A thought on Parshas Chukas
"...ha'nogae'ah b'meis...hu yischata bo...""...one who contacts a corpse will be purified with this..." (19:11-12)
The Torah prescribes a purifying ritual for those defiled by contamination through contact with the dead. They are cleansed with a water treated with the ash of a red heifer and with hyssop, a herb many identify with za'atar, used in cooking. This is the water of the para aduma, which has long been lost to us but will be restored when an unblemished red heifer will be found, and when the Moshiach is here. Until then, there is no way in which a person can attain complete purification, since all of us have had some contact with the form of tuma emanating from dead persons and from those who have been near them. Until then, we are limited by our ritual impurity, we cannot ascend to the makom ha'mikdash in Jerusalem, and we cannot remove our tuma.
Have you ever wondered why people, after visiting a cemetery, have the custom to wash their hands in the same way in which we "wash for bread" or upon waking up? Have you ever noticed how some have the custom, upon leaving a cemetery, of picking up some grass and a small clod of earth, then casting both behind them, before washing the hands?
Rabbeinu Bachya enlightens us: there may be no halachic necessity to do these practices. Once a person has entered a cemetery, the tuma status is automatic, and nothing can be done to remove it and purify him or her. In halachic reality, we cannot wash this off. Even a mikva lacks the potency to purify tumas meis. We know this, yet we also long for the coming of the Moshiach. We yearn for the day when there will be no mortality and the righteous of all generations will arise at techiyas ha'meisim. We experience the grief at a cemetery of not only actual losses but of the loss of our historical privilege to attain utter cleanliness. Only with that purity will we be allowed admission to the Holy Beis HaMikdash where we can engage in the Sacred avoda. We are aware of our status, stuck with our accumulated tuma.
We symbolize this awareness by enacting a "zecher l'mikdash" - a commemoration of the mei eifer para aduma - by taking grass, symbolizing the hyssop. The earth (afar) symbolizes the ash (eifer). The water symbolizes... the water. We do a token "cleansing" to show our readiness to reinstate all of that process. It is a facsimile of mei eifer para aduma!
My great rebbe Rav Wasserman zichrono li'vracha gave us the custom of visiting a cemetery during Tisha B'Av (it is mentioned by the Rema in Shulchan Orech although I do not know many people, other than talmidim of Rav Wasserman and select others, who actually practice this.) This year when we follow our custom of visiting a local cemetery, I hope to capture the fuller essence of the post-visit "cleansing." It is not to wash the hands, says Rabbeinu Bachya, but rather to enact our passion to hasten the coming of the Moshiach, when cleanliness will be next to G-dliness and we will make our way back to our tachlis when He is machazir Shechinaso L'Tzion.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
The Torah prescribes a purifying ritual for those defiled by contamination through contact with the dead. They are cleansed with a water treated with the ash of a red heifer and with hyssop, a herb many identify with za'atar, used in cooking. This is the water of the para aduma, which has long been lost to us but will be restored when an unblemished red heifer will be found, and when the Moshiach is here. Until then, there is no way in which a person can attain complete purification, since all of us have had some contact with the form of tuma emanating from dead persons and from those who have been near them. Until then, we are limited by our ritual impurity, we cannot ascend to the makom ha'mikdash in Jerusalem, and we cannot remove our tuma.
Have you ever wondered why people, after visiting a cemetery, have the custom to wash their hands in the same way in which we "wash for bread" or upon waking up? Have you ever noticed how some have the custom, upon leaving a cemetery, of picking up some grass and a small clod of earth, then casting both behind them, before washing the hands?
Rabbeinu Bachya enlightens us: there may be no halachic necessity to do these practices. Once a person has entered a cemetery, the tuma status is automatic, and nothing can be done to remove it and purify him or her. In halachic reality, we cannot wash this off. Even a mikva lacks the potency to purify tumas meis. We know this, yet we also long for the coming of the Moshiach. We yearn for the day when there will be no mortality and the righteous of all generations will arise at techiyas ha'meisim. We experience the grief at a cemetery of not only actual losses but of the loss of our historical privilege to attain utter cleanliness. Only with that purity will we be allowed admission to the Holy Beis HaMikdash where we can engage in the Sacred avoda. We are aware of our status, stuck with our accumulated tuma.
We symbolize this awareness by enacting a "zecher l'mikdash" - a commemoration of the mei eifer para aduma - by taking grass, symbolizing the hyssop. The earth (afar) symbolizes the ash (eifer). The water symbolizes... the water. We do a token "cleansing" to show our readiness to reinstate all of that process. It is a facsimile of mei eifer para aduma!
My great rebbe Rav Wasserman zichrono li'vracha gave us the custom of visiting a cemetery during Tisha B'Av (it is mentioned by the Rema in Shulchan Orech although I do not know many people, other than talmidim of Rav Wasserman and select others, who actually practice this.) This year when we follow our custom of visiting a local cemetery, I hope to capture the fuller essence of the post-visit "cleansing." It is not to wash the hands, says Rabbeinu Bachya, but rather to enact our passion to hasten the coming of the Moshiach, when cleanliness will be next to G-dliness and we will make our way back to our tachlis when He is machazir Shechinaso L'Tzion.
Good Shabbos. D Fox
posted by Rabbi Dr. Fox at 10:02 PM
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