Chukath: The Rules
The parsha starts with the preparation for the survivor of death. Touching, carrying, sharing a space with death is a contamination that can never be completely cleansed. The most elaborate of rituals, the red hefer reduces the intensity so that the exposed person can re-enter the community.
The red heifer was a unique animal, hard to find, one of its kind ( only 9 have been offered). It was the regent of its species- forbidden from work of any kind, totally separated form the mundane . It is like the memory of the departed, pure and simple and holy; washed of the grime of reality.
The heifer is never brought into the temple. A tribute of its blood is sprinkled, by the High Priest, in the direction of the temple, but the rite of this animal is outside. All sacrificial rites must be performed in the temple. This is not a sacrificial rite This is the manufacture of a product , a purifier. The High Priest has a supervisory role, he is the Mashgiach. The High Priest does not deal with death.
When Aaron dies the good death, his euthanasia, he ascends the mountain with Moshe and his son Elazar. He transfers the holy vestments to the heir and does not descend with them. The details are left to Gd.
The ashes of the red hefer were suspended in spring water. The final, irreducible vestige of a living thing, a kind of dirt, is mixed with essence of clean. The water is muddied, the ashes are cleaned. The ambivalent mixture is sprinkled on the confused person, who is recovering from her exposure to mortality.
The red hefer recovery ritual is prepared for the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, leaders of the people. They were recognized by everyone, and they generated a range of ideas and impressions throughout the nation. Every person had to work through the memories and the loss. That process needed to end with a purification. The ritual does not resolve conflict, it does not bring enlightenment, it just ends a phase and allows re-entry.
We have piles of ashes, not from heifers. They no longer generate memories, only history and ideas.
Are there enough ashes for our purification?
The heifer is never brought into the temple. A tribute of its blood is sprinkled, by the High Priest, in the direction of the temple, but the rite of this animal is outside. All sacrificial rites must be performed in the temple. This is not a sacrificial rite This is the manufacture of a product , a purifier. The High Priest has a supervisory role, he is the Mashgiach. The High Priest does not deal with death.
When Aaron dies the good death, his euthanasia, he ascends the mountain with Moshe and his son Elazar. He transfers the holy vestments to the heir and does not descend with them. The details are left to Gd.
The ashes of the red hefer were suspended in spring water. The final, irreducible vestige of a living thing, a kind of dirt, is mixed with essence of clean. The water is muddied, the ashes are cleaned. The ambivalent mixture is sprinkled on the confused person, who is recovering from her exposure to mortality.
The red hefer recovery ritual is prepared for the deaths of Miriam and Aaron, leaders of the people. They were recognized by everyone, and they generated a range of ideas and impressions throughout the nation. Every person had to work through the memories and the loss. That process needed to end with a purification. The ritual does not resolve conflict, it does not bring enlightenment, it just ends a phase and allows re-entry.
We have piles of ashes, not from heifers. They no longer generate memories, only history and ideas.
Are there enough ashes for our purification?
posted by Sheldon Goldberg at 8:40 AM
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