Chukat – July 15, 2016
S.T.A.R.’s upcoming exciting events:
This Shabbat:
- Friday Candle Lighting: 7:46 pm
- Shabbat Ends: 8:47 pm
Torah Message:
All or Nothing at All
“This is the chok (decree) of the Torah…” (19:1)
Shlomo HaMelech, the wisest of all men, managed to explain the reasons for all of the mitzvot. All but one, that is. When he came to the law of the Red Cow, despite all of his efforts he was not able to plumb its depths. He then abandoned his attempt to give reasons for all of the mitzvot, and concluded that all of his explanations were not absolutely accurate.
The question arises: Why didn’t he just admit that one mitzvah was beyond his comprehension, but all of his other reasons were still valid?
King Shlomo realized that if he could not comprehend one mitzvah, then he had understood nothing up until then as well. He realized that every single mitzvah of the Torah is interlaced with all the others, and a failure to understand one is a failure to understand any of them completely.
G-d is One — an ineffable Unity — and His Torah reflects this. It too is an ineffable unity.
Shlomo HaMelech says in the Book of Tanach called Kohelet: “I thought I could become wise, and it is beyond me. What existed is elusive and so very deep. Who can fathom it?” (7:23)
In other words, “I thought I could become wise,” and understand the meaning of every mitzvah, “and it” — the mitzvah of the Red Cow — “is beyond me.”Thus, even“what existed is elusive” — even my understanding of the mitzvot that I have examined is imperfect. For “Who can fathom” the ineffable unity of the Torah?
- Sources: Beit HaLevi for Parshat Ki Tisa as seen in Talelei Orot