„'The Red Heifer atones,' and it purifies from the impurity of death..…”

This week's portion opens with the commandment of the "Red Heifer," whose ashes atone for the impurity of death. The Jewish conception introduced into the world the idea that everything is capable of repair. There are repairs whose place is within life — a person who erred can mend. There are repairs whose repair cannot take place in our world — such as a person who murdered and took a soul from the world — but even this terrible state is capable of repair in a supernal conception. Not a repair that will bring back the dead, but a repair and atonement for the immense lack that the murderer brought into the world, and likewise in educating the world for the future about the need to beware of sin and its consequences — "let the cow come and wipe up the dung of its calf." Sometimes it is precisely the great falls that influence the world to be better.

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