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I've been to some interesting weddings, but this one was the strangest of all. The groom, in love with the bride although upset about some past indiscretions, went through the wedding ceremony as if all was well, and waited until the celebration to publicly remind the bride of her past, and to put the fear of death in her.
"Against the great men of the Children of Israel, He did not stretch out His hand (Exodus 24:11)." The Midrash explains that God did not want to ruin, "The day of His wedding (Song of Songs 3:11)," referring to Sinai, so He waited until this week's portion, "The day of His rejoicing," the Eighth day of the Consecration of the Tabernacle, to punish Nadab and Abihu.
God also reminded Israel, His bride, of the sin of the Golden Calf; a calf was part of the Sin Offering at the Consecration. Was this just poor party planning? Perhaps, mixed messages?
Rabbi Menachem Rekanati looks at this week's special Torah reading, the seemingly contradictory laws of the Red Heifer, which purifies the impure, and yet makes impure those who are pure, and speaks of the Red Heifer, and the calf brought as a sin offering at the wedding celebration as a lesson in education. He bases his idea on, "There is none among the Crowns of the King that does not include both good and evil (Zohar III 262b)." Medieval mystics are quite stingy with their words, and I've been struggling with this teaching for years, until Purim this past Sunday.
The theme of Purim is, "and it was turned about (Esther 9:1)," nothing was as it seemed. Esther, raised by Mordechai, who obeyed all his instructions, and chosen as a malleable queen to replace the unbearable Vashti, assumes control of both Achashveirosh and Mordechai. The intended victims became the victors. It was Mordechai who was dressed in royal robes and led on the king's horse through the streets of Shushan by Haman. There are two sides to every detail of the Purim story; good and evil are turned about.
The Children of Israel did not allow themselves to fully recover from the indiscretion of the Golden Calf, and refused to believe they were forgiven. They needed a lesson in Turn About. They had to learn to see the other side of the story, how something so wrong could be transformed into something positive. God instructed them to use a calf as their Sin Offering.
They understood that the Red Heifer would purify them of their impurities, and were then forced to Turn About and see that there is the opposite side, that which makes the pure, impure.
The Day of Rejoicing was such because, rather than facing a heavily regulated world that would reject any mistakes or indiscretions, they were introduced to a world that refused definition. All too often, I observe students who hesitate to ask and challenge because they fear saying something wrong. I think of Richard Feynman commenting that, "Science is imagination in a straitjacket." Rules of thought, absolute definitions, and fear of error, form a straitjacket around our minds and souls. They prevent creative thought. They suck the joy out of God's Day of Rejoicing, a moment which is potentially ours each time we study, pray, and observe His Mitzvot.
I learned from my father zt"l that the experience of learning was far more significant than the information received. Many students were frustrated by his approach, one that covered limited textual content, and they still live in intellectual and spiritual straitjackets. Those who celebrated the emphasis on learning how to ask and challenge, how to see both sides of the Crowns, and, most of all, how to free our minds and use curiosity to rip open the straitjackets of preconceived notions and permissible questions, mastered how to participate in the Day of His Rejoicing every time they study.
We need only look at both sides of the Crown of the Red Heifer, and curiosity will be peaked, and we will begin to experience the freedom of Torah, and hopefully God's Day of Rejoicing as well.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Simcha L. Weinberg
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