Chukas. Fighter pilots and the springs of life

[Music] no Mitzvah in the entire Tyra is associated with more esotericism and mysticism than the mitzva of the paruma the red heer completely clouded in mystery the paruma and its unique set of laws became the absolute Paradigm of laws unapproachable by human logic and who can blame us for labeling it that if the singular greatest mind in world history schl in Zim declared that he couldn't understand it who are we to even attempt to comprehend it so by and large people just gloss over the words of the parad duma's peculiar procedure and then move on and they're content that they have satisfied all their intellectual obligations to glean meaning from this topic that our human mind simply can't understand and yet with even a rudimentary glance at the mean's writings on this Mitzvah you realize that this approach is wrong true the T labels the Mitzvah of the as a a decree from hasem that is inexplicable to the human mind but that as many commentators note is merely referring to the Paradox the paruma contains and the fact that theen charged with prep preparing and sprinkling the concoction becomes impure while the individual sprinkled with it becomes pure but the actual ritual itself however is Rich with meaning for us and the inspiration is as as relevant today as it ever was so here's an idea a dead corpse conveys impurity Tuma and anyone who touches it needs to be purified by the paruma the process of its preparation consists of burning an entire red heer in a fire into which is added a cedar branch hup and Crimson dyed wool the remaining ashes are then mixed with spring water and sprinkled on top of the pure the impure individual these materials says rers are not random ingredients in some sort of esoteric potion that magically fights impurity coming out of a corpse these are very specific symbolic items used to spiritually inspire a man needing the inspiration a dead body explains rep pers is the antithesis of a Jew on Earth it represents brute physicality and earthliness a corpse is everything the Nisha is not it's stagnant it's mundane it's 100% material istic so as a means of protecting our souls from becoming Intoxicated by worldly Earthly Unholy Pursuits Hashem placed several safeguards sort of spiritual caution tape in our lives to ensure that we are focused on our soul and not on our body one of those safeguards is avoiding contact with a dead body which is the Paradigm of mundanity a corpse doesn't have inherent radioactive toxins that are emitted the moment it dies rather Hashem places safeguards around a dead body to prevent us from coming too close to something that screams out brute physicality our souls are what we're centrally focused on and Hashem wants us to keep it that way so therefore one who did touch a dead body who perhaps got a little too close to death the very symbol of yesterday of decay of stagnancy needs a special concoction of symbolic items that will inspire him to remain fresh and vibrant and holy the cedar one of the tallest of trees serves to remind the man of the need to grow ever higher using confidence and strength to spiritually Forge forth in a largely unspiritual world the hiss up on the other hand a lonely plant inspires the need to be humble and focus on becoming a more caring loving compassionate divinely oriented person we take wool from the strong RAM and color it with Crimson dye which is excreted by a weak worm to represent the Mastery man should have over the entire gamut of the physical world from the strong to the weak we take all these elements big tall strong and weak and we reduce them to ashes inspiring the man to reach higher in a world where it's so easy to remain low and finally we mix these ashes with fresh spring water water as in the elixir of Life water as in the symbol of life itself we take the dichotomy of ashes and water stagnation and growth life and death yesterday and tomorrow and we sprinkle it on the man to drive home the idea that both elements are needed to live in this world as a spiritual Jew we need the power of our historical yesterday infused with the vibrancy and energy of the incoming tomorrow we as Jews abhor pure physicality and death but we don't negate all of the wisdom and the meaning that those deceased people stood for we take the meaning out of their deaths and Infuse it into our future the M writes that every single batch of the paruma concoction had mixed inside of it ashes from M's original paruma because that is precisely the point we use fresh water to remind the contaminated person to refocus on spiritual vibrancy and growth and yet we mix it with ancient Ashes to ensure that we for never forget our past and the rich meaning that it gave us Jews have been performing this balancing act for the duration of our existence we live in the present with an eye on the future with an eye on tomorrow and still Focus on our rich and meaningful past using it as a springboard for our physical and spiritual growth for example on the one hand no country in the world has more museums per capita than arid Isel because we're focused on our past on the other hand no country in the world aside for one has more new books written because we are writing for the future on the one hand Israel leads the world in medical patents on the other hand Israel has one of the highest numbers of registered tour guides of any country in the world on the one hand Eric has the city of yafo the oldest port in the world as well as the city of uro the oldest continuously inhabited place on Earth and on the other hand Israel boasts some of the world's fastest growing cities such as kirat safer on the one hand there are more Jews studying ancient religious wisdom in its original text than any other religion in the world on the other hand Jewish owned companies comprise the third highest representation on Wall Street behind only the USA and China on the one hand Jews are forever visiting the on the other hand is is the only country in the entire world who have entered the 21st century in a net gain in the number of trees on the one hand our society cherishes the wisdom of the old and the Learned on the other erid Israel is the only westernized country in the world that is a yearly statistic of more births than deaths because we are intensely attached to our past while being vigorously focused on our future and this dichotomy is interestingly expressed in the laws of kosher meat the two symbols of a kosher animal are famously its split hoves and its chewing of its cut lacking one of these elements the animal remains not Kosher did you ever wonder why these features out of all the animal features these features were chosen to be the line of demarcation between kosher and strafe why what is symbolic to those features so R zilberstein explains that these features represent two aspects of life that Hashem very much wants us to focus on chewing cud represents yesterday history review an animal anal is reting a meal it already ate a split hoof on the other hand represents forwardness climbing going the animal with the most split hoof is the mountain goat it's also the animal capable of climbing higher than virtually any other animal on earth the tah explains Zin is telling us that not only must we have split hooves and be forward thinking we must forever chew our cud remembering our past our history and our ancestors only an animal that represents both is fit for Jewish consumption conversely the animal that most symbolizes Christianity is the pig think bacon and pork it is the only animal in the entire Animal Kingdom that has split hooves but does not jewi it cud and likewise Christians are very Progressive and full of Reform and reconstruction and are more interested in tearing down history than propping it up the Muslims on the other end are best symbolized by the camel the animal that they most use in the hot desert climate that they call home the camel chews its cud but does not have split hoodes and likewise the Muslims are intensely focused on their history with tight-knit tribes run with an iron fist by the Elders of the home and naturally they express Extreme Caution with embracing virtually any form of modernity but the Jews have an infusion of both we have a rich history that impacts virtually every part of our Lives along with a strong passion and desire to constantly grow and adapt and spring higher this dichotomy is the greatest Balancing Act our nation performs we spend our days pouring over over ancient books written thousands of years ago and at the same time spend our days coming up with new and fresh interpretations we tell our children immensely detailed stories of events that took place 3,000 years ago yet we have conventions and meetings to discover new and innovative ways to teach students it's the only way our glorious Heritage and M lives on with a grasp on the past and an eye on the future in early 1948 Leon Frankle Harold Livingston George ler and Coleman Goldstein were finally enjoying themselves and their life after serving the American Air Force as pilots flying fighter planes during the war and happy the war was over they were more than ready to start their families and finally live peaceful lives and one day out of the blue an old friend of theirs Steven Schwarz he calls them up and he left them all message he said get to the Henry Hudson hotel in Manhattan and get there fast the survival of the Jewish people is at stake now knowing that the Holocaust was over the four ex fighter pilots were confused nevertheless they rush to the hotel to hear Schwarz out so sipping a glass of vodka Steve Schwarz looks at these four young pilots and says listen here hundreds of thousands of Jews are about to pour into Palestine right now and almost all of them are completely unaware that the five neighboring Arab countries are planning on invading and slaughtering every single one of them Egypt declared that we will do what Hitler did only worse and Steve put down his glass and he looked at the four young 20-year-olds the Jews have absolutely no way of Defending themselves we found four German airplanes that were abandoned in a field in Czechoslovakia the Jewish people need you to fly them and the four boys looked at each other they had finally begun living a peaceful life and now they're being asked to climb back into the seat of a fighter plane and of all planes old German planes and Steve Schwarz looked at them with a fire in his eyes and said millions of Jewish people in the Holocaust lost everything they had you four have the opportunity to at least give them a future so the four looked at Steve and said okay we're in so the four traveled East and secretly declared themselves the Jewish people's temporary Air Force an Air Force consisting of four people not 4,000 not 44 44 people possibly the smallest Air Force of all time and certainly the most frightened Air Force of all time on May 29th 1948 the immense Egyptian Army was 20 mi out of Tel Aviv Leon frinkle approached Harold and told him listen if one of us doesn't go up and bomb them right now there will be they will be here tomorrow and there will be a blood bath okay Harold said I'll go so he lifts up the ger the used German plane to the sky and Harold looked down and could see scores of fresh Jewish imigrants on the ground below hoping and praying that they could finally start their lives a new and he nervously looked up ahead and saw the massive Egyptian Army he quietly flew his plane until he was moments away from being directly on top of them on top of their gunmen on top of their artillery on top of thousands of soldiers who might shoot him down and he tilted his plane entirely on its side to get the most direct angle to sto the bombs he closed his eyes and he screams sh is and he let the bombs fall and fall they did and in a sheer Miracle sent Straight from Heaven the Egyptian Army was left in shambles and Harold flew back completely unscathed and the oncoming Egyptian Onslaught was ground to a halt the war was won and the potential barbaric Slaughter of thousands of Jews was avoided and years later when he sat down with an interview where Harold was asked what he was thinking as he was flying towards the Egyptian Army he said I looked up to heaven and said Hashem those Arabs down there might want to win we Jews need to win those Arabs might want to come out Victorious we need to come out Victorious those Arabs might want to claim this land we need to claim this land our past is to Glorious our future is too bright Hashem save us so the memory of the Six Million can live on Hashem save your precious Nation so we can continue to make you proud We As Jews look to our glorious past for Spiritual energy to propel us into the future we rid ourselves of the stagnancy of death by ensuring that we are forever drinking from the Fresh Springs of Life with youthfulness and zest we take our ancient traditions and use them to light up the world we look to the past we look to the future we cling to our M and let it guide us down the road of Life today tomorrow and forever [Music]