In the 13th Century, a book was written anonymously called Sefer HaChinuch. This book lists reasons for all of the mitzvos that we have except for one of them. The one exception is found at the beginning of this week’s parsha, Para Adumah (the red heifer). If a person becomes spiritually impure because of contact with a dead person, the person needs to go through a cleansing process that includes being sprinkled with ashes of the Para Adumah. After the person is sprinkled with these ashes, the person becomes spiritually pure. The interesting thing about the process is that the pure Cohain that does the sprinkling on the impure person now becomes impure. Therefore, the impure person becomes pure but the pure person becomes impure. It does not make much sense at all and the Sefer HaChinuch said that this law is unexplainable.

My rav in Boston, Rav Moskovitz, once stated that there is a reason for the Para Adumah and the reason is exactly what the Sefer HaChinuch says. He explained that the reason for the Para Adumah is that it has no reason. It is beyond human comprehension. The reason for the Para Adumah is to teach us that we do not understand everything that happens in life.

The Chofetz Chaim writes: Imagine a person visiting a community and walking into a shul in the middle of the Torah reading. He sees that a young man gets called up for an aliyah and starts yelling. Why is a young man getting called up when there are so many other great people that should be called up! The Gabbai walks to the stranger and explains that the other people had been given aliyahs either earlier in the day or last week or the week before. There is a reason why each person is being called up in this order. If the stranger lived in the community or showed up on-time to davening that morning, he would have a better understanding why people were being called up in the order they were in.

The Chofetz Chaim says that this story is a metaphor for life. We have not been here since the world began. Hashem has a plan for everything and many times we do not understand what is going on. We are like the man visiting the new shul; it makes no sense what is happening. This is the reason for the Para Adumah: to teach us that we do not understand everything that happens in life. If we understand this concept and internalize it, it can save us from much anger. If we constantly reinforce the lesson of the Para Adumah and realize that G-d has His ways, we will live much happier lives.

Good Shabbos!
-yes
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