharon, saying: This is the statute of the Torah which HaShem commanded, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and have them take for you a perfectly red unblemished cow, upon which no yoke was laid." (Numbers 19:1-2)

The title "statute of the Torah," in Hebrew, chok, (hence the name of this week's Torah reading, Chukat), refers to a specific classification of commandment whose reason for being performed is simply because G-d commanded it. That is, there is no logic or earthly explanation to it. "Don't steal" we understand. It makes sense. An orderly society is based on laws like this. But commandments of the nature of the red heifer defy human comprehension. How do the ashes of a red heifer mixed in "living waters" effect a change in our status from "impure" to "pure?" How is it that the kohen performing the purification himself becomes rendered impure even as the recipient of the ashes becomes pure? These are mysteries whose secrets, our sages have agreed for thousands of years, are unattainable by the human intellect. Our adherence to the performance of the commandment is a testimony to our trust in G-d and our desire to do His will. The chok of the red heifer is mechukak - engraved - or in modern terms - hard-wired into our reality. It just is.

But one man did grasp the meaning of the inner workings of the red heifer, and that wasMoshe himself. And how was it that his intellect was able to reach heights that no other man of wisdom, not King Solomon and not Albert Einstein, was able to attain? Our sages attribute it to Moshe's profound and unmatched modesty. Earlier in the book of Numbers we are told that "Moshe was exceedingly humble, more so than any person on the face of the earth." (ibid 12:3)

Now the red heifer's function is to purify the children of Israel from the impurity contracted via contact with a dead body, that is, with the apparent reality of death. Death refers to a disconnect from G-d , the source of all life, a disconnect which cannot be sustained, for the presence of G-d is found in all existence. Therefore, it is the illusionof death, the illusion of a reality beyond G-d , which renders us spiritually impure. It is this illusion of a G-d -less reality that the ashes of the red heifer come to remove.

If Moshe's ability to intellectually grasp how this, in fact works, was due to his unparalleled modesty, then it follows to reason that Moshe himself was less affected orinfected by the illusion of death because he was virtually egoless. The ego - the "Me" - in our lives, that same Me which Adam the first man insisted upon by defying G-d's will, is the the very microfiber of disconnect from G-d which renders us mortal in the first place. For the I, Me, Mine of our selves is the one frontier, through our own ego driven resolve, from which G-d's presence can be banished. Our Me reality is truly the source of our illusion of mortality, of finality and death, for our egocentric Me is the one element of our being that doesn't translate into eternal life. This is why we seek to do G-d's will via His commandments. For by making our will - our ego - G-d's will - we strive to eliminate ourMe as a stumbling block between ourselves and G-d .

The ashes of the red heifer effect a temporary refutation of the illusion of death, of disconnect from G-d , and therefore it is a required prerequisite for pilgrims entering the courtyards of the Holy Temple. The Holy Temple, where G-d's presence, the Shechinah, touches and blesses our world, is a place where even the illusion of death is unwelcome. It cannot be approached by one who has been rendered tamei met - impure via contact with a dead body. Working on minimizing our own egos is a lifetime vocation. The red heifer empowers us to cleanse ourselves of the dross of our Me-centric selves, enabling us to enter G-d's Chosen House - the Holy Temple - to take leave of our Me selves, and to be fully in His presence. This is the gift of the red heifer!

-The Temple Institute