This week we read the special maftir of Parah, which describes the strange commandment of the red heifer. If someone becomes impure through contact with a dead body, the purification process is via the ashes of a red heifer, which must be mixed with water and sprinkled upon them. The Kohen, the priest, who sprinkles the purifying water must be in a state of ritual purity, but paradoxically he is rendered impure as the impure person becomes pure.
The Midrash comments upon this paradox: “‘Who can generate the pure from the impure? Is it not the One?’ (Job 14:4), like [the following good people who came from bad or from idolaters] Abraham from Teraḥ, Hezekiah from Aḥaz, Yoshiya from Amon, Mordechai from Shimi, Israel from idolaters, the World to Come from this world. Who did this? Who commanded this? Who decreed this? Is it not the Unity of the World (God)?…So too the red heifer, it makes impure the pure but purifies the impure. But, says God, I have made a decree and commanded a law, you have no right to violate it.”
The language of the Midrash highlights God’s unity and harmony as it lists the contradictions. God is one but the world is a place of contradictions, of paradoxes and absurdity.
This notion reminds us of Purim, which is always just before Parah and its commandment that we must get so drunk until we don’t know the difference between ‘cursed is Haman’ and ‘blessed is Mordechai.’ A world created by God which breeds both good and evil is paradoxical, but when we are drunk on Purim we don’t see it; in our stupor, all is unified.
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov taught (Likutei Halachot, Purim 4): “The entire world is filled with God’s glory…even in the depths of the dark evil places one can find God. Therefore even when God forbid we fall to those depths, though we might feel there is no way out, nevertheless there is no giving up hope for even there we can find God. God gives life to everything, so when we realize that God is also there in the darkness, then our descent becomes the source of our ascent. When we do this and reveal this hidden light, a new Torah emerges, for God and the Torah are one. When God is hidden in that dark place, the Torah too is hidden. This process of revealing God and Torah from the darkness is like the Megillah, which is from the word ‘hitgalut,’ ‘to reveal.’ This is why the Torah was given just after defeating Amalek (for Amalek brings darkness). It is the defeat of Amalek which reveals the Torah (and God). For when God is hidden, Amalek can arise. For this reason God is not revealed or mentioned in the Megillah, but hidden, and Purim is the real time of the Jewish people accepting the Torah as the Talmud says. For this reason we read the portion of Parah just after Purim, since the Parah, the red heifer, is above understanding and Purim is above understanding. Thus we get drunk until we say, ‘blessed is Haman,’ which is paradoxical and above our intellect, beyond good and evil, a place where all (even evil) is good and godly. This is like the Parah, the red heifer, which is above understanding.”
It seems that both Purim last week and the red heifer this week highlight the strange coexistence of an infinite unified God with a world in which both good and evil, pure and impure, coexist. When we look closely, everything is paradoxical, but in the end we recognize that there is a higher power which unifies. May we speedily merit the time of unity and peace in which God is revealed and the whole world is covered with the knowledge of God as the water covers the sea (Habakkuk 2:14).