COW SHABBAT, Friday, March 13,

Written by Rabbi Bockman

Monday, 16 March 2009 15:53

Shabbat Candlelighting this evening is at 6:41 pm (due to the time
change).

Vicki, Theo and I will not be in Croton this shabbat (sorry to say),
but I hope all of you help to make the shabbat wonderful together.

This shabbat is Shabbat Parah ("cow sabbath"), when we read the third
of the special maftir portions leading up to Pesach. This special
section (for which Ian Bonnell will read the haftara) goes through
the ritual of the Parah Adumah, the red heiffer who was burnt to
ashes, which were sprinkled on a person who had become impure through
being in the presence of a dead human body. It was necessary to
rehearse it each year, for Pesach was the one time when EVERY
ISRAELITE sacrificed their lamb, and thus had to be in a state of
ritual purity that was routinely only required of the kohanim.

In addition (or vice-versa), the regular Torah reading is Ki Tissa,
in which (among other things) the Israelites build and worship the
Golden Calf.

Strange, how on the very same shabbat, we read about getting in
trouble by a cow and being purified by a cow!

Or, perhaps not so strange. The Rabbis in the classical commentaries
note that the very same thing that makes you impure makes you pure.
This is similar to the notion of kashering dishes for passover. If a
pot is used to boil food, then it had to have the food it soaked up
removed from it by boiling. If it comes in direct contact with fire
(grilling), it needs to be purified by fire. When we get in trouble,
we have to make it right by the same method as caught us up in the
first place.

This is a very potent principle. Think, after all, of the many ways
we try to avoid the actual focus of our problems and proclaim to the
world that we are okay. People who run dirty financial deals try to
make themselves 'kosher' by being family men, or alcoholics try to
dissemble by giving to charity, and on and on.

But the only way you can really cure what ails you is by confronting
that which is darkest and scariest about yourself and working to
overcome that very flaw.

The cure comes about through that which trips us up. Even reliance
on a cow god! Rather than seeing it as our leader and Lord, the cow
must be burned entirely, ground to fine powder and doled out in
miniscule amounts to each of the people, who have 'gotten close to'
the dead. What better description of the ultimate sin of idolatry
could there be, and what better curative?

Have a wonderful shabbat and perhaps a free evening with your kids at
havdalla at the shul Saturday night.

R' David Bockman

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Last Updated on Monday, 16 March 2009 16:00