(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 for impurity for the Israelite community, to be used when a sin occurs.
An idolater asked Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, "These rituals you do, they seem like witchcraft! You bring a red heifer, burn it, crush it up, and take its ashes. If one of you becomes ritually impure by coming into contact with a corpse, 2 or 3 drops are sprinkled on them, and you declare them pure?!" He said to them, "Has a restless spirit ever entered you?" They said to him, "No!" "Have you ever seen someone where a restless spirit entered them?" They said to him, "Yes!" Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai said, "And what did you do for this person?" He said, "We brought roots and made them smoke beneath them, and pour water and it flees." He said, "Your ears should hear what leaves from your mouth! The same thing true for this spirit is also true for the spirit of impurity, as it is written, (Zechariah 13:2) "Even the prophets and the spirit of impurity will I remove from the land." [Same with the red heifer,] they sprinkle upon them purifying waters, and the spirit of impurity flees." After they left, our rabbi's students said, "You pushed them off with a reed. What will you say to us?" He said to them, "By your lives, a dead person doesn't make things impure, and the water doesn't make things pure. Rather, God said, 'I have engraved a rule, I have decreed a decree, and you have no permission to transgress what I decreed, as it says "This is a rule of Torah."'
We hold that all such Mosaic and rabbinical laws as regulate diet, priestly purity, and dress originated in ages and under the influence of ideas entirely foreign to our present mental and spiritual state. They fail to impress the modern Jew with a spirit of priestly holiness; their observance in our days is apt rather to obstruct than to further modern spiritual elevation.
Judaism joins Greek philosophy, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, Islam, and other religions in promoting a version of the golden mean. The concept is simple: do not live in the extremes. Aim to live in the center: every day, strive to be somewhere in the wide expanse of the middle. Finding balance in Jewish life is an exercise in appreciating the golden mean. If we reject all ritual practice simply because it does not make sense, we live on an extreme that points us towards non-observance and falling away from the covenant. If we strictly follow every practice without considering how it contributes to our purpose as Jews in the 21st century, we live on the other extreme, which points to isolationism and a separation from the vast, ever-developing Creation.
1. Our tradition teaches that there are different ways to follow Torah's statues: Torah and Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai state we must follow them strictly; the early Reformers state that we must push them aside; and multiple viewpoints in between. Where do you stand?
2. How do you find meaning in chukim, laws without reason? In what ways do you struggle to find meaning in them?