Parashat Balak - Numbers 22:2-25:9

The portion of Balak is filled with supernatural interactions between God and a Gentile prophet by the name of Balaam. From our portion, Balaam appears to have been renowned for his spiritual acumen, and seems to have a close relationship with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Yet in the end we find that he is dead set on destroying the Children of Israel. How did this come about? Let's take a brief look at Balaam's mistake.

When Balak's men came to Balaam and asked him to curse Israel, he realized that his services would fetch a large sum of money. He only had one problem. He couldn't speak anything more than what God would allow him:

"Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the command of the LORD my God to do less or more" (Num. 22:18). 

How would he be able to bring a curse upon Israel? The sages tell us, however, that this was a mixture of truth and a lie. Truth, in that Balaam was indeed limited by what God allowed him to speak. But also a lie, in that his answer masked the greed hidden in Balaam's heart. Balaam's Achilles' heel was his evil eye-greed-as it is said:

The evil eye, the evil desire and hatred of his fellow creatures put a man out of the world (Avot 2:16)

How do we know this? Not only does Rashi and other ancient commentators mention this, but we also have the Apostolic testimony:

They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing (2 Peter 2:15)

Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. (Jude 11)

Parashat Chukat (Numbers 19:1-22:1)

This week's Torah portion contains one of the least understood passages in all of the Scriptures. In the beginning of our portion we have the instructions for the parah adumah—the red heifer—whose ashes are mixed with water to create the singular source of ritual purity for specific conditions described within the Torah. For example, it is only by the water mixed with the ashes of the red heifer that corpse contamination could be negated. 

One of the mysteries about the red heifer is how purification through its ashes works. The cow is burnt completely along with cedar wood, hyssop and crimson wool. Then the ashes are gathered up and a small amount is mixed with a large volume of water. Now, by sprinkling this mixture  on someone who is considered to have contracted the highest level of ritual impurity, it somehow has the power to transform the status of that person. How does it work? No one knows. That is why this ritual is called a chok, a decree or ordinance. It is a command that seems to make no sense to our human minds.

More puzzling, however, is the question of how coming into contact with these ashes makes a ritually pure person become impure. Everyone who comes in contact with the ashes—the priest who oversees the burning, the one who burned the animal, and the one who collects the ashes—becomes impure. This defies human reasoning. And yet the solution to the problem of one who has become defiled through the ashes of the red heifer is an immersion in water. Water, therefore, is a common denominator in transmitting ritual purity. However, we have an example of when water can be the opposite. It can also be a source of ritual impurity: