Temple Beth-El, Chukat, July 9, 2016

(2) This is the ritual law that the LORD has commanded: Instruct the Israelite people to bring you a red cow without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which no yoke has been laid. (3) You shall give it to Eleazar the priest. It shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.... (7) The priest shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water; after that the priest may reenter the camp, but he shall be unclean until evening. (8) He who performed the burning shall also wash his garments in water, bathe his body in water, and be unclean until evening. (9) A man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, to be kept for water of lustration for the Israelite community. It is for cleansing. (10) He who gathers up the ashes of the cow shall also wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. This shall be a permanent law for the Israelites and for the strangers who reside among you.

(26) פרה אדמה A RED COW - Why this rite was performed with a cow may be exemplified by a parable: it may be compared to the case of a handmaid’s child that defiled the king’s palace. They said: Let the mother come and wipe up the excrement. Similarly here: since they became defiled by a calf, let its mother (a cow) come and atone for the calf (cf. Tanchuma).

(27) אדמה RED - It had to be red in allusion to the idea contained in the text (Isaiah 1:18): “Though they (your sins) be red as scarlet...” - so you see that sin is termed red.

...Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai said, "By your lives, a dead person doesn't make things impure, and the water doesn't make things pure. Rather, God said, 'I have engraved a rule, I have decreed a decree, and you have no permission to transgress what I decreed, as it says "This is a chok (rule) of the Torah."

We are commanded to burn the red heifer so that its ashes will be ready for anyone who needs to be purified after contact with the dead as it is written, “Speak to the Children of Israel and they shall take a red heifer” (Num. 19:2), and “It will be a safeguard for Israel.” (Num. 19:9). Even though I have attempted to write simple reasons for the other mitzvot, as the purpose of this work is to instruct my son and his friends, on this mitzvah I am unable and wary of saying anything at all. I have seen that the Sages spoke at length on the complexity and mysteriousness of this mitzvah to the point that they said that King Solomon, who who through his great wisdom was able to understand all the mitzvot, wrote about this, “I have sought wisdom, but it is far from me.” (Ecc. 7:23)