B"H
Wednesday, Tammuz 6, 5785 / July 2, 2025
This Shabbat we will read Parshat Chukat. The Parsha begins with the words, "Zot ChukatHatorah" - "This is the statuteof the Torah."
The 613 mitzvot in the Torah fall into one of three categories: Eidut, Mishpatimand Chukim.
While the mitzvot in the category of Eidut and Mishpation are mitzvot which we can understand their reason, the mitzvot in the category of Chukim(statutes) are mitzvot which have no logical reasonwhatsoever. G-d commanded us to observe them, without giving us any reason for them.
This week's Torah portion begins with one of the mitzvot in the category of Chukim. The mitzvah of Para Adumah- "Red Heifer."
The Torah tells us that when someone comes in contact with a dead body, they become "Tamei" - "spiritually impure". To become spiritually clean again, the Torah commands that Elazar HaKohen, son of Aaron the High Priest, sprinkle on the person water mixed with the ashes of a red heifer. The Torah describes in detail the entire process of preparing the red heifer and how the purification process is performed.
What is interesting about this mitzvah is that when performing the sprinkling process, the person who was unclean becomes clean, while the Kohen, who performed the purification process, becomes impure!
According to our sages, this is one reason why the mitzvah of "Para Adumah" is called "Chukah" - a mitzvah with no rational explanation to it.
The Lubavitcher Rebbe, of blessed memory, whose yartzeit was Sunday, the third of Tammuz, explains that although we can't comprehend the logic of this mitzvah, as the Torah didn’t give us the reason for it, yet we can learn a very important lesson from it.
“It teaches us,” says the Rebbe, “that we have to be ready to make personal sacrificesto help another Jew come closer to G-d. We cannot and should not pass the responsibility unto others.”
We learn this from the fact that the Torah commands the Kohen (priest) to personally help this individual even at the cost of temporarily becoming impure himself and being unable to enter the Holy Temple.
From this we learn that when we see a person who is spiritually lacking and we have the ability to help, we should not pass the job to someone else, it is up to us, even at the cost of self-sacrifice, to help them in their spiritual quest.
This was the motto of the Rebbe, of blessed memory, to care about the spiritual welfare of every Jew, throughout the world. May his memory bring blessings to us all in whatever we all need. Amen.
HAVE A VERY GOOD, HAPPY, HEALTHY AND SUCCESSFUL DAY
OUR HEARTS ARE WITH OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN CAPTIVITY - MAY THEY ALL BE RELEASED NOW