Some Illumination Regarding Parsha Chukat
The parsha Chukat is hard enough to understand especially
when you're not really meant to understand a chok, a law that is
beyond reason. The law of the Red Heifer
is the most supra-rational of all the Torah's precepts.
"
King Solomon say (Ecclesiastes 7:23), "I thought
to be wise to it, but it is distant from me"? He said: "All of the
Torah's commandments I have comprehended. But the chapter of the red heifer,
though I have examined it, questioned it and searched it out--I thought to be
wise to it, but it is distant from me." - (Midrash
Rabbah)
The commentary of the Izhbitza Rebbe on this chok
of the Red Heifer is also a challenge to my understanding. Comparing Israel
to the Red Heifer, The Izhbitza Rebbe, Rabbi Mordechai Yosef of Isbitza, says
"Israel
has never been under the 'yoke' of a king or ruler at any time, because we
understand that all is really in the hands of the Blessed God."
That is a tough one for me.
Later in the commentary, the Izhbitza Rebbe, says that
"it will be in the future, that the blesssed God will make it clear that
all the suffering in Israel was temporary and no soul in Israel was ever in
danger. That's even harder for me.
Barry: I don't get it.
Rabbi Hoffman: Take a look at your picture of the Izbitza
Ohel.
The Nazis ad the Jews
destroy their gravestones, some 600
years old to make a jail.
After the war,
the
Izbitza's descendants took those
gravestones and made an ohel for their beloved
rebbe.
The Aish Kodesh said to his followers in the Warsaw Ghetto,
the Nazis have our bodies
but not our minds
Ah..from my intellect, I understand a little more. From the intellect to my heart may take
another 38 years. Here's the photo.
