Parashat Hukat: The risks of responsibility

[Jewscout]

Parashat Hukat: The risks of responsibility

One of the most profound mysteries of the Torah is the law of the red heifer, a ritual by which an individual who has become ritually defiled by contact with a corpse is purified by a kohen–priest, who sprinkles him with a mixture of burnt ashes of a completely red heifer with water, into which must be thrust a piece of cedar wood, branches of hyssop and a scarlet thread of wool (Numbers 19:1-6).

Not only are the various ingredients of this ritual difficult to fathom, the strangest aspect of all is the fact that while the impure person upon whom the ashes mixture is sprinkled emerges purified, those kohen-priests involved in the carrying, the burning and the thrusting of the cedar wood all become defiled. How can the very same object be a purifying agent and a defiling instrument at one and the same time? It is no wonder that our talmudic sages applied the words of King Solomon, wisest of all mortals, to the mystery of the red heifer: "I attempted to be wise, but it only moved further away from my understanding" (Kohelet 7:23).

Further, why does the Torah record this particular ritual here, at the conclusion of the desert sojourn of the Israelites? Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra explains that these laws were also given at Sinai, but were included in this context because the ritual must be prepared and performed by the kohen-priests. But the rules of the kohen-priests belong much more to the books of Exodus (the sanctuary portions of Terumah, Tetzaveh, Vayakhel and Pikudei) and Leviticus (the Holy Temple sacrificial cult) than to these stories of desert dissatisfaction, rebellion and intrigues in the book of Numbers. Why is the ritual of the red heifer sandwiched between the sins of the scouts and of Korah in the two previous portions and the transgression of Moses in the segment immediately following?

Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik masterfully answered a significant part of our first query. To what may the ritual of the red heifer be compared?

To a hapless individual who finds himself drowning in a quicksand of mud. Certainly he must be rescued, but the rescuer, who must lift the victim up from the quagmire, will of necessity become soiled in the process. Hence, those who prepare the mixture of purification are themselves defiled by it. My revered teacher went one step further. Is it then fair, he asked, that those who attempt to purify become impure in this fashion? And he explained that if we understand that it is the religious leadership which has the responsibility of purifying society, that had the priests-kohanim uplifted humanity to higher spiritual and ethical attainments, people would not have become contaminated by impurity in the first place, then it is only right that this same religious leadership assume the obligation of becoming defiled when so many Jews are alienated from Torah and sanctity.

complete article here:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...=1120702711182

[Lightkeeper]

Very interesting. Why do you suppose the Jews were so concerned with their purification rituals? They seemed to go overboard on cleanlieess. What do you supposed the reason for this was?

[Jewscout]

Originally Posted by Lightkeeper

Very interesting. Why do you suppose the Jews were so concerned with their purification rituals? They seemed to go overboard on cleanlieess. What do you supposed the reason for this was?

well understand LK that these were edicts that traditional judaism holds was handed down by HaShem Himself.
these were mainly proceedures to ritually clean someone, often having to do w/ the loss of a lifesource (such as death or when a women menstrates). And often these dealt with the Temple, which is the holiest of sites.