Chukath: the rule

The fundamental law is this: everybody dies.

That is why the parsha begins with the way one deals with death. The purification after contact with death.

The Para adumah is done not by Aaron, not by Moshe, but by Elazar ( and in the Midrash Tanchuma it is explained by R. Eliezer [ the namesake of Moshe's son])

In pashas para, Miriam and Aharon die and Moshe performs his fatal act.

This is the choq that is so hard to face ( in the face of Elazar), so hard to understand. Everyone must die.

The drop that purifies is the drop that contaminates: keri

The keri creates the new ( pure) being

The mother is rendered impure by the birth

That drop that creates the purity creates the tumah.

The PArah Adumah:

the Pe'er ha'adam

that is why the bite of the snake reappears

and now it is healed by the combination of divine and human intervention.

And it all starts with the need for different food, just like with Eve.

perhaps the entire parsha is about handling the arbitrary:

1. everyone dies
2. eat what you are given
3. some orders cannot possibly be carried out correctly ( water from the rock)
4. Gd decides who will be victorious and when

Chukas: the obstacle.

This is the rule.

every rule is an obstacle. It defines a correct performance vs. an incorrect one.

But the parah Adumah becomes the obstacle to the rebuilding of the temple.

we can't do the temple service because we have the death Tumah

we can't get clear of the death Tumah until we have the ashes of the Parah Adumah

we can't make the Para Adumah because we have the death Tumah

(The irony is that one of the temple services becomes an obstacle to the building of the temple.

Now, the Para Aduma is actually not done in the temple, but the verse prescribes that the blood be sprinkled toward the temple.)

Ultimately it becomes the obstacle to the building of the temple.

There could have been any number of obstacles , but the PAra Adumah is the chosen one.

The para Adumah is ( per Moshe Hadarshan) the correction for the golden calf.

Therefore, its position as the obstacle to the renewal of the temple menas that the Golden calf prevails.

The Golden calf is the community electing its Gd, as opposed to accepting the Gd that chose the community.

That is why the Choq, the command without reason, is the obstacle

Parshath Shelach: Aydah

The calculation that a minyan consists of 10 men is attributed to parshat Shleach (megilla..., quited by Rashi....) . The word is Aydah. Ayin dalth hey. It is taken to refer to the 10 of 12 spies who slandered the land of Israel, thereby delaying by 40 years the entry into the Pormised LAnd.

There are several issues here:

1. The spies were not ordinary citizens, they were princes ()
   1. therefore, perhaps a minyan consists only of princes.
2. there is a slippage of the punushment
   1. it seesm that initialy only the Aydah itself was to be punished
   2. but ultimately the entire people is punished.
      1. perhaps even Moshe

The issue of the slippage is appealing in that a representative body, an aydah can bear the burden of the entire community and the entire community can be held reponsible for the actions of an Aydah ( under the appropriate circumstances).

The word is interesting.

One can immagine the misspelling that replaces the ayin (70) with the homonymic aleph (1). THat would make the gemmatria of aydah 10.

Better: Ayin takes on the meaning of the letter: the eye, to see. Each individual sees 4(daleth) and 5 (hey) people around him, the security in numbers that validates the comittee's statement. ( Not the commit in commitee)

Deeper: the Ayin and the daleth are a key pair. They are the large letters of Shema. They spell Ayd, witness.and they are the root of daath, knowledge ( or opinion or sex)

Baal Keri

The master of the occurance

The husband who had an occurance.

A state of being that is inimical to Torah, the shema and tefillah.

What is the essence of the state?

Why is it inimical to shema, torah, etc.?

The baal keri implies

1. orgasm

2. emission

3. sex

Which of these is the problem?

The verses would suggest that emission, the fluid itself is the issue.

Vayikra 15:16

Baal keri is connected to ziva and distinguished from ziva

But, it should be noted that Rashi relates the requirement to refrain from saying the shema ( and think it instead) to the edict of Ezra, not to this verse! (Brochoth 22)

That “omission” is important. It means that (according to Rashi) the relationship between seminal emission and shema ( and torah) is different from its relationship to Tumah.

This must be understood in the context of the various interpretations of the verse in Vayikra.

1. Rashi: no comment

2. Onkeleos; drips from him

   1. And if seed of copulation go out from a man, he shall wash all his flesh with water, and be unclean until evening. The woman with whom a man shall lie with seed of copulation, they shall bathe themselves with water, and be unclean until evening.TgOnk Lev. 14-15

3. Targum Yonathan: ishtale

   1. But if a man sin through ignorance and seed goeth from him, let him wash all his flesh in forty seahs of water, and be unclean until evening. And any garment or skin on which seed may be shall be washed in water, and be unclean until evening; and secondly, a woman with whom a man lieth shall wash in forty seahs of water, and be unclean until evening PJ Lev 14-15

4. Even Ezra: against his will ( shelo brezono)

   1. Avi ezer: a fine distinction ( diyuk) since the verse says taztze instead of yatzay.

5. Rambam: semen is among the avoth hatumah

6. Baal Haturim: Gematrie: seed that shoots like an arrow

Parshath Hashevuah:

At the end of Bahalothecha, Rashi brings the subject of keri back, and injects it into the interaction between Moshe and his siblings. Rashi says that Miriam criticizes Moshe for separating from his wife. G d points out that G d visits Moshe at any time, so he must not be baal keri.

A few notes:

1. Miriam is doing the same thing to Moshe that she did with her parents. She encouraged her ( aged) parents to return to reproductive behavior, despite Pharoh's edict that all the boys would be killed. Similarly she was encouraging Moshe to engage in reproductive activity despite his status.
2. I have a question. Is Miriam's tzoraas the consequence of exposure to the Shechina while a baalath keri? Is this part of nature?