(1) יהוה spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying: (2) This is the ritual law that יהוה has commanded: Instruct the Israelite people to bring you a red cow without blemish, in which there is no defect and on which no yoke has been laid. (3) You shall give it to Eleazar the priest. It shall be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. (4) Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tent of Meeting. (5) The cow shall be burned in his sight—its hide, flesh, and blood shall be burned, its dung included— (6) and the priest shall take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson stuff, and throw them into the fire consuming the cow. (7) The priest shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water; after that the priest may reenter the camp, but he shall be impure until evening. (8) The one who performed the burning shall also wash those garments in water, bathe in water, and be impure until evening. (9) Another party who is pure shall gather up the ashes of the cow and deposit them outside the camp in a pure place, to be kept for water of lustration for the Israelite community. It is for purgation. (10) The one who gathers up the ashes of the cow shall also wash those clothes and be impure until evening. This shall be a permanent law for the Israelites and for the strangers who reside among them. (11) Those who touch the corpse of any human being shall be impure for seven days. (12) They shall purify themselves with [the ashes] on the third day and on the seventh day, and then be pure; if they fail to purify themselves on the third and seventh days, they shall not be pure. (13) Those who touch a corpse, the body of a person who has died, and do not purify themselves, defile יהוה’s Tabernacle; those persons shall be cut off from Israel. Since the water of lustration was not dashed on them, they remain impure; their impurity is still upon them. (14) This is the ritual: When a person dies in a tent, whoever enters the tent and whoever is in the tent shall be impure seven days; (15) and every open vessel, with no lid fastened down, shall be impure. (16) And in the open, anyone who touches a person who was killed or who died naturally, or human bone, or a grave, shall be impure seven days. (17) Some of the ashes from the fire of purgation shall be taken for the impure person, and fresh water shall be added to them in a vessel. (18) Another party who is pure shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle on the tent and on all the vessels and people who were there, or on the one who touched the bones or the person who was killed or died naturally or the grave. (19) The pure person shall sprinkle it upon the impure person on the third day and on the seventh day, thus purifying that person by the seventh day. [The one being purified] shall then wash those clothes and bathe in water—and at nightfall shall be pure. (20) If any party who has become impure fails to undergo purification, that person shall be cut off from the congregation for having defiled יהוה’s sanctuary. The water of lustration was not dashed on that person, who is impure. (21) That shall be for them a law for all time. Further, the one who sprinkled the water of lustration shall wash those clothes; and whoever touches the water of lustration shall be impure until evening. (22) Whatever that impure person touches shall be impure; and the person who touches the impure one shall be impure until evening.
(ג) [ג] ר' יצחק פתח כל זה ניסיתי בחכמה אמרתי אחכמה והיא רחוקה ממני (קהלת ז:כג). כת' ויתן אלהים חכמה לשלמה ותבונה הרבה מאד וגו' (מלכים א' ה:ט).
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א' שלמה על כל אלה עמדתי ופרשה הזאת של פרה כיון שהייתי נוגע בה הייתי דורש בה וחוקר בה אמרתי אחכמה והיא רחוקה ממני.
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על כל דבר ודבר שהיה הקב"ה או' למשה היה או' לו טומאתו וטהרתו, וכיון שהגיע לפרשת אמור אל הכהנים וג' (ויקרא כא:א), אמר לפניו, רבון העולמים ואם נטמא במה היא טהרתו, ולא השיבו. באותה שעה ניתכרכמו פניו של רבינו משה, הד' היא דכת' ועוז פניו ישונא (קהלת שם), וכיון שהגיע לפרשה של פרה א' לו הקב"ה, משה אותה האמירה שאמרתי לך אמור אל הכהנים וג' (ויקרא שם) ואמרת לפניי רבון העולמים ואם נטמא במה היא טהרתו ולא השיבותיך, אלא זו היא טהרתו, ולקחו לטמא מעפר וג' (במדבר יט:יז), איזו היא, זאת חוקת התורה (שם יט:ב).
Rav Yitzchak sermonized: All this I thought I could fathom with wisdom. I said I will become wiser, and yet it eludes me [this is a quote from Kohelet (Ecclesiastes) which is about to be explained]. And it is written [in Melachim Aleph (Kings I)] "And God gave wisdom to Shlomo and much understanding" [this establishes that Shlomo, the author of Kohelet, was the recepient of dive wisdom and even he couldn't fathom whatever the "it" of the previous pasuk was.
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Shlomo said: on all of these I have stood, but on this parsha of para aduma, every time I would get to it, I would expound on it and research it, as I said in Kohelet, I would approach it with wisdom, but the meaning of this passage eludes me.
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In every matter of impurification that God discussed with Moses, He also told him its purification. When they reached the verse of "tell the priests, son of Aaron [do not become impure for a dead person], he said before Him "when does become impure, how does he become pure?" And God did not answer him.
At that moment, Moshe's face whitened, as it says in Kohelet, 8:1, and then the midrash directly quotes "and the boldness of his changed."
When they reached the section of the red heifer, the KBH said to Mosher - that statement I told you to tell the priests [to not be mekabel tumat meit], and you asked before me: 'master of the world, if they do become impure, how do they become pure?' and I didn't answer you - this here is the purification process:
And you shall take the ashes to the impure person, this chukat hatorah [the opening pasuk from our parsha]
(יג) וְעִנְיְנֵי אַרְבָּעָה פְּרָקִים אֵלּוּ שֶׁבְּחָמֵשׁ מִצְוֹת הָאֵלּוּ הֵם שֶׁחֲכָמִים הָרִאשׁוֹנִים קוֹרְאִין אוֹתוֹ פַּרְדֵּס כְּמוֹ שֶׁאָמְרוּ אַרְבָּעָה נִכְנְסוּ לַפַּרְדֵּס. וְאַף עַל פִּי שֶׁגְּדוֹלֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל הָיוּ וַחֲכָמִים גְּדוֹלִים הָיוּ לֹא כֻּלָּם הָיָה בָּהֶן כֹּחַ לֵידַע וּלְהַשִּׂיג כָּל הַדְּבָרִים עַל בֻּרְיָן. וַאֲנִי אוֹמֵר שֶׁאֵין רָאוּי לְטַיֵּל בַּפַּרְדֵּס אֶלָּא מִי שֶׁנִּתְמַלֵּא כְּרֵסוֹ לֶחֶם וּבָשָׂר. וְלֶחֶם וּבָשָׂר הוּא לֵידַע הָאָסוּר וְהַמֻּתָּר וְכַיּוֹצֵא בָּהֶם מִשְּׁאָר הַמִּצְוֹת. וְאַף עַל פִּי שֶׁדְּבָרִים אֵלּוּ דָּבָר קָטָן קָרְאוּ אוֹתָן חֲכָמִים שֶׁהֲרֵי אָמְרוּ חֲכָמִים דָּבָר גָּדוֹל מַעֲשֵׂה מֶרְכָּבָה וְדָבָר קָטָן הֲוָיוֹת דְּאַבַּיֵּי וְרָבָא. אַף עַל פִּי כֵן רְאוּיִין הֵן לְהַקְדִּימָן. שֶׁהֵן מְיַשְּׁבִין דַּעְתּוֹ שֶׁל אָדָם תְּחִלָּה. וְעוֹד שֶׁהֵם הַטּוֹבָה הַגְּדוֹלָה שֶׁהִשְׁפִּיעַ הַקָּדוֹשׁ בָּרוּךְ הוּא לְיִשּׁוּב הָעוֹלָם הַזֶּה כְּדֵי לִנְחל חַיֵּי הָעוֹלָם הַבָּא. וְאֶפְשָׁר שֶׁיְּדָעֵם הַכּל קָטָן וְגָדוֹל אִישׁ וְאִשָּׁה בַּעַל לֵב רָחָב וּבַעַל לֵב קָצָר:
(13) The matters discussed in these four chapters concerning these five mitzvot are what the Sages of the early generations termed the Pardes, as they related: "Four entered the Pardes...." Even though they were great men of Israel and great Sages, not all of them had the potential to know and comprehend all these matters in their totality.
I maintain that it is not proper for a person to stroll in the Pardes unless he has filled his belly with bread and meat. "Bread and meat" refer to the knowledge of what is permitted and what is forbidden, and similar matters concerning other mitzvot. Even though the Sages referred to these as "a small matter" - for our Sages said: "'A great matter,’ this refers to Ma'aseh Merkavah. `A small matter,’ this refers to the debates of Abbaye and Ravva" - nevertheless, it is fitting for them to be given precedence, because they settle a person's mind.
Also, they are the great good which the Holy One, blessed be He, has granted, [to allow for] stable [living] within this world and the acquisition of the life of the world to come. They can be known in their totality by the great and the small, man or woman, whether [granted] expansive knowledge or limited knowledge.