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Responding To Laughter

“This is the decree of the Torah.” Because Satan and the scoffers ridicule Israel for observing the law of the Parah Adumah, which does not seem to make any sense, God declares, “It is a decree from Me. You have no permission to question it!” My father...

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Singing Despite

A palm tree stands in the middle of Rusafa, Born in the West, far from the land of palms. I said to it: How like me you are, far away and in exile, In long separation from family and friends. You have sprung from soil in which you are...

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The Red Heifer: Loving Others

The Holy Rebbe was stingy with his words. He would speak in cryptic sentences and his Chassidim would sit for hours after he spoke to figure out what he meant. The secret of the Parah Adumah – the Red Cow – is Loving Others. The Chassidim pondered...

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What Would Moshe Have Done? Part One

In the year 427 B.C.E., a ship sailed from Athens for the Greek island of Mytilene, a region that had revolted against Athenian rule and lost. They had colluded with Athens’s greatest rival, Sparta. The soldiers on the warship were instructed to kill every Mytilenian...

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The Attached Cover

I was surprised to find another hint toward the etymology of Tefillah in this past week’s portion. “Any open vessel that has no attached cover – Tzamid Patil – is contaminated.” (Numbers 19:16) Patil shares the same root as Tefillah: P-T-L. We are familiar with the...

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Contradictions

There are contradictions in the Parah Adumah. The Cohen who purifies others becomes impure as he purifies. There are contradictions in the Parah Adumah just as there are contradictions in life. Judaism, torah, nurture our independence. They use our drive to become something to attach us to...

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The Struggle

The Mitzvah of Parah Adumah can be quite confusing and demanding. The more we learn the more demanding it becomes. Children had to be raised from birth in a secluded environment specially designed to protect them from any possible impurity in order to have people with...