BS”D
INTROSPECTIVE
INSPIRATION: PARSHAT PARAH
Shira
Smiles shiur 2018/5778
Adapted
by Channie Koplowitz Stein
Parshat Parah introduces us to the ultimate chok, a mitzvah that
defies all logic and we accept simply because it is God’s command. In this
mitzvah, the kohain takes one who has become defiled through contact
with the dead and brings him outside the camp. There he sprinkles on him water
that contains ashes from a red heifer, and the man becomes purified.
Rabbi Wolfson offers a homiletic interpretation to this ritual. The ultimate
Purifier is Hashem Who purifies us from all sin.
The purification process begins on Purim when we returned to Hashem and
re-accepted the Torah through love. We are drawn back to Hashem, and the
purification process continues, drawing us back to Him, until Pesach when the
process is complete, and we are freed from the challenges that hold us back
from becoming full servants of Hakodosh Boruch Hu. These thirty days are a time
to prepare our minds and our hearts for our full redemption, as Hashem each
night removes one thirtieth of the contamination to help us in the purification
process. Preparing for Pesach must include spiritual cleansing and preparation as
well as physical cleansing of our homes. Parshat Parah offers some
insights into this preparation.
To get a better understanding of sin, we will go back to examine the original
sin of Adam and Chava. When Hashem created Adam and Chava and placed them in
Gan Eden, all was perfection. And Hashem was fully there, and His presence was
obvious, writes the Shvilei Pinchas. Then the serpent broaches one
question. His one question was, “Did Hashem really tell you, you may not
eat from any tree of the garden?” Suddenly, doubt sets in, Hashem’s presence
and words are no longer transparent, and everything falls apart. Fast forward
now to Pharaoh. His vision is so clouded that when Moshe approaches him with
Hashem’s command to let Bnei Yisroel go, he responds, “Who is this God? I do
not know Him.”
If there are questions that foster impurity, in order to maintain balance,
there must also be questions that promote purity, continues the Shvilei
Pinchas. Hashem’s first question to Adam is one that should reverberate
with mankind throughout time, “Ayekah/Where are you?” This is not a
question about physical location, but rather a spiritual question. Hashem asks
three more questions, culminating with, “What did you do?” These
questions come as a result of Adam’s eating of the forbidden fruit.
At the Seder we attempt to repair this sin. We do not know for certain what the
forbidden fruit was. According to some of our Sages, the fruit was wheat
(everything grew differently in the Garden of Eden) and according to others, it
was grapes/wine. (Apple is a non-Jewish concept.) When we eat the matzah and
drink the four cups of wine at the Seder, we are sanctifying these “fruits”
again and repairing the sin.
Now the son continues the repair by asking four questions. Each of these
questions parallels one of our exiles, since we continue to sin. As the father
answers these questions, he is also responding to Hashem’s questions and
expresses a desire to be redeemed from our individual servitudes to become
proper servants to Hashem. The blessing over this cup of wine concludes with a
prayer for the liberation of our souls.
The Seder night is meant to rectify the sin of Adam and eliminate all doubt
about God. The process begins with Adar and concludes with Pesach. The Seder’s
answer to Hashem’s question of, “Where are you?” is, “Here I am, ready to serve
You.”
While Parshat Parah seems to apply only to purification from contact
with the dead, the Haftorah provides an extended meaning. The Haftorah
speaks about Hashem’s purifying us from all sin, about giving us a new, pure
heart of flesh rather than of stone. The connection goes further than simple
purification from sin, notes Rabbi Biederman in Be’er Chaim. It was the
first sin that brought death, and subsequently all sin to the world. The
purification process of the parah adumah/red heifer involved sprinkling
the dust-and-ashes laden water on the impure individual. Man can do proper teshuvah
only when he feels humble, as only dust and ashes. We should be inspired to
look within ourselves and see how we are enslaved to our individual yetzer
horo writes Rabbi Gamliel Rabinowitz in Tiv Hatorah.
We are commanded to see ourselves as if we were personally redeemed from
Mitzrayim. Rabbi Zev Leff points out that the command is not to view ourselves
as if we personally left Eretz Mitzrayim/the Land of Egypt, but
that we left our personal mitzrayim/narrow places. We are each confined
by our own yetzer horo, our own spiritual enslavement. Each night
leading up to the Seder, Hashem provides our soul with the potential to redeem
itself. Our enslavement is individualized, and so each of us must consider his
own personal redemption from his mitzrayim.
The Seder provides the methodology for our redemption. Just as we were
incapable of personally redeeming ourselves from the slavery in Egypt, so are
we incapable of personally redeeming ourselves from our current narrow straits.
It was only Hashem Himself, not through any agent or angel, Who took us out. As
we cried out to Him then and He heard us, so must we cry out to Him today,
writes Rabbi Rabinowitz. I am caught in the clutches of the physical world, and
only by recognizing that Hashem is an integral part of my life, not just an
abstract idea, can I hope for His help. And I must know that even the difficult
times in my life serve a purpose, that I am meant to grow from every
experience. To know what I must learn from each experience and to get rid of the
yetzer horo, I need to pray and ask for Hashem’s help. He loves our
voices t, and they are pleasant to Him. The Seder is one long tefillah, and
affords continuous opportunity to pray for what is missing in my life, a shidduch,
or children, or sustenance, and above all, for help in perfecting my middos.
I must take away the Pharaoh within me, writes Rabbi Meislish, and daven for my
redemption.
In giving the mitzvah for the first korban Pesach/Pascal sacrifice,
Hashem adds a word that does not seem relevant or necessary, “Mishchu ukechu/Draw
and take for yourself one sheep...” Rabbi Wolbe z”l quoting Chazal, suggests
that Moshe was implying that Bnei Yisroel withdraw from idol worship before
they take a sheep for the sacrifice. Before we are ready to do the positive, it
is necessary to remove the negative, the evil. When we scrub our houses and
search out the chametz, we should be doing an equally thorough search in
our hearts to remove all spiritual chametz. We must reflect on our middos
and attitudes and remove the idol worship within ourselves.
Why is this process so difficult? Rabbi Roth z”l in Sichot Eliyahu cites
the Rambam in noting the constant battle within us between the body and the
soul. Because we are comprised of a body and live in a physical world, the yetzer
horo keeps us so occupied with our physical needs and wants that we are too
busy to introspect or meditate, and work on self improvement. (Interestingly,
so many branches of medical and psychological science now recommend slowing
down and meditation to relieve stress and promote both physical and
psychological healing. We had it first, but we add spiritual healing. CKS)
When we have withdrawn from our personal idol worship, whether it be the
pursuit of money for luxuries we do not need, or prestige, or whatever else, we
are ready to begin the positive aspects of our service. Why was Bnei Yisroel
worthy of redemption? They exhibited self sacrifice in the “bloods” they were willing
to suffer for Hashem, the blood of circumcision and the blood of the Pascal
lamb on their doorposts, an act which angered the Egyptians who worshiped
sheep. How much am I willing to sacrifice in Hashem’s service, continues Rabbi
Roth z”l. Analyze my day. Where have I fallen short of what I should do simply
because it was inconvenient for the moment, or how have I been brusque with
another because I was insensitive or in a hurry? Work on my self improvement.
Rabbi Yaakov Hillel expand on this idea. Citing the Ramchal, he writes that one
of the main tactics of the yetzer horo is to keep us so busy that we do
not have time or energy to think. This is the modern day Pharaoh, increase the
work load or worry about things that have no effect on us so we won’t have time
to think of freedom. Look inward, and work on what’s truly important.
Parshat Parah is meant not to rectify a particular sin so much as it is
meant to rectify the idea of sin, the idea of throwing off the yoke of Heaven,
writes Rav Dessler z”l. People like to be in control and to be able to act
however they choose. By accepting the chok of parah adumah, we
are reaffirming our submission to God’s will. In essence, we are again
asserting naaseh venishma/we will do and we will listen as we did at
Sinai. Rav Dessler z”l contends that the entire purpose of our servitude in
Egypt was to teach us about servitude, to train us in His service.
Serving Hashem is about doing that which we may not understand, that which is
difficult for me, not about doing that which is easy and within my nature.
Getting up early to daven with a minyan is easy for a morning person but a
constant struggle for a night owl. To overcome the attraction of the warm bed
and get to shul early is greater service for the night owl, for he is
struggling with his innate nature in his will to follow God’s will. Following
Hashem’s will becomes the primary force in my life. In that sense, the chok
of the red heifer is the paradigm of my service. I do it only because it is His
will; to me it is completely illogical. I must pray for Hashem’s help to work
on myself in uprooting that which Hashem does not want and increase those middos
that Hashem does want in me.
Perhaps now we can more readily understand why our Sages say that greater is
the one who is commanded and does than the one who is not commanded and does
(on his own). Doing mitzvoth by rote or because it is in one’s nature is not
the same as thinking about the mitzvah, having intention, investing effort and
thought into its performance, writes Rav Yitzchak Isaac She z”l.. While we can
certainly enjoy the chag, we must also appreciate that we fulfill all
its details because Hashem has so commanded.
Each of us struggles with something, is a slave to money, or technology, or
physical pleasure, or something else, writes Rabbi Schorr in Halekach
Vehalebuv. It is our own personal version of the yetzer horo. We
must not let that enslavement steal our energy from the true purpose of our lives,
to be an eved Hashem. We pray that Hashem should help us do the proper
introspection and focus our energy on that which is truly important, our
families and being true avdei Hashem.