Page 506 - 24107

24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 16 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Cyan
24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 16 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Black
#24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 16 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Yellow
24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 16 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Magenta
#
Orchard of Delights
Inclusion” in Toldot, each one of them integrated the other’s quality
at the Binding of Isaac. Isaac, integrated the quality of chesed into
his personality, and Abraham integrated that of gevurah.
This new understanding of Isaac’s nature can help us offer a
slightly different answer to the perennial question of how Pinchas’
act of violence could be rewarded with a covenant of peace. The
Slonimer Rebbe teaches that although it seems as if Pinchas’ act
was one of pure gevurah, it was in fact motivated by his great love
for the Jewish people. When Pinchas saw that the plague threatened
Israel’s very existence, his compassion was aroused and he realized
that he had no choice but to act. Thus, Pinchas, like Isaac before
him, experienced an infusion of pure chesed to accompany his natural
quality of gevurah. The Slonimer Rebbe explains that since it was
Pinchas’ initial love that motivated him to act, it was appropriate
for him to receive a covenant of peace.
At the end of our discussion of Balak, we noted that the numerical
value of “romach,” the Hebrew word for the spear that Pinchas
wielded, is 248, the same as the number of positive mitzvot and as
the number of limbs in the body. This remez taught us that Pinchas’
entire being was galvanized into action. We can now add that 248
is also the numerical value of “Abraham.” Thus, when the verses
depicts Pinchas as taking a “romach” in his hand, this alludes to his
taking the quality of Abraham, which is chesed, and integrating it
with his ability to act, like Isaac, with gevurah.
506
#24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 16 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Yellow 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 16 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Magenta 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 16 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Cyan 24107-EYAL - 24107-EYAL | 16 - B | 18-01-28 | 12:12:05 | SR:-- | Black
Chukat
left, until only the very essence remains. (Homeopathy, like vaccines
and like the use of ashes from a dead animal to purify an individual
defiled by death, is based on the concept of “like cures like.”)
Parah and efer contain two Hebrew letters, peh and reish, that are
the same, while their third letters are heh (ה) and alef (א) respectively.
The red heifer’s reduction to ash, reminiscent of the production of a
homeopathic remedy, is represented by the heh of parah becoming
an alef in efer. The letter alef has the numerical value of one and
symbolizes unity and essence. This reduction to the essence is further
hinted to by the heh, which is the last letter of the word “parah,”
being replaced by an alef, the first letter of the word “efer.”
The message we can take from this process is that when we are
connected to the essence and purpose of life there is nothing to fear
from death. When one connects to the Creator and spends a lifetime
fulfilling His will, death is just one more stage, one more step deemed
necessary for attaining the ultimate good He has promised.
Just as a vaccination or a homeopathic remedy injects a weakened
form of the very disease (or a similar one) that we want to be protected
from, experiencing our own deaths is actually a very effective method
of inoculating ourselves against the fear of death. The Torah alludes
to this notion twice in Chukat. The first, which was mentioned in
the first section of Chukat, is revealed by the Sages’ reading of the
verse, “This is the Torah regarding a man who would die in a tent,”
as referring to either an ego death or the individual’s assumption of a
truly humble nature. “Killing” the ego or practicing self-nullification
on an ongoing basis prepares us to accept our ultimate fates. By
practicing existential humility we learn to trust God implicitly, even
on matters of life and death.
The second beautiful allusion, a remez, relates to the red heifer.
After the heifer is burnt with cedar and hyssop and only ashes
remain, the ashes are put into a vessel (keli) and mixed with “living
waters.” The word “keli” has the numerical value of sixty. In Jewish
law, certain mixtures are considered forbidden. Yet, if a mixture is
created (for example, dairy products are mixed with meat ones) and
the ratio between the two is less than 1:60, the minority substance is
considered nullified – as if it were not there at all – and the mixture
487
#