Teaching Team
eRosh: Parshat Parah
During the days when the Holy Temple stood in Jerusalem, all who were to bring a lamb for the Pesach offering needed to be in a state of ritual purity. Numbers 9:10 says, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying, 'If any one of you or of your generations becomes unclean because of a dead person, or is on a distant journey..." and in Numbers 9:13, "But the man who is clean and is not on a journey, and yet neglects to observe the Passover, that person shall then be cut off from his people, for he did not present the offering of the LORD at its appointed time. That man will bear his sin."
Thus, all who came in contact with a corpse needed purification from the ashes of the red heifer as it says in Numbers 19:11-13:
"The one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days. That one shall purify himself from uncleanness with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. Anyone who touches a corpse, the body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the LORD; and that person shall be cut off from Israel Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him."
However, since the Temple is currently not standing and we are thus not able to perform this commandment, we read Numbers 19 to remember this commandment in preparation for the arrival of Passover. This reading is added to the regular weekly Torah and Haftarah Shabbat readings. The name of the reading comes from the phrase in Numbers 19:2, "a completely red heifer" (parah adumah temimah). Rashi, the famed Torah commentator, cites the Midrash as saying, "This can be compared to the son of a maidservant who soiled the king's palace. They said, 'Let his mother come and clean up the mess.' Similarly, let the cow come and atone for the calf." According to this view, the ordinance of the red heifer was given as a means to repair the breach that was made through the sin of the golden calf. Also, just as these ashes from a heifer which was unblemished purified the flesh (see Hebrews 9:13) so Messiah, who was also unblemished, purifies out conscience from dead works, i.e. sinful acts that are contrary to the Torah.
As we prepare for Passover let us purify ourselves from these dead works (just as Paul exhorts us in 1Corinthians 5:7-8) by resolving to become more faithful to Hashem's Torah and thereby become better disciples devoted to our Master Yeshua, the righteous Messiah.
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(Credit: Brian R. Volunteer/ Researcher)
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