Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Mystery of the Red Heifer and Love your Neighbor

[Music] I was at a hostel in Kiryat FMOD any late and for some reason there is a massive traffic jam around remote I don't know exactly why but it took a very very long time to to get him out relatively on time so today we're going to talk about the most mysterious Mitzvah in the Torah the one that Kazama identified as very much of an enigma and that is the para Duma the red heifer and the red heifer is a particular ritual that is employed to purify people who have become ritually impure by contact with dead bodies it does not apply to other to much there are all sorts of reasons why people become Tom a Anita has a certain status of to mine its aura with para uma is not relevant for those categories para uma however is the exclusive method that is necessary for people that are tummy Mets now all of us are considered to be coming that today if you have if you have ever been in a cemetery you are tummy Mets and more or less life can go on mate um a myth goes to show let me make puts i'm fillin keep Shabbos keeps treacherous so karma is not an exclusion from Clow Israel of course but it does mean that you can't enter the base Amick - if you're a calling you couldn't do the divine service you can't eat rumah and the only possible way to get out of too much mess is be to be sprinkled with the ashes of the para a Duma mixed with water on day three and on day seven of your seven-day Touma period and then go to the mikveh and a seven and then you become tahor at night therefore that is why since so although we do have mikvah we do not have the ritual of a fair para bhisma Naza that is why we are all Tom a mess and that is essentially the whole logic reason why many people most goodell them rule that we are not allowed to enter the Temple Mount and I just want to emphasize without getting into too many technical details even the post-game who permits entry on the temple mount's only permit entry on an outer perimeter of the Temple Mount on the grounds that that doesn't have the holistic status of the temple but in principle there is no mark locus any area that has the holistic status of the base emic - a Tom a met cannot enter there is no much luggage about that whatsoever the only question is how confident are we to be willing to identify what is inner and what is outer the standard Shakalaka to be strict which is the rub on this rock as well as the karate worldsuck is we don't want to take any chances so we don't go in any part of it within that that's helium II world there's a little bit more liberality or courage however you want to define it to be willing to define what is beta mikdash what is not but again it is important to emphasize that this is not a mark locus in how luck principle it is simply in my flow cats in how certain and confidence are you to make your identification by the way the old adage politics makes strange bedfellows is very very interesting here because the government's position is the same as ultra high ready position no we don't want people to go on any part of the Temple Mount so it's interesting now granted the government's reasons are not at all the same as the array D world's reasons but they do share a a common denominator now it is a very strange thing I don't want to talk about it too much because I want to talk about some other aspects of it that on one hand I myself follow the strict Shakalaka I you would not go on the temple mount's based on the stock that we're not sure what part of it is temple what part of it is not on the other hand it does fill me with a great deal of chagrin that people who do go in the Temple Mount amaze Raley law does not allow them officially to Dobbin to recite prayers to recite Abraha if you were to take your water bottle I'm the temple mount's and make it Shaco and the police saw you make a shock oh you would be arrested you would be taken forcibly off the Temple Mount for practicing Jewish religious rituals so it really is quite amazing and quite upsetting that in a Jewish state a Jewish police force will not allow a Jewish person to practice Jewish law on the site of the Jewish temple but that is the way it is because the fear of rioting and the fear of Arab violence and provocation which needs very little provocation anyway is so great that they consider this to literally be a gasoline tank and opening up a sitter is like throwing a match into gasoline and the police are actually very very vigilant in fact people who want to dive in they do so by you know hiding their sitter in a newspaper or whatever it is and fact there even was I think last year and people questioned whether it should have been done a surreptitious husana so how do you make a Costner on the Temple Mount basically you're just walking there the katana is walking with the kawah and the s2 together with two other men who are the designated witnesses and he simply you know hands or hands or a ring as he mumbles the words hire a hot makuu justice lee and somebody took a photo but they were there with a cell phone and that was their wedding picture so to speak of him handing her a ring while they are walking again some question that because of the provocation of might cause after the fact but okay nevertheless as I say it's a strange situation for me to be in because I personally halakhah cailli follow the rule that Jewish people should not go on the Temple Mount on the other hand once they're going once they're going they certainly should have the right to do miss rots in a holy place yes but if the whole the whole generations come on mate doesn't that supersede us look down you know that actually is not true what it does mean is the following if the whole generation is telling that they are permitted to go for certain purposes namely the carbon Pesa and the like so there may be limited permissibility to go but that is absolutely not a carte blanche to go other than the carbon peso perhaps which raises a myriad well well if Tamar would be the only problem yes but there are numerous other problems for example we don't know where the MS BAE F is and like but you are correct people serious Harwick thinkers discuss the possibility of bringing a carbon peso MS minoes it is not a frivolous question it is a serious question but as I say there are many many other problems other than two months uma for with rejected carbon peso would in fact you're you are correct would not be a a problem per se but that does not justify entry indiscriminate entry now let me just mention one thing and I don't want to give it to too many hello close the predicate that you're not allowed to enter the temple mount's even when there's no temple is based on a ruling of the Rambam who says the Temple Mount has eternal sanctity there is in fact an alternative opinion of the rive it revrev rom been dubbed the one who always argued at the rhumba who actually says the Temple Mount does not have any sanctity when there is no beit hamikdash on it and according to the right there for a person who is tom a would be permitted indiscriminate entry on the temple mount without mikvah without anything because the rabbit maintains that the Temple Mount in the absence of a temple is no more holier than any other part of Jerusalem so according to the rabid it is legume reboot are obviously there is no post sake in the world today that is following the rabid Liholiho lomasa but according to the rabid you can even go where the Kurdish action is there would be no how about a problem with that now interestingly enough 150 years hundred and seventy years ago or so on one of Sir Moses Montefiore strips to the Holy Land the great british orthodox philanthropist who was really so responsible for all the SH you note in you shall I am but that's why the word Moshe appears in so many neighborhoods whether it's Yemen Moshe whether it's curiata Moshe mascaras Moshe there are a number of score notes that have the word the name Moshe in it they're named not after Moshe Rabbeinu they are named after Moses Montefiore and on one of his trips one of the mosque Elam one of the enlightened ones convinced him to go on the Temple Mount saying that he just showed him the rival you know the rival says it's okay so Moses Montefiore actually took a trip on the Temple Mount and that caused a riot not on the part of the Arabs that caused a riot on the part of the old Yishuv of usual ayam who wanted to basically terminate any connection with him which would have been financially catastrophic because he was virtually the 100 percent pipeline for the issue of M outside of the old city walls eventually they decided they could still work with him it would have been catastrophic not so and he did issue a public apology stating that he was misled and he certainly did not intend to break the hahaha but somebody told them derive it and he was not aware of this much locusts the Rambam and the you know I'm gonna I'll check the story the way the way the story that I saw was maybe this was another time he went okay I have to see because because the stories that I that I saw was that he he just followed the rabid cheetah so maybe these were two different times he did it but I'll check I'll try to verify which way that went yep as we all read recently the path of the Adreno has been discovered and will soon be available to visitors for service that means does that mean that as a visitor I can follow the path of the oh yeah all the way up to the Temple Mount and then I have to stop and turn around and come back that's correct because there's the alley at Loreto the time of the temple you were taught high of Adam the tijeras mobile radio so you obviously could not take the old irregular past that enters the Temple Mount or at least the inner part of the Temple Mount because people who took that path by definition purified themselves before the fog that was an obligation that you had to become taller for every for every of them each one of the shallows we go them okay so that's the kind of the general a perspective of para do ma let me just also emphasize the fact that every once in a while every few years we hear about a para a Duma being born somewhere by the way probably over for many years I mean when I was a kid I used to think para Duma was like a fire engine red which of course there is no such thing in nature so I thought well that's why para Duman is so rare and miraculous but not really it's not fire engine red it's a very common color for cattle it is simply the brownish orange color which many many times have the finish of para Duma is it has to be a hundred percent you can only have one black hair so that's going to be uncommon but no typically the all brownish orange cow would qualify as a para Duma and those are the pictures when they show you a para uma was born they're showing you those pictures and people get all so excited about it but you have to know that even having a para Duma is only the beginning of the process because you have a very severe catch-22 because in order to prepare a para uma you have to have Kohanim that are already to her so how do they become to her so in the time of the basin mikdash when it was was there was always a remnant from a prior para a Duma that would be set aside to purify the Kohanim who would then be in a position to make a new para Duma but unless you have a remnant of pre-existing ashes there is no way you can make a new para Duma because the Kohanim who would have to prepare it are not in a state of purity so what's going to happen is so how will we get out of that catch-22 that Bernalillo Hanavi announces mushiya he's going to bring with him some spare ashes enough to be meta hair a few come in and they will then proceed to prepare a para Duma that could be utilized for all of the Jewish people so people shouldn't be overconfident the discovery of a para llamar in and of itself does not give us the mechanism to purify huh this was saved there is a tradition that when that even when the temple was destroyed a certain cachet of of ashes was preserved was saved and that will be brought back before the temple is built in order to make a para Duma to purify in other words that that remnant will purify a few people and then they'll make a new part resume or maybe more than one to purify everybody else yeah yes you can as a matter of fact because you could you'd wonder how could one para Duma even suffice for a whole Jewish population you keep on diluting it yeah yeah but but but you have to have the you have to have some ashes right you can't you know you can't just do the spring water it's during water yourself is not going to going to help okay now if we go back to the beginning of the of the parsha when the Torah introduces Papa Adam ah it uses an unusual phrase salt who cut hatorah this is the Hulk of the tower now now coke we have a pretty good definition for coke is the term that the Torah uses for mitzvahs that we don't understand the reason Mishpatim are the mitzvahs that are logical that are sensible who Kim are the mitzvahs that we don't understand and para Duma for the reasons I'll discuss is the paradigmatic Mitzvah that we don't understand it is called a hulk but the forum focus on a different problem why does it say this is the hulk of the torah it should just say this is the cloak of the para this is the inexplicable law of the para why does it say this is the hulk of the torah so i'll give you two answers one is based on the Vilna Gaon and the other is based on a schmoozer see fire over of crimes for Levites the legendary great Russia Shiva mere the Vilna Gaon in Mitchell a has a remarkable comment everybody knows the idea that Taurus compared to water that's a famous statements of gazelle tourists compared to water and there are a gazillion reasons why stories compared to water it's life-sustaining it's purifying it cleanses the soul just as water goes from high ground to low ground so the Torah leaves the arrogance and goes to the humble many many reasons why tourists compared to water but the Vilna Cohen gives another reason which is quite unusual it really can your mind in many ways he says the color of water is that water facilitates growth on whatever plant you pour it on so if I pour water on wheats or flowers I will get the wheat or flowers if I pour water on poisonous weeds the water will cause the poisonous weeds to grow in other words water is a medium that causes growth regardless of whether that growth is positive or negative so here's what the Vilna Gaon says taurah is compared to water because whatever personality characteristics you already possess the tower will accentuate enlarge and expand so if you are a compassionate kind considerate person the Torah will make you more so okay that itself is unexceptionable but the second part of it is truly amazing if a person is filled with arrogance and Guyver not only will the Torah not improve him the Torah is like water it may make him worse Torah will accentuate and exaggerate whatever parts of your personality are there if you are competitive you're learning of Torah will simple give you another avenue of self advertisement and one-upmanship now this is an extraordinary statement number one the Vilna Gaon was not a slouch when it came to torah learning and maybe yeah if if you know like I see that sure every might have said something like this all right I can maybe see it although that was my first statement didn't of itself but the Vilna Gaon who devoted 22 hours of every day towards the learning of Torah the Vilna Gaon who would literally count the minutes per year that he felt was bitl Torah and by the way whatever he felt was pickle tour was probably not even brittle Torah miss Rogers were concerns but his definition of pickle Torah was measured minutes the Vilna Gaon said without consciously working to improve your character the tour is not going to do it automatically the torah can even make you worse torez compared to water that's why the Ville McGowen in an indirect way is actually considered to be the founder of the Muslim movements of rebel elantra in fact there is a direct link because the Vilma Gaughan's primary disciple was real time of illusion and with crime of Allah John had many many students but one of his great students was a man revs undal of salons and the zündel of salons was the spiritual mentor of Revis three-cylinder and many actually say that the Vilna Gaon was one who taught the primacy of me doats so votes that is not automatic and indeed maybe it's no accident that the very first safer of the Vilna Gaon that was published after his death were not his commentaries on Gomorrah or show Canara but his commentary on the book of mich lay the book of Proverbs which is about ethics and meet us now this itself is a vast question because there are those that take the opposite view including some students of the Vilna Gaon that Torah itself makes you a better person the learning of Torah automatically will make you a better person I will leave it to your own empirical observations which side of this mock locust is going to be true I don't want to take sides on it directly and even within the writings of the Vilna Gaon there are some contradictions there are many places where the Vilna Gaon talks about the purifying power of Lima deterrence but at least in this startling passage that tourists compared to water he makes the assertion which you know it's funny I occasionally said this starts in or Sameach but one time there were people from a Lakewood and they said it's impossible it couldn't be true so I don't say it's there anymore I don't feel like getting into fights with people but it is indeed a statement of the real Magana the business concept that shouldn't move it except that is better a very novice run and then eventually you yes that is correct it is important that the Vilna Gaon is not suggesting that if you have bad mido don't learn torah obviously you learned Torah anyway because you have to do that as you said but the Vilna Gaon is cautioning us that the me dote do not take care of themselves you have to consciously strive to purify your me doubts and that's that's work in fact the famous statement of Restall cylinder it is harder to change one bad meter than it is to learn the entire Talmud and no ganja this is rubbish all cilantro said yes so this is a very very famous Mimer there is larger setting as they say it really comes in directly at least from the Vilna Gaon the idea of me doats to wrote and endo like something that we have to all pay very very careful attention to now so let me connect it now to para Duma so based on this teaching of the Vilna Gaon I would suggest the following what is the coke what is the enigma of para uma in other words okay the whole thing is strange but there are many things that are strange why is para uma more of a Hulk than shaatnez wool and linen or many many things that we don't have Conqueror meat milk we don't have concrete explanations for so them a fortune wall explained that the enigma of para uma is not simply that it's a strange ritual but it's a paradox and a self-contradiction because the rule of para uma is that the ashes when they are sprinkled on the impure person make him pure and yet all the pure people that handle those ashes they become impure now it doesn't mean but people ask the question so doesn't that create an infinite cycle that nobody can never be pure because I'm Tommy I'm sprinkles I become taller you become Tommy you then got to be sprinkled so somebody else becomes something so doesn't that mean that the last guy holding the bag is going to be telling no and the reason why that's not so is that the tumour that you get by handling para Duma ashes is not a tumor that requires being sprinkled with the ashes of para Duma and therefore all you have to do is go to the mixer meaning I sprinkle you I'm sorry I go to the mikveh I'm taller everybody's happy so it's not an infinite regression type of problem but the Houk is said to be paradox how can the same thing that purifies be a vehicle of tumour but the answer is those who cateura that enigma is in the Torah itself as the Vilna Gaon says Torre's compared to water it can improve that which is good and it can make worse that which is not good in other words the paradox how one thing can make you have the same thing he make you pure and make you impure is who kotoha is built into the torso by the way my russia shiva Reutimann's Equis article abraca was a bit of a sharp word he once described um cs5 that way you know they're a perennial problem in the states I'm sure all of you are familiar most of you are familiar with the wonderful wonderful youth organization of the oh you the Orthodox Union mainly in the United States although they their start trying to do stuff in Israel as well NCS why a National Conference of synagogue youth that has made generations of public school kids religious and many of them are even been a Torah learning in yeshiva sand and the like and they've done an amazing amazing fantastic work but these are co-educational events and initially when a lot of the kids are not religious at all they come dressed in all sorts of different ways so a perennial issue that the achievers grapple with is that NCS why would like the shiva students to serve as the teachers and the advisors in the Chabot Oats I mean that's what you want to get people that are knowledgeable and and religious but many of the achieve us don't like their students to go to NCS why because it's co-ed and and and and and the like so I remember my receiver once said that when somebody argued to him that NCS why does such phenomenally great work that you have to let your students participate so he said to him NC as far as like the Peres Duma meaning to say if you're coming from a state of impurity you're not religious you're not keeping the commandments then csy purifies you if on the other hand you're coming from a religious state and csy might drag you down so he was really reluctant there's a different record she was did at different ways his position was that once you were married and you came with your wife managed was very good to be a participant in NCS why he didn't like single yeshiva guys going okay again I'm not here to pass get on that Shila either but I thought the reference to para uma was a humorous description okay so that's first percent so school cotton swab meaning to say the same paradox that it could purify and contaminate that exists by para applies to the Torah as a whole explanation number two is from climate remove sometimes Leavitt says that the reason why it says who cuts at Ojai is the way you keep the Hulk shows what your attitude is to the whole Torah because a coke is a mitzvah that by definition makes no rational sense it doesn't fit so if I do it I'm only doing it because it's God's will when I keep miss Barton not stealing not not not murdering we don't have a proof that I'm doing it because it's God's well maybe I'm doing it because it makes sense to me so who kata Torah means the way you relate to a Coke shows us or shows God the way you relate to the Torah as a whole you are doing the will of God and you're doing it as an act of submission not as an act of logic not because it makes sense to you you are doing it as obedience to the higher authority in Flemish xi says there's a special Yeats ihara that rebels against the Hoch because the one thing a human being doesn't like to do is to kind of take orders we like to do things because we've decided to do them not because somebody's commanding us the example would be the good husband who was about to take out the garbage on his own wasn't even asked and as he takes the garbage in the kitchen his wife calls from the other room could you take out the garbage there will be I don't want to be 200 biographical here there will be a moment of tension in the husband that says I don't like to be told what to do when you're doing it anyway you're a psychic that actually explains an interesting passage in the Gemara there's a famous camera that says that if a person does a mitzvah they're commanded to do they get greater rewards than a person who does a mitzvah that they're not commanded to do so a good example would be lets take suka men are obligated to eat in the suka women are not obligated a woman does not have to eat in the suka because it is a time bound positive commandments and it's not one of the exceptions if a woman on her own wants to eat in the suka she does have a mitzvah she gets rewarded and at least if you're asking Asik you could even make a broccoli woman can even make a Brava leche bazooka so a woman very definitely gets a Mitzvah of sitting in the sukkah and the same thing with Lula vana throg and the same thing with hearing shofar but the man gets more reward for that Mitzvah because the man is commanded to do it the woman is not commanded woman gets reward for other mitzvahs now people ask the question well I thought the logic goes the other way there's time and a half for overtime meaning to say if I do something I don't have to do God should give me extra credit if I did it because I have to do it alright good so I get rewarded but if I go beyond the law shouldn't that deserve more we weren't and yet the Gemara says that he or she who does a commandment that they're not commanded to do get reward that you'll get rewards but it's not the same so toast first says a fascinating psychological thought when you do a mitzvah your command to do it's actually harder because once you're commanded you're eight Sahara becomes more rebellious when you do things on an optional basis you're kind of patting yourself on the back this was my decision when you're doing that you have to do it hmm I don't like to be told what to do and therefore the hoch is the exemplar of doing something because you have to do it not because you want to do it and not because it makes sense to you and which I'm sure leverage gives a marvelous analogy from Tanaka about as soon as we're told to do something then vadhaka we don't want to do it and the example he gives is the story of a man shimmy Ben Gera shimmy Ben Garrett was a man who was part of Scholes family and when David emilich was running away from his own son up Sholem who wanted to both depose him and kill him so shimmy Ben Guerra cursed of it and said you're getting what you deserve because you took away you usurped the monarchy from sha allah nella and now God is punishing you and if you remember doubles faithful general and nephew Yoav basically Yolo was very quick I was going to be quick with the trigger but there were no guns but quick with the swords y'all have said should I just finish this guy off and Devon mlus uttered words of great great patience and forbearance he said if God did not want me to be cursed this wouldn't have happened if this came from God I accept it I will not punish the wrongdoer or the person who did it to me what's interesting is it's a very peculiar that that was a wonderful wonderful behavior of forgiveness and forbearance but on dubbins best deathbed he took a very very different stance he told his son slow-mo that this guy looked kind of like the Godfather this guy show me bangerra take care of him be sure that you find some excuse to put him to death now one could discuss a whole question I mean what happened to double's attitude that shimmy Ben Guerra was acting as an emissary of God we'll leave that to the side that's a fascinating question but what did slow maja mothers do slow muhammad old shimmy Ben Guerra I'm not gonna kill you because my father forgave you at the time but I'm putting you under city arrest not even house arrest City arrest do not leave you shall I am and the day that you leave you shall I am your life is going to be forfeited that's all I tell them don't leave usually now that doesn't seem to be that difficult especially if you're told if you leave you shall I am you know you're going to get killed and then we have a story that shiverman guerra lost his donkey some donkeys wandered off and he decided to go look for them thinking that they would you know Schlemmer wouldn't know and of course Roma has guards all over the place watching him and shimmy Ben Garrett gets caught and gets executed because he left usually shows I'm sure Levitt said what type of idiot would do that you know it's not like he left you shall I'm to go to his mother's funeral you know what one could understand some extenuating circumstance even if you're in a risk your life it's so important to you these were donkeys he had servants he had other people that could have done this and he was told that if he leaves the city and they catch him he's going to be executed says your clamshell levers what's going on here was the following if he hadn't been told he can't leave he might not have left he might have told his servants go find the donkeys as soon as he is given an order you can never leave this city again remaining in the city becomes unbearable it becomes suffocating he can't wait another minute to get out you can try this little experiment as soon as you're told right this and dieting happens all the time you know I'm never gonna eat chocolate again you will have an unbearable desire for chocolate once you make that decision I'm never gonna have it again because once you can't have something that's when you must have something even if you didn't have to have it until you couldn't have it as it worked so my mayor of Hampshire Leavitt says those who practice around the cloak which is pure obedience there's so much against my egotism that it really defines my relationship to the Torah as a home here I'm going to say something hope it's not in in in bad taste and I hope it doesn't offend anybody you know within the reform movements one of the positive developments that has happened is there's been a great increase in the number of reformed Jews who put on tefillin every day tefillin has become a much bigger white more widely practiced Mitzvah in the reform movement that's the good news the bad news is that the increase in filling wearers are almost 100% women now what's the story about that women and fill in itself is a very interesting phenomenon because what that's how luckless say about women wearing tefillin this is is a digression but I think it's worthwhile to spend a few moments about this from a strict legalistic standpoint we ought to treat fill in the same way we treat suka and Lula Vanessa Road women are exempt from Finland because it is a time-bound positive commandment we don't where it's fill-in on Shabbos and we also don't wear it to fill in at night but just because they're exempt that alone is not a reason that would stop them they would get the reward of someone who does a mitzvah that they're not commanded to do after all if a woman is exempt from the sukkah but she can eat in the silk and she gets reward for the mitzvot and fresh canasa she can even make the broccoli a bazooka and if a woman is exempt from moola Vaness Rove and she takes a rule of an S robe and makes a brother if she's askin Ozzy she gets reward so the logical consistency of the halacha would be that fillings should be of very much the same thing she's exempt from tefillin but if she wants to pronounce Vilanch she may now indeed there were some we shown him that took that position and you may have heard the tradition although people say it's not a true story that Rashi who had no sons brassey's daughters were very learned and righteous women and they put on tefillin again some say that that's not a true story but Sigma Records methyl bat show warts villain but then there are two gear so sin the Chimera it's fascinating and these gear cells make all the difference in the world one gear sir is below me Kubo curcumin baka cumin and the chromium did not protest your behavior which may indicate approval or at least let her do it another gear sir takes out the word below Miku Boca come in the cell come in protested so there you have it in the Gemara two different gear says now l'm i said the rama does say not only is a woman exempt from spelling the rama postions a woman is not allowed to wear to fill in and there are different reasons for that nevertheless at a minimum its exemption even if you consider it to be permissible I'm sorry it's not obligatory it's only uh it's only optional so the question would be why would the inspiration to where it's filling be greater among women than among men exactly based on this ptosis because men who have to wear the Eicher Hara tries to tell them not to do it when you don't have to do something so then the HR is less less powerful all right so be it as it may therefore if climbs from Levites tells us that is those who cut cetera the scope which is obedience with shame obedience is your attitude for the entire Torah now one final point here Rashi brings in the name of Roth mosey AHA dharshan we know very little about who have Moshe the darshan was other than Rashi who quotes him in several places but apparently he was a great great a preacher because almost always the particular teaching that Rashi quotes from him are intricate and interesting and remote aha darshan makes the assertion that although para a Duma is described as a cloak it actually is a copper ah it is at an atonement for the fate of a gal for the sin of the golden calf and the analogy he gives is if a baby comes to a place and messes up either loses control of his about movement or just makes a mess so mom has to clean up after the baby so to the para the cow is a car para for the faith that was connected with the offspring of the cow namely the calf Tavo am Lucifer pear al banna andhra bhoja darshan then shows in great detail how every step of the ritual is makovan can negate the state ie go the kind of undos the aspect of the state of a go so here I want to explore conceptually why the para Duma would be a Khepera for the faith or a go and that is the following idea let's look once more at the central paradox of para Duma that the ashes of the para purify the impure but they contaminate the pure paradox the paradox is indeed very very difficult even MELAS said I wanted to be wise I wanted to understand the Torah once I got to para Duma I was stuck nevertheless in spite of the fact that this is considered to be the Coke par excellence the enigma and the ultimate mystery distress M s tries to offer a partial explanation and I part of this overlap so that I spoke about a few weeks ago let's go back to the idea of tumor tumor impurity came into the world because of arrogance ego and you Burris because man was originally supposed to live forever but the Nakhla enticed hava and cava enticed Adam to eat from the ate sawdust and according to of Southwark in the swiss ms the enticement that the nutless used was an appeal to their ego by telling them the day that you eat from this fruit you will be like God with the capacity to understand the true nature of good and evil in other words the ate sawdust or the fruit of the ate sawdust was marketed as a God pill the ultimate ego trip whatever that means take this food and you will be God now in many ways we are godlike the Torah describes us as being but selam aleykum in the image of God we have autonomy we have free will we have creativity we have the capacity to create and the capacity to destroy there are many many things we can do that are analogous to God but because of our arrogance God created the ultimate chasm The Ultimates dividing line between man and his creator and that is immortality death is the ultimate reminder that we are not divine although we have divine characteristics so death came into the world because of arrogance egotism and hubris that brought death into the world consequently how do we become symbolically liberated from the impurity of death by our connection to ashes now this is not explaining why it's a red heifer etc but the notion of ashes ashes as a symbol of humility submission obliteration of the ego death comes into the world because of arrogance I become liberated from the impurity of death by connection to ashes it is the process of self obliteration of the ego that allows me to realize my deepest divine potential that is why the Greek myth of the Phoenix which actually is echoed in a metric of Kassala about the net spurt so really it's from Kazan but for some reason the Greek version is more familiar of the bird rising from the ashes is such a profound story it's not that important whether there was such a creature or whether there wasn't because he even in the context of the new dragon the McGraw sure my they're not always to teach you literal truth Midrash them are there to teach you symbolic spiritual truths this is what the morale tells us and really it goes back to the Rambam and even if I go this is a I'm saying this as an aside but this is actually very important the side that the Rambam rights that people raise a false dichotomy people say our alma drushyam true or not as if these only a binary question true or not true the Rambam says that's a false equation all these Russian are true but truth is not always defined as literal truth there are symbolic truths so the net spurt or in the Greek version of the phoenix bird which rises from the ashes is symbolically an extremely important lesson it is only by obliteration of our ego and our arrogance that we truly achieve self realization that our own arrogance our own sense of self can sometimes be the great biggest inhibitor in realization of who we truly are and that is why para Duma is a purification ritual that is connected to ashes so now let's take it further and see that this is a key to the paradox as well it's not only a key to the purification aspect it's also a key to the contamination aspect because if ashes are seen as a symbol of humility and self-abnegation an obliteration of the ego that can be the greatest step toward spiritual advancement and that can be the most devastating and destructive there are the ashes in which I realized that without God on nothing but when I connect to God I know that he energizes me he gives me talents he gives me ability he gives me responsibilities and I do that that's wonderful but then there are the ashes of paralysis of despair of passivity of worthlessness and then it becomes destructive we talked last week about cryin and heaven so consequently this is what the Taira is being Muromets the ashes of humility have the greatest capacity to purify the impure but if they are taken in the wrong direction they contaminate you they take away your initiative if they take away your self-confidence they take away your belief in yourself that is indispensable to being an avid Hashem and therefore humility is a double-edged sword is the greatest most profound deepest quality that a person must possess but if taken in the wrong way it itself becomes an agent of destruction and a cancer that wipes you out by taking away any sense that you have something to offer the world if I truly think I'm nothing at all then why do I get up in the morning why should I dive in why should I learn why did i do mitzvot why should i do Husson Who am I to do any of this again this mirror is very much our discussion of Heather last week in the context of the paradox so what we see now is we both understand in parts obviously only in part both why the ash is purified because death comes into the world by you bruh and IVA and we become liberated by obliteration of the ego and that's why it purifies and at the same time it contaminates and degrades and denigrates so now we can understand how the ritual of para uma is actually in atonement for the sin of the golden calf because let's go back to the sin of the golden calf the sin of the golden can't it's very very interesting it is very very clear that the Jewish people had did not believe this was the God that created heaven and earth rather it's clear from the context of the Torah itself that they saw the a gal not as a substitute for God or an alternative God they saw the a gal as a substitute for emotion Moshe was late by the way this is the old joke why Jewish weddings are always late because we know that the one time we insisted on punctuality very bad things happens Mike Moshe was supposed to come down the 40th day he was late or at least we thought he was late we immediately panicked we made a golden calf so that was an eternal lesson don't stick to the clock too much because sticking to luck too much resulted Macedo alligator that's an old Yiddish joke or excuse so to speak for why customers are late but be it as it may the Jewish people said we must make for ourselves a God alo Kimmy Day leader because Moshe the man who took us out of miss Ryan isn't here and the Rambam explains and the kuzuri explained and we don't really understand the process that they felt that moshe was the intermediary that channelled the divine energy from God through the intermediary onto them and they were not worthy or deserving of having their own relationship to God without a spiritual channelling intermediary and if they couldn't have Moshe because they thought Moshe was dead he was not coming back they thought that the AYGO could be a spiritual force that channels so it turns out actually the Ramban writes that the fatal a go was not pure idolatry or paganism but it was a failure to realize that each person must and can have a personal relationship with God without intermediary forces so it turns out that the fatal account was not so much a rebellion against God but a feeling of my inadequacy and my unworthiness to have a relationship with God in other words the media of humility taken in a destructive non-productive manner now when you do chuva on something what is the Rambam say you have to take the same characteristic that caused you to sin and utilize it for something positive so the para ahjumma which purifies me by obliterating my ego and then enabling me to serve Hashem by going into the temple is taking the meter of humility which was so destructive in the context of the Sato a cow and now you're using it and you're dedicating it for a constructive purpose that is what is called chuhwa true Chula is when you take the very factor that led you astray and you can now use it for something positive that's a higher level of true with an avoidance one model of chuva is I add something that led me astray and I avoid it and that is that is true virtue but the highest level of Trueba is the very negative becomes a positive and that is the lesson of y para uma is a Caparo for the Seder I go one final thought again and this is not related to anything that I said until now there is a Meldrick that is called a mega rich poly aplia just means in enigmatic matters that doesn't seem to make any direct sense and it says if you want to understand para Duma you must understand the sewed the secret meaning of avati Israel and if you understand the secret meaning of avati Israel you will understand para Duma well it's hard to say well what does para uma have to do with average Israel so I think they say in the name of the great Ksyusha Rebbe the after Rose who was known as the oh hey B Israel because that's the name of the safer and he stressed oh maybe Israel all the time that this what happens by para Duma your impure you need to be purified is a Cohen purify you but in the course of purifying you I become impure now for a Cohen to become impure is a bit of an inconvenience he can't go to the base I make - till he purifies himself he can't be trauma so what is the Cohen doing in a sense the Cohen is basically saying I'm willing to give up temporary surely some of my status and some of my privileges to help another Jim I'm willing to put myself out I'm willing to suffer a little bit so consequently the abbe de rêve says this is quite ingenious instead of looking at it as a paradox the paradox is how can it purify Reuven if a contaminate Shimon we actually look at it as a cause and effect because shamone is willing to be contaminated that elevates the act as a holy act of giving and that is what affects the purity in other words it's mama she caused an effect if you're willing to give up some of yourself to help another person that brings holiness purity and kedusha into the world the willingness to give up something to help another person by the way just that is it a double party this we gots potluck we didn't that's not okay also we're catching up but the next part you're but luck I'll tell you another thing I mentioned the obvious route let me give you a little advance on that this is an amazing thing the app giraffe says every partial in the Torah talks about average israel so somebody asked him where in BO up does it talk about a bus you show now Mike I don't understand the question Mott's hope will allow a Yaakov I mean there are explicit references to the greatness of the Jewish people but okay so the app you rep says very pushes I'll tell you exactly where it speaks about average Israel the word bulla bulla means the base the base is V or hasta the llama is liberal and the cook is come oka so Baumbach spell its abbreviation we are house till the river come over so some of the students said more ever you know I thought with all due respect V are after is love and Brock is vase pelo ray aqua Islamic qumola is tough and the walk is cool I mean it's not the same two of the three letters do not correspond to via half Giacomo so the after of says that's the point when you love another Yin you're not looking too closely it thinks you're willing to look with a very very generous side once you start looking too closely that shows that the average Israel is not truly there so in truth you know today's Roda shigeko - and we are approaching of course the three weeks 17th of Tammuz in three weeks we will approximately we will begin the three weeks and this is the period where we mourn the destruction of the temple and we know of course that the second temple was destroyed even though the Jews were largely Torah observance they kept mitzvahs they learned Torah but Sonata phenom is the reason that's given the hatred the polarization and the like so when we talk about trying to rebuild the base of mikdash one of the most important things we have to be thinking about is how do we build a Vitesse role in our own lives within our own families again we can't like rivers or cilantro said when he was young he wanted to change the world and then he realized that's not going to work and they could build his stead his City then his family at the very end he realized I'll work on myself and that's going to have a ripple effect so the jalapao hugs i think all of us should be thinking about how in our own lives we can grow in our Iraqis RAL and in that way we are contributing towards the building of the base of Mukesh and Mays kumbum a review may know and may may this be a time of gold so our good night [Music]