Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz: The Parah Aduma and Freedom from Death

[Music] okay everybody uh thank you for coming uh tonight's share is dedicated for aame to Nat Ben z and b Ben fra and for the liberation of AR Israel from most enemies safe return home of the soldiers and hostages lasting Unity of the people of Israel and for all of those whose s has been affected by the war and also dedicated to the release of the young man in Iran Arvin nanel Ben soniaa in Iran an alas for K benzar and as well in Anonymous contribution for the of all and to return safe and totally healthy to their homes hashem's protection of all of is for the and again we very much appreciate the Torah uh we come uh in this par a very interesting thing people don't always realize how much of the history of the dam midur is skipped over meaning to say last week uh two weeks ago we had the G of the spies where we are supposed to wander for uh the next 38 and 1/2 years then we had the story of korak and then we're going to have the Mitzvah par aduma and but right after that we skip forward we fast forward 38 and a half years meaning in the middle of Paras we move from year two in the desert to year 40 in the desert and we're basically told nothing at all of what happened during that period of of time uh and kazal actually tell us that's really very tragic in that way uh for those uh 38 and a half years till mosenu died the Shina did not speak to Moshe until the 40th year when a communication was resumed so for all of those years the Jewish people did have the man they did have the man they did have the Clouds Of Glory uh they did have the well of Miriam until she died which is in Paras and then Moshe hits the rock that's also the story in the paraa but mish how much of the desert experience was devoid of a direct communication with KES so mosu itself that was a very very tragic point that he didn't have that de of but the par begins uh with the Mitzvah of paruma the red heer the red heer is in the news these days as you know there are a few par adomas that have been identified you know for many many years uh I always had the belief from the time I was a child that the color of the red heer was like a fire truck red which is no such thing in nature was kind of a you know miraculous thing the truth of the matter is the actual color of paruma is a fairly common color for cattle it's simply orange brown now cow is in orange brown that's one of their colors uh but the Rarity of paruma is the fact that it has to be 100% you're allowed up to one black hair or hair of another color once you have two black hairs it's no longer kosher to be the paruma that is a fairly rare situation uh but we have discovered a number of cows that meet this mainly owned by fundamental Christians for for an interesting re one wonders what exactly is the H there but the uh Jewish organizations that are involved in building the mikdash and all of these different programs kind of want to take custody of the parad Dumas because a paruma can become pel very very very easily not only by a discoloration of more than one hair but if for example somebody put a burden on it somebody put a Yol on it somebody put their coat on it let's assume I'm milking a cow and I throw my jacket over the the cow which you know commonly people do they put something on the cow going to be P or the heer rather uh it's going to be pule right so you got to be very very careful with the paruma in terms of not mating it not having it have intercourse with anyone not having a yoke and and the like now the paruma is a very special specific institution it is the ashes of the par aduma when mixed with spring water that uh are thrown are sprinkled on somebody that has been in contact with a dead body and if for example I touch a dead body or I move a dead body or I'm even under the same roof as a dead body I am T tumat met for seven days and I cannot get out of my tumat met unless two things happen number one I have to be sprinkled with the ashes and uh water uh on day three of my Tuma and on day seven of my Tuma after my second sprinkling I go to a Mikvah and when Nightfall comes I become toar I become pure it's important to know unless I am sprinkled with the ashes of the par aduma I remain T forever and ever and ever and ever no matter how many days past and no matter how many days no matter how many times I've gone to the Mikvah this is why we make the common statement that everybody today is a t met and therefore we're not supposed to go on the Temple Mount because without the aair without the ashes of the parad Duma there is literally no way to purify ourselves so when people find the paruma that's very exciting because that cre the vehicle for purification and once we're purified we could enter the Temple Mount and we could actually engage in building the B mikash Etc but it's very very complicated because in a way in order to make the paruma to slaughter it to burn it you have to be tar so that's going to be the problem in the olden days what would happen would be the residual ashes of the last par aduma would be used to purify the people who would then make the new parum but you have to have some pre-existing Ashes to make that first new paruma so one of the questions is that even if we were to find the par aduma uh who will be able to prepare the par aduma in a state of Purity since there are no ashes of the par that will be available and the short traditional answer is that elohi will bring some remaining ashes from the last paruma he will be because he's a CO he will be a number of people who will then be able to prepare a new parad Duma so people are mistaken if they simply think oh as long as we have a parad Duma we can prepare it and be matire people they have to be in a state of Purity themselves right this is the paruma so this is why we don't go in the harab now again I I hasten to add because otherwise I'm going to get mail on this that I understand that most of the Temple Mount most of Mount Mariah is technically not the area of the temple and as a result Hally it classif it is classified as the camp of the Lev and not the camp of the sh and because it's the camp of the l a t is allowed to go there although Aida could not so yeah so don't write to me that you know this and that and that that I'm well aware that a majority of the Temple mount a t could go it's 100% true and that's why some post gim do allow it particularly in the Dai World however the reason why um most gdm do not allow it is not because they actually say that every part of the Temple Mount is the camp of the divine presence but simply because we are not conversent enough in the boundaries and therefore it's like walking into a mine field if we had a mine field and I happen to know where the mines are and I would tell you well you know as long as you stay three and a half inches from that corner you're going to be safe I don't know I would be a little scared to kind of take my chances I mean what if I sneeze what if I what if I trip right so it's more or less so again I I'm not going to sit here and tell you that you're know if if you enter the Temple mount in the state of Tuma that's only true for the part of the Temple mount that is the camp of the Shina and most of the Temple Mount is not the camp of the sh uh but nevertheless it's proper to be strict however I will say that if a woman is a Nida then definitionally she would not be allowed to enter any part of the Temple mount and the same thing would be true for a man that had a seminal emission but those are curable conditions because the woman will take herself out of Nida and the man could be toor by going to the Mikvah and waiting until night it's the only condition that's not curable is the Tuma of Mets because Tuma of Mets is the only Tuma that requires the sprinkling of the paruma so the sprinkling of the paruma is indispensable for purification from tat and remember that tat met essentially can hit me in one of three ways touching the dead body moving the dead body or carrying it even if you don't touch the body so even if I carry it in a in a bag or just push it uh that's Masa MAA is touching so Maga is not only make America great it's interesting that that's the Trump's motto but Maga is is touching the dead body Masa is carrying or moving the dead body and the third is ohel when I'm in under the same roof and that would include even uh being under a tree that also overhangs the mess I will say that there's a mlus in the gar uh whether this Tuma is only conveyed by Jewish corpses or even by non-jewish corpses uh tovos learns that if it's m or Masa touching or moving there is no distinction between Jews and not Jews but the makus is only is there tat oh that's how tus understands the gar that's how the represents it it is interesting that the we should be that there's to much even by non-jewish corpses but some opinions are lenient in that particular area now nor normally again I'm not going to spend the on the I I I have more some more philosophical points I want to make but we need to understand some of the backgrounds on this normally there is no AA for a Isel or a Ley to become T I'm allowed to become t a Coen cannot become T to a but T has consequences even if I'm a isra I'm not allowed to go to the B mikdash bring coros eat Corban if I'm a Coen I cannot eat truma and and and the like so that's why we have all sorts of shilas about Coen who are not allowed to become t uh if they're in an airplane that flies over a cemetery even a non-jewish cemetery you got problems if there's a dead body in the airplane there may be problems right that's why with kohanim there are all sorts of complications as the Israel I don't have to worry about it but when we have a basa mikdash even the Israel is going to have to worry about about those issues as well okay so this is what par aduma represents it is the vehicle of purification for tomat here's a little bit of of of Arcane uh knowledge uh if you know on the um the uh what's called the Golden Gate of the old city which overlooks the Kidron Valley and harm so you may notice if you've been there you may notice that there's a small Islamic small Muslim Cemetery that's built right up to the walls right up to the Golden Gate very small Cemetery I'm not sure if it's in use at all today it's an old Cemetery so The Story Goes know the Muslims know know our midam sometimes a lot better than we do they they know all these midrashim Muhammad himself was very attracted to midash he wanted to become Jewish because he was he loved the stories uh that were told in the medish and uh The Story Goes that there's an old tradition that mashiach shall enter yusim through the Golden Gate through the gate because mhia will come from the Mount of Olives and enter the city through a gate that's sealed but that gate will be opened up so the Arabs knew or the Muslims knew that mashia has to be preceded by alohan Navi and they also knew the tradition that alohan Navi is a Reincarnation of Pinas the Coen and they also know that a Coen is not allowed to be come T to non-jewish corpses or to to corpses therefore they put a cemetery right outside of the Golden Gate because they thought that would prevent elohi from entering and without elohi mashia cannot come so the truth of the matter is there's a lot of things that is wrong with that knowledge and please rest assured that this will not have any effect on mashiach coming uh number one According to some opinions a non-jew is I'm sorry a a Jew is allowed to go through a non-jewish cemetery because the Tuma of a cemetery is based on ohal meaning I'm not touching the dead body and I'm not moving the dead body but either my body is positioned over the grave or there's a tree Etc so if you follow the view that non-jewish corpses do not convey Tuma by being under the same tent there would be no Tuma and even if you follow the M of view it doesn't say leoi has to go through the same G is mashia can use another gate and then mashia who's not a Coen can go through the Golden Gate so it's not going to stop the coming of mashia also that's right at least momentarily just to get them out get them out of the way yeah yeah so hasem has ways meaning uh there's no real there's no way we could whatever wants to do there is no way that it's going to be stopped right so rest assured of of that now we know that paruma is considered to be the most mysterious of all Mitzvah that is why the Torah begins with the language a is a mitzvah for which at least we do not understand the reason and Rashi brings that the make fun of us because we're doing things that make no sense that are just irrational and the like but this is the sign of the true servant of God because when I do things that make sense to me you never know am I doing it because it's God's will or am I doing it because I like it it makes sense to me so the real test of Anem is theim and not the says that's why it says this is the of the to it doesn't say this is the of the par because the Paradigm of is not simply illustrating a particular Mitzvah but it shows what my whole my whole attitude is am I one who serves God or am I simply serving myself and when the Mitzvah corresponds to my logic that's when I do it and points out that the greatness of in the service of God is that it is unconditional submission that goes beyond logic and he says a human being never wants to be compelled to do anything there is a natural aut a natural stubbornness within the human being's personality that Rebels against being told what to do the husband that is about to take out the garbage to do his wife a favor and as he's walking out I'm not being autographic there as he's walking out there is a voice from the other room that says please take out the garbage there will in that husband's heart be a momentary feeling I don't like to be told what to do he was going to do it anyway psychologically there's a very interesting toos in you know we have a c the G says that R was blind and he originally took the position that he was exempt from mitzvos positive mitzvos that was position when he learned that the H is a blind person is is obligated mitzvas he made a party to celebrate his obligation and by the way the rim say that that is the origin of making a special meal in honor of a bar MIT because you see that when you become obligated in mitv it is not treated as a burden it's treated as a Sim so Rose story is the source for sudas Mitzvah Raj writes quite logically that a sud for AAS Mitzvah is also a Mitzvah why many as don't passing that way it's a difficult question but nevertheless it's considered a Sim now the gar explains why is it a because when you do mitzvos that you're not commanded to do you will still get reward you will get reward because you're voluntarily doing good things so if a woman sits in a Suka she is not obligated to do she gets reward but she gets reward as someone who is not commanded and a person who does a Mitzvah that they are Comm they are commanded to do is a higher level of Mitzvah than a person who does a Mitzvah they're not commanded to do so the question is obvious shouldn't the opposite be the case meaning if all I do is what I have to do all right what do I want I want a medal like you know I remember in Yeshiva sometimes people never went to daving they show up to minion one day and they present themselves in front of their Reby like with a sense of Pride Reby I was in Minion today Reby says you know well maybe the Reby should be nicer I understand but the Reby will sometimes say what do you want you want to medal all you're doing is what you're supposed to do but somebody who does more than they have to do still that should be more credit time and a half for overtime right you do extra time extra so why is it the case so toos says a fascinating thought toos says as soon as you have to do something there's a Yates or horor in you that says I don't want to do it and therefore it's harder to do a Mitzvah that you're commanded to because when I do a Mitzvah that I'm not commanded to do I have this ego satisfaction I'm so great I'm I'm better than people I go Beyonds the when I do what I have to do that's submission that's not an ego thing because you're just doing what you have to do and says I'm say to says that's a bigger and that goes back to the H the H is about doing things out of submission to God they don't make sense to you they're not logical to you you do them anyway only because said to do them gives a very striking example of how resistant we are to anybody giving us orders if you remember uh there was a man in the book of Shmo his name was shimi Bena who was related to sha and he was actually the ancestor of Mor and shimi Ben when davik is running away from his own son abalom who wants to kill him shimi Bena is throwing rocks at David and saying ah God is punishing you because uh you deposed or you were against sha who is a better man and yay Benya who was both David's General and David's nephew wanted to kill the guy yov was pretty not trigger happy he didn't have a gun but pretty sword happy you know y was always ready to kill those who stand up against the king in fact y w up killing a Shalom D D's own son and D uttered some very famous words he said leave him alone if Hashem did not want me to be cursed and humiliated he wouldn't have done it therefore I accept this as my punishment from Hashem but it's it's interesting that on David's deathbed a short time later he actually gives instructions to schlom to find an excuse to kill shimy now this is not our topic but but there seems to be a direct contradiction where is this great patience I mean DAV exemplifies this notion I accept the pain and humiliation that shimy is inflicting on me because it must come from Hashem on his death bed he essentially ordered schl figure out a way to kill him which slmo actually will we'll get to that in a minute but how do you understand the contradiction so it's not it's not really our topic but I'll just suggest here's the concept because he is showing disrespect to the king he is rebelling against the king the is he's of he deserves to die but David was afraid that if he were to kill him then he would be acting out of personal animosity and anger and the Heat of the Moment so David determined to himself I am not going to kill him now I will accept this as God's punishment and then I will be in an objective place where I could determine if Hally he should be executed in other words David did not want to act until he had reconciled himself on a personal level to the afront and then he was able to deal with it in an objective way it's very very interesting uh in fact some apply this to parental discipline a parent should not discipline a child when they are angry the parent should discipline a child when they are Cal because when you're acting I mean easier said than done I'm not putting myself on a pedestal I've made my mistakes too but when you're acting out of anger you're using your child as a punching bag there is no header to do that the busner rebbi actually it's the father of the present bner rebi that I was to know very well in Boston he used to tell us that his father who was actually the first Buster Rabbi his father uh used to hit him in those days parents hit children but his father always waited 24 hours after the offense his father never hit him within 24 hours because the father wanted to be sure that this was an OB objective assessment of what his child needed and it was not lashing out in in anger so be do it may that's why davik waited but what did schlomo do what schlom did was he told shimi Bena you are under City arrest you may not leave yam you will be your punishment is you are confined not to your house you're confined to the city so it mentions that shim Bena had some donkeys that had wandered off shim Bena went to look for the donkeys schom of course had his men watching shimy and when when they saw that he left shimy was executed so the question is pretty obvious if somebody tells you if you leave the city you're going to be killed who would be foolish enough to do that this wasn't like you know he went to his mother's funeral like some real reason that would make a person go no matter what it was donkeys I mean you know you can get other people to look for your donkeys he had servants he was a wealthy man so says that had he not been told he couldn't leave jerim he wouldn't have left he would have gotten someone else to do it as soon as he's told you can never leave the city there's this unbelievable need I got to get out of here it's claustrophobic I even if somebody was say you can never leave the country again the rest of your life somehow that all right you know I wasn't planning on leaving the country but somehow I'm going to feel I got to get out of here it's too claustrophobic I can't breathe because once we're told to do something there's an inner rebelliousness within us okay so that's what says is the greatness of H is unconditional obedience but now let's go back a little bit what is so mysterious about the paruma now of course there's a lot of things that are mysterious a red cow Etc but the truth of the matter is what makes it the most mysterious I mean to be honest there are quite a few things that are mysterious I can't wear wool and linen I got to put on these Square black boxes on on my head I got to put on strings on my garments I mean once we start asking you know so many mitas that we don't really understand all the details parum is not going to be the only one there's a whole bunch so what is so unique about paruma that SCH says I understood all the mitzvos when I came to this one it was beyond me so all the mafor say because par aduma is not just enigmatic it's paradoxical and contradictory meaning the of paruma is not simply the unusual ritual but the fact that there is a contradiction built into the paruma and this is the famous contradiction anyone that's a t who is sprinkled with the ashes of the paruma becomes pure so the aper of the par is a vehicle of purification and yet all the people who handle the aair the ashes come now people ask just to clarify something again I don't want to get in too many of the details of the although they're very interesting there's a whole track date of mishna with the laws of parad very complicated track date it's and all of these people ask how is it ever possible for the entire Jewish people to ever reach a state of Purity won't there always be the the last person holding the bag so I'm a t met you sprinkle the ashes on me so now you're T so somebody has to sprinkle the ashes on you so they'll be tummy right so the problem is you know you do this thousands of times do this millions of times the last person who sprinkled will be so actually once again I don't want any male here I understand Rashi happens to say the one who sprinkles the ashes does not become tummy that's that's rash she learns but people who handle the ashes do become T and therefore there seems to be somebody who will be handling the ashes up to the sprinkler the actual sprinkler does not become T rash he learns so the mistake of the question of the infinite sequence of Tuma is the following the only person who needs paruma is a person who came in contact with a dead body if I became Tom by handling the par aduma that's not a tumor that comes from a dead body that's tumor that comes from handling the paruma that Tuma all you need is only a one day Tuma it's not a 7-Day Tuma and all you need is to go to the Mikvah and wait until Nightfall so consequently the Paradox you don't have the last guy right when whatever it is millions of Jews have become purified uh and we then sprinkle it on the last person so whoever did the sprinkling whoever was the last person handling the ashes all he has to do is go to the Mikan he's fine see people are making a mistake in the question because they think that people who become T through the ashes need the ashes they don't need the ashes they just need Mikvah right so that's why you don't have an infinite problem okay so the Hoke of paruma is how can the same thing that is a vehicle of Purity also be a vehicle of impurity it is the Paradox that schl said this is a PK in cois Ecclesiastes I said I wanted to be wise but the wisdom was beyond me the W the Paradox of the par aduma so what's interesting is this what's interesting is that even though this Paradox is said to be so inexplicable that even schlom didn't understand it theim triy to give us a partial insight into the idea of the Paradox and let's go back a little bit a few paros ago we read that there are three categories of impurity that need to be expelled from the Jewish camps now the Jewish camps have three sections the mishan and the courtyard of the mishkan is called the camp of the shakina the camp of the divine presence surrounding the camp of the Shina was the camp of The levim Three Families ganas and morari and mosha and Aon surrounding them on all four sides are the 12 tribes M is so we have in the middle M surrounding uh actually it's a it's a square formation not a circle and M is now there are three tumas that have to be expelled from the camps until they undergo purification there is the mits which is the leprosy there is the zav a ganar man or a woman that has a g or a man actually that has a garal discharge and the final one is T he who has become contaminated by contact with the dead body so three maot three camps three tum what makes us a little complicated though is that each Tuma is only expelled from a different one one of those camps the mats is expelled from all three camps the mats is not only expelled from the mishkan and from the levite camp the MS is even expelled from the Israelite Camp he has to be like Miriam outside of all the camps so m is expelled from all three camps the zav is not allowed to be in the camp of the Shina or the Leva but the zav is allowed to reside among isim so if a Le became a z he would have to leave for seven days he doesn't need paruma he needs mikah and Corban but he would leave M for seven days and he would be in M is so a m is expelled from three camps a zav is expelled from two camps and then we come to T which on one level is the most because it's the only one that needs paruma and yet in terms of expulsion from the camps it's actually the easiest a t met is allowed in the Israelite camp and as I said before at is even allowed in the Ley Camp the proof is that even a dead body is allowed to remain in the Ley Camp because that is where yose right mosha Reno was the custodian at various times of yosef's uh bones yosef's uh body and that was kept in the levite camp a however is excluded from the mishkan the courtyard that's why as I indicated a Tom met today does not go to the arabat because part of the harab is even though part of it is is not okay so we have three types of tum and each one of them is expelled from a different M from three zav from two t is expelled only from one how do we understand this right it's a little bit Hally complicated soin says the following idea all of us are familiar with the famous teaching imp the world stands the world endures on three pillars Torah alod the world exists because of Torah learning because of divine service whether it's sacrifice or prayer and the kindness that one person does to another person these three pillars are of course the pillars of our AOS ainu represents the pillar of loving kindness y who was a sacrifice represents the pillar of divine service Yakov represents who spent 14 years in the ISA of Shame and a without having a regular night's sleep represents the Amud the pillar of Torah these are the three pillars that keep the world alive without those pillars the world could not survive but what's interesting is that's in peric Alf of pavos but the same way pavos mentions three things that keep the world alive pavos later mentions three negative factors that destroy a person Kina jealousy TAA excessive Lust For hedonistic pleasure kite seeking glory and ego gratification moan they take a person out of the world and as theim explain not only does it mean you lose your which of course you will but you're even going to have a miserable life in this world you won't even enjoy this world you're jeal know the jealousy of what other people have means you'll never enjoy what you have TAA the lust is incessant it never gets satisfied and covo is even worse a person desires kovat he'll never be satiated right never be satisfied cot is something that can eat a person up it's very dangerous thing you know when rosha Feinstein was a young child he was 9 years old he already was a you know he knew three m M Basra by heart 9 years old his father was the r of the town in Russia and when little r Moshe would walk by people they would stand up to honor such a great great n years old and R David Feinstein R moshe's Father DAV R moshe's son was named after Roshe's father R David Feinstein but David Feinstein senior was extremely angry at the balaba he says you ruining my son by making him arrogant by appealing to his covo you're ruining him person has to be humble as rosha of course was his whole life cood is very dangerous now again this is not a a class on parenting tonight obviously children do need to be complimented they do need to be built up I'm not suggesting at all that although some parents had this philosophy for this reason there were some parents who had a that they would never complement their children they didn't want them to get swelled heads by and large I I believe that's an incorrect parenting strategy because kids need to be given the that they're doing a great job when they do a good job they need to be validated but the notion of covered can be very very very dangerous the most precious nishas can be ruined by C last week we actually talked about this in connection with kak that kak had the greatness of Moshe but it was the desire for Cav that destroyed him so now it turns out that destroy kadha see here's what D saduk says this is a beautiful V it's a little complicated let's take the three tmos of mits the zav the T and they are expelled from the camps they are symbolic of Kina jealousy T kav and the way it works is the MIT is jealousy so let's take it one at a time so when the Torah says get rid of the MS it's really saying banish the maida of jealousy from your Society why is MIT connected to jealousy because we know that Sarat which is a physical manifestation of white splotches on the skin is really a spiritual sign from God that you have to do chuva and the primary sin for which mits comes is and Har saying negative derogatory speech about other people right so mits is associated with lanara the very word MIT Mo he says bad things about people true or false now if we go a little deeper why do we have such an urge to say lush and Hara about other people well one of the most powerful reasons is there's a sense of jealousy when I see somebody that is more popular than me or is better than me in various ways and I'm uncomfortable and I'm jealous I have a Yer har to pull him down to kind of show ah he's not as great as everybody says I'll tell you something about him which means SAS comes from lashar but lashar itself comes from jealousy therefore when the T says banish the M the Tyra is actually saying get rid of jealousy now jealousy is totally evil there is no redeeming quality in jealousy so so jealousy is banished not only from the mikdash the mishan and not only from the Levites it's even banished from regular Israelite living meaning which represents regular people meaning no part of society should allow this Meda maguna this awful maida to exist now again easier said than done of course we have it of course we suffer from it to a greater or lesser degree but spiritually there is no positive benefit to jealousy now you may ask me well what about the famous saying K Sim the jealousy of Torah Scholars right I see you learning this tractate or staying up late at night so I'm jealous of you it increases wisdom competition well the truth is there are two types of jealousy if the jealousy is such you're doing good and I want to emulate you that could be a positive motivator but if the jealousy is I want you to fail I want you to fail there's nothing good about that that's the evil of lanara jealousy and that's why the mits is expelled from all three camps because it has no legitimate place in Jewish Society although we have it but there's nothing good about it it's only totally bad it gets expelled gets expelled totally right Muna right this this idea of begrudging and the truth of the matter is you know this this is uh something that is fairly pervasive you know uh they say even something like dieting for an example let's imagine uh you have someone who goes on a diet you know they have you know overweight friends together and uh one person sticks to a diet and they're successful psychologists have identified that very very often the friends who have not been successful will subtly discourage the success they'll say oh you're looking so emaciated what's wrong if you have you know a little cake or pie once in a while and it comes in the guise of friendship but in point of fact it's emanating from a certain jealousy because we're always uncomfortable if I'm down here and somebody's up there now there are two ways of redressing the imbalance I could lift myself up or I could try to pull you down to my level gravity is an easier Force to work with it's easier gravity to pull you down than to lift myself up so that's why the m is expelled from all three camps now Z which after all is a sexually transmitted disease represents metaphorically TAA an over connection to sensual and hedonistic pleasure also a bad thing get rid of it but what's interesting is our connection TOA lust pleasure is a bit more equivocal and complex than our relationship to jealousy when it comes to jealousy I can at least say in theory if not in practice totally bad totally trfe get rid of it when it comes to TAA that's not so clear because it is God's will that I enjoy the world uh right we make Bros we express our joy uh the first Mitzvah of the Torah be fruitful and multiply enter into a marital relationship kazal say the person who uh tries to be athetic and become a nazer is a sinner so if Ken is totally bad TAA has a place in life it's a way number one it keeps me alive that's why they say eating addictions are the hardest addictions to break because it's the only one that you cannot go cold turkey on right so you have to eat Etc so that makes it a harder type of addiction it has a mom both in terms of my physical survival in terms of my Mitzvah and even as a vehicle of enhancing my appreciation and gratitude to God therefore the zav is allowed so to speak in ordinary life is regular people in a regular life T has a place within moderation the only thing is as you graduate spiritually into the levite existence of Torah and kadus definitionally you will distance yourself from TAA not out of a self-conscious renunciation strategy but simply because it is going to interest you less as you progress the same way an adult kind of stops playing with children's toys adults have their own toys to be sure now it's not that an adult makes a decision I will no longer play with these Toy Soldiers it's kind of an automatic process of maturation then what happens to a person as they graduate so to speak or if they graduate from Israel to spiritual Ley because Israel can be a spiritual Ley as well automatically they become less connected to the tyus of the world because they're involved in something so much higher so much better so much deeper it's not that I renounce the T it's just it no longer holds an alure for me so therefore that's how it works with the Z the Z gain who represents TAA the Z gains admission in ordinary soci Society but as you grow spiritually you become more and more distant from it so that's why the Z is expelled from Shina and Leva because the connection to TAA is going to be attenuated as you graduate okay we now come right so again M represents jealousy Z represents Tava lust we now come to T which is the most connected to our para really this is a the first two were a little bit of a digression t represents kot so when we say banish the T match we're actually saying banish the ego banish the cat why is that what's the connection between T and kavat so remember that adish Anda were supposed to live forever they were put into the the Garden of Eden they were put in ganeden to live forever immortality was the Natural State ofam and but because of the of the they were only given one Commandments but because of the of theas death came into the world what was the primary enticement that the Nash used for first against and that communicated to Adam s says that the primary enticement was kavite because the noash said the day that you eat from this fruit you will be Godlike y to you will know good and evil now what that exactly means one can spend literally your whole life trying to understand this this is one of the most deepest partiot of the infinite Torah that that's without boundary but the Pak is basically saying that the fruit of the atadas was marketed as a god pill eat this and you will be God now in many ways we are Godlike we are created in the image of God and that means we're given wisdom we're given autonomy we're given free will we're given the ability to manipulate nature in all sorts of ways and the arrogance to make ourselves God is what brought death into the world and what sok says it's not so much that death is a punishment but death is the ultimate reminder that as Godly as we are or can become there's an unbridgeable gap between Creator and created and that is we are mortal and the Creator is Immortal death is the ultimate right right what happened basically is death came into the world because we looked for kovot we were arrogant we thought we were like God or we should be like God and therefore for death came into the world to remind us that we are not God we have to serve God that is why the purification ritual of death that purifies you is ashes now I'm not explaining a red cow why red Etc but we know that ashes is always a sign of humility when AB aino declares to Hashem I am nothing and I need your mercy for sedom aram's words are I am dust I am ashes so here is the thing death came into the world because of arrogance and cover how do we become liberated from the impurity of death by connecting to the ashes that are humility and submission paruma purifies me because it connects me to the notion of humility and submission death came into the world only because of the opposite Force I become liberated from Death I become liberated from the tumor of death by connecting to ashes and that is why the vehicle of Ashes is the vehicle of Purity but here is the problem with ashes I'm going to make two statements that are totally contradictory to each other and they're both true statement number one is arrogance GAA uis is the most destructive sinful qualities that can exist a human being must recognize that they are nothing without Hashem humility is the most important quality that's statement number one statement number two without a sense of my value and my importance without recognizing my greatness I'm not able to serve God right this is essentially the Paradox of the famous mimer of Ra was a great of the 19th century that a person has to have in his two pockets at all times two contradictory ideas in one pocket the a I am dust and Ashes I am a zero in the other pocket bish nraam God created the whole world for my sake he created many cows and many horses and many dogs and many cats he only created one man and one woman and the mission says in Sanhedrin so that every single person should say this whole world is here only for me which creates a responsibility so if I only had the that some people have I'm just pure arrogant if I only have if I only have I'm depressed I'm broken I feel worthless I got to live with both of those ideals I have to recognize how inferior I am and again this actually overlaps with last week H Ando and I have to recognize my my greatness and my potential this is why if the symbolism of paruma is you become liberated from Death by connection to ashes there are what you might call good ashes and there are what you might call toxic ashes the good ashes is when I realize that without Hashem I'm nothing and therefore I am great grateful that whatever talents and abilities I have only come from AES and I become empowered and I become energized to serve Hashem in a good way but the problem is the attitude of Ashes could also have a very very detrimental side giving me a sense of worthlessness a lack of self-esteem a hor that why would God care about my mitzvah if I'm so insignificant if you think about it humility when taken to the extreme could actually result in a person not keeping the Torah the person's going to say why would my learning make a difference why would my daving make a difference why would my Mis make who do I think I am that's a from Yahara the Yahara of humility so this might be a partial perspective on why the ashes of the par purify and the ashes of the parah contaminate because the MAA of humility can be the greatest tool in AEM it purifies you and it can also be the most destructive force that takes you away to Hashem from Hashem mat right it purifies the impure but it also creates Tuma and to go back to the camps here is the idea if the Tuma of met comes from kavat a sense of kovot of dignity of importance of significance I matter doesn't only it's not only something you need in the Israelite Camp which is everyday life but even the Ley needs it even in Ras even in spirituality even in mitzvos I need that quality because otherwise I feel my aod is insignificant ific the only thing is when you reach the highest level which most of us may never reach of total unification with God then you can get rid of your ego totally because you're connected to Hashem and just like the light of a candle totally gets annihilated within the Sun so too you don't need your ego anymore but to get to there I need a sense of Myas I think I had mentioned the beautiful statement of r if a person is not aware of their faults they are a foolish person because how could a person think they're perfect I think I don't have any flaws what type of idiot am I that's my biggest flaw my biggest flaw is not to have the self-awareness that I have flaws but a person who does not know their greatness is not just a fool person they are a tragic person because they will never become the person they were intended to be Hashem had a plan every one of us has a reason to be here if I don't recognize the K that Hashem gave us and this of course is vital for parents and teachers to impart to Children then I'll never be what I'm supposed to be and that that's a tragedy I go through life never realizing what it was that I could have been that I should have been that I really was and didn't even know at the the Kish was n in 1953 I believe you know obviously he was buried in B BR Soo desler the famous M Who was the Mash in the picha at the time uh saw a boy saw a student of the Yesa sobbing crying as the kazin is was being buried in the ground and rler went over to the boy and said why are you crying over the rav the Goon the sadic who's buried in the ground he then pointed to the boy why don't you cry over the rav the gone and the sadic that's buried in you because the r of the gone and the sadic that's buried in the ground became the r of the gone and the sadic he was supposed to become but how many of us go through our lives never becoming that now again I'm not I don't mean to suggest it all that everybody is expected to be the r the gone and the S but we do have something special to give to the world we do have something special and by the way when I say the world I I don't mean a grandio statement either sometimes it's the way we raise our families it's the way we relate to our spouse it's the way we're M our children again these things could be relatively small scale but there's all sorts of possibilities about the life that we can create and that life requires Cav Cav not in the sense of arrogance but in the sense that I matter that I'm significant so just to close the the circle this is a partial explanation of the Paradox of paruma death came again death came into the world because of arrogance and a desire for covit we become liberated from Death by our connection to the humility of Ashes fine however that humility itself can be dangerous and counterproductive when it moves in the wrong direction when it turns into self-loathing when it turns into a lack of self-esteem when it turns into not recognizing our value or our worth and that is mumas in the idea that the same vehicle that purifies you from death can itself be a vehicle of impurity so it's interesting that we at least have a a limited perspective on the Paradox of the para aduma it brings Purity into the world it also creates uh impurity uh let me just end with a very very quick vort from a great rebi the op uh and he was known as the oav Israel the one who loved CLA Israel because his number one he was an O Isel and number two his saor was called o Isel and he brings an interesting medish uh that basically says if you want to understand you have to understand AAS is is is the key TOA this is a very enigmatic statement paruma doesn't seem to have a lot to do with aat is so the op explains it in a very beautiful way he says you know in the time of the bikash for a Coen to become T even if it's only for one day it was a major inconvenience he wouldn't be allowed to do service in the temple he couldn't eat coronos he couldn't eat truma meaning when aoin became T in those days he was put out now what it's saying is therefore when a Coen prepares the ashes and the water to purify another Jew the Coen is willing to give up his conveniences to help somebody else so says the op of instead of looking at parad Duma as a paradox it's actually a cause and effect the reason why it purifies and brings Purity into the world is because somebody is willing to become T to help another Jew meaning it's it brings Purity into the world because it brings Tuma to somebody else who is willing to inconvenience themselves for another yet and he says that is what the medish means that the Paradox of paruma illustrates aat Israel we're in the month of t and we are approaching of course the three weeks today of course was said also something to think about such a great o Israel great in so many ways and looking perspectively we're approaching the 17th of tamas uh the period of aut over the B mikdash and this is a time especially when we need to think about is I've said probably every week since October that in the aftermath of October 7 there was a great unity in CL Israel it was a br amid amidst the dark clouds this was a silver lining in the clouds unfortunately in many many ways uh you know life goes back to normal even in the middle of a war and a lot of this is disintegrating but we need to think about how in our own lives we can bring it back and when we bring it back we're bringing Claus closer and closer and closer to the gaaa that all of us crave so thank you very much [Music] I