“Because I said so”. As children this phrase was never satisfying and always off-putting. As adults it was nearly as painful to offer as it was for it to be heard. We pledged, upon hearing these words, to never bring them out of our mouths. However, on some occasions we deem it necessary to proffer this phrase. Life experience of elders is vastly different than that of juniors just as our perspectives of value, community, shared responsibility, fairness and long view are different as well. Sometimes juniors need to trust that elders and their perspectives have merit. Trust is at the heart of this phrase.
This week’s parsha (Chukat) offers one of the most bizarre elements in our entire tradition. A red cow, never having been yoked to a plow, is to be used in a particularly strange purification ritual in which the officiant becomes impure even as the common person becomes pure and is welcomed back into the Tabernacle. Called CHOKE (“Ch” like Chanukah) this law is handed down without any easily explained or offered reason. It is “Because God said so” from the Torah’s perspective.
Centuries of rabbis have attempted to discern reasons and rationales; few are compelling. Perhaps it has something to do with the fragility of life and our need for interpersonal connectedness during frightening experiences; a behavior pattern we definitely still employ. I join my rabbinic colleagues of the past two millennia and offer no satisfactory explanation. I wish I had the perspective of God. I don’t. While it is easy to write off this ritual because there is no longer a Temple, it still leaves me hanging.
Perhaps someday one of us or future learners will glean an answer to this, a great puzzle. Until then we shall continue to study, to learn, to discuss and to admit “we don’t know”.
Shabbat shalom.
Rabbi Steve Silberman
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