This week’s perashah begins with the description of the parah adumah—the red heifer. The Torah specifies what kind of red heifer is fit for the preparation of the mei nida—the “waters of separation.” It must be entirely red, without blemish, and must never have borne a yoke. The Sages teach that even King Shelomoh, who was granted wisdom by God to explain all the commandments of the Torah, could not explain this one. This is truly a ḥoq—a statute beyond rational understanding—because while the mei nida purifies those who have become impure through contact with the dead, it simultaneously renders impure the one who prepares it.
What can we learn from this paradox? Life itself is filled with contradictions, and one must learn to accept what comes—both the understandable and the mysterious. More than this, it shows that Am Yisrael fulfills the Torah and its laws not only through reason, but also through obedience and trust in the Most High.
To what may this be compared? A father forbids his children from doing things that may seem like restrictions in their eyes. But the father knows what is best, because he has life experience. If this is true for an earthly father, how much more so for our Heavenly Father, the Creator?
Here, the Torah hints that impurity from contact with the dead must be treated with great care. A similar concept is seen in the laws of tum’ah (ritual impurity) imparted by a menstruating woman to those who come into contact with her.
The perashah continues with the death of Miryam, Aharon, and many rebellious Yisraelim. The Ḥakhamim teach that sin is what brings about death—and that spiritual death comes before physical death. Rabban Gamli’el once said:
“It is not the serpent that kills, but sin,”
after surviving a snake bite.
In this perashah, we read how many Yisraelim died in the wilderness from fiery serpents that bit them. In response, our teacher Moshe was instructed to make a serpent of copper. Why would he make an image of the very thing that had brought death upon the people? The answer is: to teach us that to receive life, we must face the very thing that is killing us slowly.
The constant complaints of Am Yisrael against Moshe and Aharon wore them down spiritually and eventually led to physical death. The core sin was that they blamed Aḏonay—blessed be He—for their suffering. Psychologists call this projection, as we mentioned previously. It is a defense mechanism used by someone in crisis to survive discomfort by blaming others. But nothing is further from the truth. When an uncomfortable situation arises, we must face it directly—without casting blame. That is how true healing comes. Otherwise, we spiral toward destruction.
May Aḏonay grant us the inner strength to find healing in whatever crisis we may be facing.