"This is what the text has said (Job 14.4): "Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one?" For example, Abraham from Terach, Chizkiya from Achaz, Yashiya from AMon, Mordechai from Shimei, Israel from idol worshipers, the World to Come from this world. Who commanded this? Who decreed this? Not the Singular One of the universe? (Bamidbar Rabbah)
Much is spoken of the Torah's commandments and the universal morality they embody. Even the greatest secular thinkers concede that in the world's literature no other work compares to the Torah.
Enlightened civilizations have adopted for themselves Torah principles, such as, "Love thy neighbor as thyself," certain tenets of the Ten Commandments are most readily adopted by observant and non-observant Jews alike, they are likely to be the "social" commandments, ones that apply to all places and times, ones that are not dependent on the Temple or the Land of Israel.
Yet here, from among all the 613 mitzvot, the Torah introduces one, the "Parah Adumah" or red heifer, with the words, "This is the law of the Torah." A mitzvah that today is inapplicable without the Temple standing, one which cannot be observed, one which seemingly defies logic in that purity begets impurity and impurity reverses itself to bring purity - why does God designate this mitzvah with the banner, "This is the law of the Torah?"
The mitzvah of the red heifer, like the mitzvot of the sacrifices, does not fit in with the modern thinking of today's society. Our questioning of the mitzvah's rationale would be justified if, in fact, human intellect was the dominant force in the world. Yet this is not the case. Logic and intellect would dictate that righteous parents would have righteous children and hat sinful or ignorant parents would beget children similar to themselves.
Logic would dictate that one's surroundings should, of necessity, shape one's future. Logic would dictate that scientifically advanced and artistically enlightened cultures should be the most virtuous cultures. Yet in our generation we have witnessed the monstrous and genocidal acts by exactly such cultures. Logic and intellect govern neither the character of civilizations, nor do they ultimately shape the world of the individual.
How could Abraham have come from the lineage of Terach? How could Mordechai have come from the seed of Shimi? Does this not defy logic? To this the Midrash responds: "Who commanded this? Who decreed this? Not the Singular One of the universe?" There exists a higher, Divine logic that determines our reality, higher and more divine than that which man can comprehend.
This is the message of the red heifer, a message which embodies the totality of Torah. Faith is the acceptance of something greater than our own ability to understand or to rationalize. It is the acceptance of our human limitations. It is the expansion of our spirit through observances which express something deeper than the logical or concrete - just as the kiss of a parent to a child expresses a bond that goes far deeper than the touch of lips to cheek. It is the acceptance of the infinite over the finite. "This is the law of the Torah."
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