Parshat Chukat is filled with mystery and meaning.
It begins with God’s instruction to Moses and Aaron to tell the people to sacrifice a red heifer that is free from blemish (nearly impossible to find), and which has never been yoked. Its ashes are then to be used in a ritual of purification to release individuals from impurity. As many of our sages commented, this was an irrational or supra-rational instruction. In subsequent verses we see how important it was for the supplicant to cleanse himself and his clothing after contact with a corpse. It is obvious that transitions of life and death had great significance then, as they do now. Transitions become sacred or meaningful for us, as for them, when marked by rituals for the cleansing of body, mind and spirit.
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