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