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From the Rabbi:
Shalom Friends.
You are all invited to join me on Zoom for chassidic insights into the weekly parsha weekly at 9pm on Thursdays: https://buffalojewishfederation.zoom.us/my/schachter?pwd=IHUkaGAhDImgBN5YpKJi5qFm9lxIf7.1.
Last Shabbat in shul we discussed the Techelet, the blue thread in the tzitzit, and how the re-introduction of this mitzvah in the mid-19th century was accompanied with a radical shift in consciousness and attitude within the Jewish people. Techelet literally means "You can do it!," and the emergence of Zionism and the "can do" spirit within our people is congruent with the renewed performance of this long-dormant mitzvah.
This week's parsha opens with the iconic "Red Heifer," a mysterious ritual necessary for the purification from contact with death, and a critical prerequisite for building and operating the Beit HaMikdash. Today, we are all tom'ei met, "ritually impure because of death," and none of us know what being "pure" would actually feel like.
There are those people today advocating for the performance of this ritual. This week we'll discuss the ritual of the Red Heifer, the consciousness-shifting power that it holds and what new spiritual movement might emerge with its performance. While actually doing this ritual may need to wait, we can arouse and experience some of that shift in consciousness by understanding the nature of tum'at met, yearning for "purity" and imagining what kind of shift might be possible. And remember, we can do it!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Shlomo
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