March 25, 2011- Shemini/Parah

Our illustrious Sages decreed that we revisit four portions of the Torah specifically in the weeks preceding Passover. Of course, they expect far more spiritual and physical preparation than that, and let's face it, if we show up to Seder night without any prior thought or input, we'll stand very little chance of tapping into its timeless potential. But at the very least, on a communal level they wanted to hit home with four fundamental ideas. This Shabbos is host to one of them.

The great Phil Rizzuto's staple expletive during 40 years of Yankee broadcasts was, "HOLY COW!!!!". I was just picking up my son from his play group and heard Meat Loaf's Paradise by the Dashboard Light coming over the radio and smiled. Does G-d really have that kind of sense of humor? Meat Loaf purportedly tricked Rizzuto into taping a fictitious baseball announcement for the song which has long since become famous. If you know what I'm talking about, you're smiling as well. It turns out he knew full well what he was recording, but faked ignorance to get his priest and his wife off his back. "HOLY COW" is in the song as well. Our Shabbos portion is another Holy Cow.

Where'd he get it from, that expression? Ever wonder? No. 10's been retired from the Yankees and "the Scooter" has been retired from existence, so there's no one to ask. But with the little sleep I've had this week, my mind starts to wander. Perhaps parshas Parah? This very Torah portion that we're assigned so close to Passover talks of the Parah Aduma - the red heiffer - a Temple sacrifice so profound that it can purify the most impure of impurities, something that even King Solomon the Wise couldn't understand (in fact the only thing). Only G-d can do and understand such an impossibility. Making the totally impure, completely pure. And this cow, this holy cow, is the way forward.

The high priest in the Temple performed the task with the greatest of purity himself, only to be rendered impure himself the second the impure recipient becomes pure. A paradox of epic proportion. But the message we can understand, and we must understand before we experience Jewish freedom on Passover.

The Torah describes the process in great detail and the central component is the ash of the sacrifice (a completely unblemished, unworked, red heffer). However, at the very end of the portion, the Torah changes its diction from 'ash' (Ayfer in Hebrew) to 'dirt' (afar) - changing an alef to an ayin. What's the difference between ash and dirt? Ash is thoroughly destroyed - the remnants of something that was and is positively and irreconcilably no longer. Dirt, however, has no past, but is only potential - the future. In it things can grow, take root, absorb its nutrients. It is the life giving cocoon that this world provides. The Parah Aduma sacrifice represents G-d's ability, nay promise, to raise the dead, so to speak. From that which by all standards is completely destroyed and cannot give life, He will bring forth life. When the Jewish people seem to have no future, no hope of future greatness, they are promised to rise again. This is our message as a People. We speak it of ourselves and the miracle of our existence, and we speak of G-d's promise and His prowess. Precisely just when there seems to be no future, there is nothing but hope. That's what we stand for, and that message is so crucial to Passover.

Holy Cow, indeed.

Good Shabbos,

Rabbi Lynn