Chukas
Rabbi Jablinowitz
We read in this week’s parsha the mitzvah of the Parah Adumah. The words which introduce the section dealing with these laws are Zos Chukas HaTorah. Why does the Torah describe Parah Adumah as the decrees of the Torah? What does the Torah intend to teach us with this phrase?
Rashi learns that this is the introduction used to the section of Parah Adumah since these laws are a paradigm for laws which seem contradictory to human reason. The process which makes an impure person pure also creates the reverse effect and makes the Tahor Tameh. The nations of the world ridicule Clal Yisrael for adhering to such a system of laws. Therefore, Rashi explains, there is a statement of Zos Chukas HaTorah, these statutes are decrees from Gd, and you shall not question them.
The Sfas Emes learns this statement in a different manner. What is the point of teaching laws of purity, of taharah, to a nation that has already been established at Matan Torah as a Mamleches Kohanim V’Goy Kadosh. We have ascended to a level of Kedushah; what need is there for such a people to have a process of purification?
He answers that Bnei Yisrael being a nation of Kedushah was the situation at Matan Torah. As Korach said to Moshe in last week’s parsha (Chapter 16, Pasuk 3), Ki Kol Ha’Eidah Kulam Kedoshim, and Rashi explains that he referred to Bnei Yisrael as Kedoshim because they heard the first two commandments from Hashem at Har Sinai. But this changed after the receiving of the Torah when Bnei Yisrael sinned with the Eigel Hazahav. After sinning and becoming Tameh, Bnei Yisrael needed a system of purification which would enable them to become Tahor.
This, teaches the Sfas Emes, is the meaning of the words Zos Chukas HaTorah. The Torah is addressing the post-cheit ha’egel world where there has been sin and there is a need for purification. The world is a place of Teva, where the laws of nature determine and establish how things are run. But the world is also conducted based on Torah. There is a mixture of Teva and Torah in the world. Not everything that happens in the world is a function of natural law; there is Divine involvement in the world as well which counters nature and may not be obvious to the uncritical eye. This is the Chukas HaTorah, the inherent contradiction between the laws of nature and the laws of the Torah working together. Chukas HaTorah also can be understood in the sense of “chakuk”, the inscription and remnant of Torah hidden within the natural world. In summation, Chukas HaTorah is the notion of the manifestation of Torah in our world, and we must search it out in order to become purified.
This is in contradistinction with Zos HaTorah, the direct confrontation with the light of Torah. This was the experience of Bnei Yisrael at Har Sinai. The pasuk states, V’Zos HaTorah Asher Som Moshe Lifnei Bnei Yisrael. This represents the experience of Torah in the world without the limitations of the physical world. This was Torah Shebichtav as given over through Moshe Rabbeinu whose prophecy was a clear, unrestricted vision, Aspaklaryah Hame’irah.
This is the meaning of Zos Chukas HaTorah, the dissemination and effect of Torah in this world. And these words introduce the mitzvah of Parah Adumah, since our existence in this world is a struggle of maintaining Taharah in the physical reality of Olam Hazeh. And this is unlike Zos HaTorah, when Bnei Yisrael received the Torah directly and were on the level of Kulam Kedoshim. This changed after Cheit HaEgel, and the only time we are able to return to that state is on Shabbos which is Kodesh He Lachem. And during the week we are back to the struggle of separating out the Tahor from the Tameh. And this is accomplished by finding and appreciating the “laws of Torah” which are hidden within the laws of nature in this world.
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