יד יוסף: VaYakel-Pekday / Parah: Pure Outside and Inside

Parshas Parah falls a week before the Shabbos when the month of Nissan is announced. It continues the theme of preparation for Passover that started with parshas Shekalim. Whereas the theme of parshas Shekalim was civic repairs, its theme is personal purification. The maftir i.e. the final reading from the Torah details the mitzvah of the red heifer.

The mitzvah of the parah adumah explains how to purify oneself from the defilement of death. A person becomes tumei meis (טמאי מת) if he comes into contact with a dead body. This would include burial, being a pall bearer, or being in the same room with a corpse. A soldier returning from combat would be assumed to have contracted this form of defilement. In order to be purified, one must be sprinkled with the ashes of the red heifer. The laws for their preparation are many and complex.

One can only ascend the Temple Mount or eat the karbon Pesach in a state of ritual purity. There are several types of ritual impurity which include such things as touching the carcass of a mouse or even a kosher animal that died from a means other than a proper slaughter, gonorrhea, masturbation, and leprosy. For some of them purification is lengthy and involved, others may only require immersion in a ritual bath.

The haftorah for parshas parah also talks about defilement. It condemns the house of Israel for their failings in character and resultant bad behavior, with bloodshed and idolatry arousing the fury of the Almighty. Because of their malevolence the land has become defiled. In other words a person’s misdeeds and offensiveness impart an aspect of tumah (ritual impurity – טומאה). Even after the nation has repented they will only be tahor (pure – טהור) after G-d washes them by sprinkling them with clean water. After that He will replace their heart of stone with a heart of flesh.

The concept of ritual defilement includes a number of ideas. A mischievous child can become tumei by playing with a dead lizard. A person can become tumei by eating meat that was not properly slaughtered. A good person can become tumei simply because he is involved in tending to the needs of the deceased. To remove the feeling of being dirty often something extra must be done. It can be as easy as taking a shower, but if the feeling is strong something more elaborate is needed.

When I was a little boy I went to the farmers market with my grandmother. She needed meat so she went to the butcher and picked out a chicken from the cage much like she did when she was a little girl growing up in Romania. The butcher took the chicken into the back, slaughtered it, plucked it, wrapped it up, and brought it to my grandmother. With some concern, I commented to her that he had killed the chicken. At that age it was a bit difficult to get me to eat meat and I think my grandmother sensed that. She then turned to me with a big smile and said with wonder, the shochet is a very holy man. Before he slaughters the chicken, he says a blessing and after he slaughters it, he says another blessing. When we returned home she cleaned the chicken giving me a lesson in kashrut, biology, and reproductive biology. My mother said at times my grandmother could be a character. The truth is that I do eat meat and enjoy it, but I don’t like the way it looks particularly when it’s raw. It could be that my grandmother’s appeal to religion and the great unknown spared everybody a lot of aggravation.

At times a person really feels dirty. Perhaps he is physically dirty or it could be a good person who must do unsavory things in order to deal with a difficult world. It can also be a person who has strayed very far but now wants to travel the good path. Sometimes in order to remove the stain something elaborate must be done. That is the parah adumah. Once a person feels pure it becomes possible for him to abandon a stone heart, accept a heart of flesh, and truly enjoy the Pesach holiday on the Temple Mount.