Restoring Normalcy

The word tamei can be understood as a mindset that alerts the person to the true nature of life and to the utter absurdity and enigma of death. It is a stark reminder that while G-d creates everything normal, we were given the capacity to either preserve the normal status of the world or corrupt it–albeit temporarily.

Moses Dilemma

Whenever we want to describe a practice of Judaism that defies rational comprehension, the law of the “Red Heifer” (Parah Adumah)–highlighted in this week’s parsha–is invoked.

Whenever a person would come in contact with a dead body, the Torah required undergoing a purification rite that involved sprinkling the ashes of a Red Heifer on that person. Otherwise this individual could not enter the Bais Hamikdash, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem.

So enigmatic was this ritual that even King Solomon, “the wisest of men,” was baffled by it. And when Moses heard directly from G-d about the laws of impurity generated by death, he turned pale, and expressed his inability to fathom how one could be purified.

To understand Moses’ dilemma, we should first try to understand why a person who comes in contact with the dead is called tamei. What does the word tamei actually mean?

Mistranslation

Most people translate it–or, more precisely, mistranslate it– as “unclean.” A somewhat more accurate translation would be “ritually impure.” In truth, there is no English parallel to the word tamei, so one cannot really translate the word into English, or any other language.

Rather the word tamei must be explained by delving into what the Torah, specifically the mystical literature, has to say about life and death. Indeed, this unique approach requires of us to shift our way of thinking about the very nature of life and death.

Most people asked about life and death would say that death is natural and inevitable. Everything that lives must also die. It is axiomatic that life is transient, while death is permanent.

Death is Fundamentally Temporary

Judaism believes that the opposite is true.

When Adam and Eve were created, prior to partaking of the forbidden fruit, they were to live forever. In other words the natural state of the world—the way it was created by G-d—was for life to continue indefinitely. Only by contravening G-d’s commandment not to eat of the Tree of Knowledge did death become a part of our reality.

When the Jews received the Torah at Sinai, death disappeared, only to be reintroduced by the creation of the Golden Calf.

It is also a fundamental belief in Judaism (one of the Thirteen Principle of Faith established by Maimonides) that after Moshiach comes; the dead will arise and come back to life. According to most Jewish theologians and Kabbalists, we will then live on forever.

Hence, both in the original state of existence as well as in its ultimate form, life is permanent. Death is the aberration and is only allowed to exist so that we appreciate the true value of life. Death gives us the awareness that our actions make a difference, and we should do as much good as we can while we are here. But, ultimately all of the accumulative good will once again restore the status of life to its original and intrinsic position.

In short, the natural state of existence is to live. Death, introduced to the world when Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit, is the most unnatural state of affairs and is the real enigma.

Tamei alerts us to the True Definition of Life

To return to the word and concept of tamei. To become tamei is not a sin and does not suggest that the person who is tamei has transgressed or is evil or unclean. The word tamei can be understood as a mindset that alerts the person to the true nature of life and to the utter absurdity and enigma of death. It is a stark reminder that while G-d creates everything normal, we were given the capacity to either preserve the normal status of the world or corrupt it–albeit temporarily.

We can now understand why Moses could not comprehend how one can become purified from his contact with death. Since death is in essence the most unnatural state of affairs, it is so absurd and irrational, how can one deal with it?

Thinking Out of the Box

To which G-d replied with the equally enigmatic and apparently irrational (or: super-rational) ritual of the Red Heifer. To deal with a “normal” problem, one can propose a “normal” solution. To deal with an unconventional deviation from normalcy, one must “think outside of the box,” and do something unconventional that borders on the incredulous.

Our existence in exile has been likened to the experience of being tamei. We take the ills of society as the norm and the good experiences as the aberration. We take death (actual or figurative) as natural, and life (physical or spiritual) as the exception. We have become cynical, skeptical and pessimistic.

The only solution to this problem is an unconventional approach to life and life affirming thoughts, speech and behavior. As Maimonides writes, a stick that was bent out of shape cannot be bent back into shape by simply bending it back to its original shape. One must bend it in the opposite direction, and only then can it be straightened.

Sane by being Insane

This Sunday, the Third of Tammuz, is the we were denied– temporarily–the privilege to see Jewry’s greatest leader, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, and to hear his inspiring words. More than any other leader, the Rebbe has alerted us to the imminence of the arrival of Moshiach and the return of the world to its normal state.

The Rebbe has taught us that the way to restore sanity to the world is for us counter the unnatural exile mentality, in general, and particularly the absolutely irrational hatred and evil, with commensurate actions of goodness that transcend our own bounds. While evil has to be fought without respite, we must also introduce unconventional and unpredictable life-affirming goodness and holiness into the world.

Practical Advice

In practical terms, this means:

(a) We must reorient the way we think about life and goodness in general. We must see life, goodness and the ultimate Redemption through Moshiach as the most natural state of affairs.

(b) Even before our mindsets can change, we must speak in positive tones about the good in us and others, and affirm, at least verbally, the preeminence of good and the ultimate unfolding of the Messianic drama. Positive speech itself has the capacity to engender positive feelings.

(c) And most importantly, we must change the way we behave. And while our hearts and minds may not be up to speed in terms of our Jewish observance, we must make the leap that is symbolized by the irrational nature of the Red Heifer. By going beyond our own bounds, we can elicit a force that will transform the world and bring it back to normal.

From the book Light from the Future: Parshas Chukas by Rabbi Heschel Greenberg, published by the Jewish Discovery Center.