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Harav Hagaon Shmuel Wolman Shlita

You Don’t Need to Know the Reason

Parashas Chukas

Harav Hagaon Shmuel Wolman Shlita

 

Parashas Chukas opens with the mitzvah of parah adumah, about which the Torah declares: זֹאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה. Rashi comments that the parah adumah is an opportunity for the non-Jews to poke fun at the Yidden by asking what the reason is for this mitzvah, and the Torah therefore emphasized the parah adumah is a chok that cannot be understood.

Why did the Eibishter give us a mitzvah that is incomprehensible and gives the non-Jews some good material with which to mock us?

The Kli Yakar asks another question: If parah adumah is the only mitzvah referred to as a chok, why does the Torah write זֹאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה rather than זֹאת חֻקַּת הַפָּרָה? Is parah adumah the entire Torah?

Another fascinating observation about the parah adumah is that it is one of the mitzvos that were given to Klal Yisrael in Marah, along with Shabbos, kibbud av v’eim, and dinim, as Rashi tells us in Parashas Mishpatim. Apparently, the mitzvah of parah adumah was deemed important enough to be given already in Marah, before Mattan Torah, along with these other fundamental mitzvos.

Now, Shabbos is the basis of our emunah in Hashem’s creation of the world, and it’s the os that makes a Yid a Yid. Similarly, kibbud av is the foundation for the mesorah of Torah Mi’Sinai, which is transmitted from parents to children. Dinim, too, is necessary in order for basic law and order to prevail. But what is so fundamental about the mitzvah of parah adumah that it needed to be in place prior to Mattan Torah?

The Midrash sheds new light on this mitzvah when it relates that Shlomo Hamelech, with his infinite wisdom, invested tremendous effort into understanding the taam for every mitzvah, and he almost succeeded in this regard. When he tried to uncover the reason for parah adumah, however, he admitted defeat, saying: אָמַרְתִּי אֶחְכָּמָה וְהִיא רְחוֹקָה מִמֶּנִּי, as if to say, “I thought I was smart enough, but this escaped me.”

Why was Shlomo so desperate to understand the taam of the mitzvos? Can’t a person fulfill the mitzvos even without knowing the reasons?

From this Midrash it seems clear that knowing the taamei hamitzvos is actually essential. Indeed, the Ohr Hachaim, in Sefer Vayikra, tells us that doing a mitzvah without connecting to its taam can be compared to a body without a soul. The Ohr Hachaim is teaching us that there’s a whole different bren and geshmak in doing a mitzvah when you are connected to its root and foundation. Realizing this, Shlomo Hamelech invested tremendous effort into understanding the taam of every mitzvah.

Considering the importance of understanding taamei hamitzvos, why couldn’t the Eibishter allow Shlomo Hamelech to understand the mitzvah of parah adumah? If all he wanted was to enhance his performance of the mitzvah, why did the Eibishter make it a chok that even the wisest of all men could not grasp?

Furthermore, from Shlomo’s perspective, why did he even bother to invest effort into understanding this incomprehensible mitzvah? Didn’t he know the passuk of זֹאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה, and didn’t he realize that the parah adumah is intrinsically a chok that no human being can understand? Why did he embark on a quest that was a futile endeavor from the outset?

Evidently, parah adumah is not totally beyond human understanding, and I think there’s irrefutable proof of that. Moshe Rabbeinu was given a taam for this mitzvah, as the Midrash says: אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה לך אני מגלה טעם פרה אבל לאחר חקה.

Moshe Rabbeinu, it seems, was capable of understanding parah adumah. If so, we can begin to understand why Shlomo Hamelech attempted to comprehend this mitzvah; he knew from Moshe Rabbeinu that this was possible, and, as the wisest of all men, he justifiably thought that perhaps he could grasp it as well.

So why couldn’t he? And if it is possible for the human mind to understand this mitzvah, why is it even called a chok?

The Danger of Understanding

The answer can be found in the words of Rashi, who says that the Eibishter declared: גזירה היא מלפני ואין לך רשות להרהר אחריה. The Eibishter did not respond that the reason for parah adumah is beyond human intellect. Rather, He said it is a gezeirah – a deliberate decision, shelo k’derech hateva, not to allow human beings, even one as wise as Shlomo Hamelech, to grasp the taam. This gezeirah was not about human limitations, but was actually a calculated denial of access. Shlomo Hamelech eventually realized this, at which point he surrendered and said וְהִיא רְחוֹקָה מִמֶּנִּי.

Why did the Eibishter wish to distance Shlomo Hamelech from the taam of the mitzvah, especially at the expense of his gaining a deeper connection to the mitzvah and infusing it with a neshamah? And if the taam of parah adumah had to be hidden from Shlomo Hamelech, why did this same gezeirah not apply to Moshe Rabbeinu?

The answer is that although knowing the taamei hamitzvos is indeed beneficial, as it lends a whole new dimension to the performance of the mitzvah, intellectualizing our performance of mitzvos also carries an inherent danger. When we appreciate the reasons for the mitzvos, we run the dreadful risk of doing mitzvos as an outgrowth of our understanding that they are worthwhile acts – and if we begin to rationalize our performance of mitzvos, we will lose our connection to the Eibishter. No longer will we perform mitzvos as a מצווה ועושה, one who does something purely because he is commanded to, but rather, we will become humanitarian, benevolent people who are committed to making intellectually sound life decisions. Acts of that nature have nothing to do with the 613 mitzvos and do not connect us to the Eibishter.

We must ensure that our true motivation in doing mitzvos is the knowledge that this is what Hashem told us to do. And that bittul to the Borei Olam is in peril when we begin to understand the rationale behind mitzvos.

How are we to balance the great benefit of knowing the taamei hamitzvos with the danger of knowing the taamei hamitzvos and fulfilling the mitzvos because we appreciate their value instead of because Hashem commanded us to do them?

Says the Eibishter, “I’ll give one mitzvah that is a chok, and I’ll make a gezeirah shelo k’derech hateva that even the wisest of all men will not be able to understand its taam.”

By giving us one mitzvah whose reason is inaccessible, the Eibishter has ensured that we will not do the mitzvos because we deem them worthwhile; rather, we will do them out of bittul to Him. Our adherence to the mitzvah of parah adumah clearly indicates that our commitment to mitzvos does not depend on our understanding. Now that the Eibishter has given us one chok that guarantees our bittul to his will, He could allow us to benefit from the added dimension of meaning that comes with knowing the rest of the taamei hamitzvos.

Although the Eibishter took away the geshmak of knowing the taam hamitzvah of parah adumah, this gezeirah was necessary because it ensured that we would maintain the right perspective toward all of the mitzvos. In that sense, this one chok actually defines all of the 613 mitzvos.

We can now appreciate the passuk’s use of the words זֹאת חֻקַּת הַתּוֹרָה, as opposed to זֹאת חֻקַּת הַפָּרָה: the chok of parah adumah frames our performance of all of the mitzvos, lending them the advantage of being done solely because that’s what Hashem told us to do. Yes, the non-Jews will ridicule us by claiming that these mitzvos are meaningless, but that reflects the decidedly non-Jewish attitude that obedience to a higher calling needs to be rooted in our understanding.

A Yid proudly recognizes that the ultimate relationship with the Eibishter is one of גדול המצווה ועושה, in which his role is to be subservient and obey the Eibishter regardless of whether he understands the value of the commandment.

We can also understand why, despite Shlomo’s powerful yearning to gain an understanding of the mitzvah of parah adumah and achieve the added dimension of taam hamitzvah, the Eibishter made a gezeirah to ensure that the element of bittul would not be compromised.

Moshe Rabbeinu’s Bittul

If so, however, why was Moshe Rabbeinu deemed worthy of knowing the taam hamitzvah when Shlomo Hamelech, the chacham mikol adam, was not?

The answer is that Moshe’s knowledge of the taam hamitzvah had nothing to do with wisdom, and everything to do with avdus, with hachnaah, with bittul. And in that Moshe Rabbeinu had no peer. He is the only person in the entire Torah who was granted the title “eved Hashem,” for he personified the ultimate subservience to the Eibishter, as the Torah says about him: בְּכָל בֵּיתִי נֶאֱמָן הוּא. The Eibishter made an exception to the gezeirah for Moshe and granted him the extra dimension of knowing the taam hamitzvah of parah adumah because this did not carry the slightest risk of jeopardizing his total bittul to Hashem.

Yet we find a very mystical Midrash that states:

בשעה שעלה משה למרום שמע קולו של הקדוש ברוך הוא שיושב ועוסק בפרשת פרה אדומה ואומר הלכה בשם אומרה ר’ אליעזר אומר עגלה בת שנתה ופרה בת שתים אמר לפניו רבון העולמים יהי רצון שיהא מחלצי.

When Moshe Rabbeinu heard the Eibishter citing a halachah regarding parah adumah, he pleaded that he should have some connection to this mitzvah. Obviously, there are many layers to this Midrash, but at the simplest level it seems that Moshe Rabbeinu was almost lamenting that he did not have the full experience of performing the mitzvah of parah adumah as a chok without a taam, and he wanted to have some part in that experience.

The Chasam Sofer points out that the distress that Klal Yisrael experiences as a result of the gezeirah of not being allowed to know the taam for parah adumah was experienced equally by Moshe Rabbeinu, except that his distress was over the fact that he did know the taam, and therefore lost the opportunity to do a mitzvah out of absolute bittul.

No wonder, then, that the Gemara attributes our zechus of using the ashes of the parah adumah to Avraham Avinu’s middah of וְאָנֹכִי עָפָר וָאֵפֶר, as that subservience is what the chok of parah adumah is all about.

With this in mind we can understand why parah adumah was a necessary prerequisite to Mattan Torah and kabbalas ol mitzvos, and therefore had to be given in Marah. The ultimate prelude to naaseh venishma was the acceptance of an incomprehensible chok with the fierce conviction that what the Eibishter commands us is inherently good.

As we learn the parashah of parah adumah, we gain a new appreciation of the tremendous benefit of understanding the pnimius of the mitzvos and infusing our mitzvos with the neshamah that taamei hamitzvos provide. But we also internalize the beauty of Yiddishkeit that constantly remains a function of what the Creator commands us, a system in which we recognize the greatness of the “Metzaveh” and seek a relationship with Him that eclipses our feeble human intellect.

May we all be zocheh to grow in avodas Hashem and may we all be Yidden whose maasim outweigh our chochmah.

Gut Shabbos.

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