This Week’s Torah Portion RABBI UHRBACH ON PARASHAT HASHAVUA
MARCH 16, 2012 — PARASHAT PARAH “Passover Cleaning: Making Room
for Mystery” The sages of the Mishnah established four special,
supplementary Torah readings to be read in the period on four
Shabbatot leading up to Passover. The third of these, which is
always read between Purim and Pesah, is Parashat Parah (Num.
19:1-22) — an entire chapter devoted to the strange ritual of
the parah adumah, the “red heifer.” What is the parah adumah and
why is it singled out to be read just now? The parah adumah
refers to a process whereby those who became ritually impure
through contact with death could re-purify themselves, enabling
them to once again participate in the priestly system of
offerings. In this sense, the connection with Passover is clear:
when the Temple stood and the Israelites made actual Pesah
offerings, only those in a state of ritual purity could eat of
it. Although the unique categories of ritual purity and impurity
(tahora and tumah) are no lo