Musar do Liczb 19:24

Commandment 398 deals with regulations of a person who has defiled himself through contact with the dead, since the Torah says: אדם כי ימות באהל.

הנוגע במת … הוא יתחטא בו ביום השלישי . This verse contains a clear allusion to the fact that even at times when the ash of the red heifer is not at our disposal man can purify himself by cleaving steadfastly to Torah. If he studies Torah in order to in turn instruct others, to perform the מצות he has studied, to keep all the laws that he has been in the habit of observing, he will certainly achieve purity. Our sages said that "a single day in the calendar of G–d is equivalent to one thousand years in our calendar" (Bereshit Rabbah 8,2). What they intended to convey was that the seven days during which G–d created the universe, refer to a period of six thousand years of regular existence and one thousand years during which the earth would be desolate, destroyed. This is another way of alluding to a period which is totally like the Sabbath, during which no progress of a physical kind is made. Each of the six days indicates one thousand years, as Nachmanides explains at length in his commentary on Parshat Bereshit (compare page 31 Ramban, edition Rabbi Chavell).

זה קרבן אהרן ובניו וגו' ביום המשח אותו . The commandment that the High Priest must offer a daily מנחה offering, part to be offered in the morning and part in the evening, is derived from 6,13: זה קרבן אהרון ביום המשח אותו על מחבת בשמן תעשה. "This is the sacrifice of Aaron…on the day he was anointed….lt shall be prepared with oil on a griddle." This commandment is to ensure that the High Priest prays for the whole community all of whom depend upon him to obtain forgiveness from G–d. The High Priest must concentrate on being the instrument of forgiveness for his people to secure atonement for them and to establish harmony between them and their Maker. In order to be able to secure forgiveness for others, he must first of all secure forgiveness for his own sins. This is why he personally has to bring two such sacrifices daily. We derive this idea from the words והזה הטהור על הטמא, that "only a person who himself is ritually pure can perform the rite of sprinkling blood on the ritually impure" to help him regain ritual purity (Numbers 19,19). The purpose of the קרבן חביתים is to obtain forgiveness for "hidden" sins, sins one is unaware of. The Hebrew word for this is חבוי, hence the sacrifice has to be prepared on a griddle, i.e. מחבת. Thus far Rabbi Menachem HaBavli.

And now we shall explain in brief the episode of the spies. For, on the surface, it is cause for great wonder: What is it that caused them to sink to such depths and to mislead Israel? More than that — even Sanhedrin erred in this, it being written (Bamidbar 19:1): "And the entire congregation [the Sanhedrin (Rashi)] lifted their voices, etc." And more than this, they said (Ibid. 13:31): "For they are stronger than He," which our sages of blessed memory interpreted as: "He is unable, as it were, to rescue His vessels from there." How could they speak such nonsense?

Once we follow this approach the verses in Deuteronomy which appeared strange, begin to make sense. Moses first said: "See I have given you חקים and משפטים, i.e. statutes devoid of rationale as well as laws that commend themselves to your reason." Immediately afterwards The Torah quotes the Gentiles as basing their assessment of the Jewish people as a wise and intelligent people on the fact that we perform all these commandments faithfully (compare Deut. 4,5/6). Their argument is that surely just as there are good reasons for the משפטים which have been revealed, there must be equally good reasons for the חקים which He has not seen fit to reveal. These חקים emanate in the domain רשימו. The meaning of the word רק in the verse רק עם חכם ונבון הגוי הגדול הזה, "this nation is a great and intelligent people," then is ריק, empty, i.e. "these commandments cannot be empty, devoid of intellectual content." As long as the people of Israel hold on to Torah and perform its commandments it is complimented by the nations of the world. This is what the Midrash alluded to when it said cryptically, פרה=ישראל, אדומה=ישראל, תמימה=ישראל, אשר לא עלה עליה עול=ישראל. This means that Israel is superior to the nations of the world in four respects, hence the grudging respect of Satan and the rest of the world. If we fail to demonstrate our superiority by heeding those four areas from which Torah values are transmitted to us, we would – G–d forbid! – become victims of the four kingdoms that rule over us in the four exiles. The degree of mystery surrounding these four examples of Torah legislation that Satan and the nations had quoted, varies. The red heifer legislation is the most mystifying, since its true reason is available only to those who have access to the domain of רשימו. The scapegoat on the Day of Atonement is a little less mystifying, as explained in the Zohar, in its commentary on the words איש עתי, Leviticus 16,21. The true reason for that legislation is reserved for those who have access to the domain of חקיקה. The domain חציבה holds the mystery of the levirate marriage legislation, whereas the domain of עשיה contains the answer to the mystery of the כלאים legislation. We have shown why this Parshah in pointing to the mystical domain of רשימו is really the root of all Torah legislation.