[Avodah] Ramp On!

[Michael Makovi]

> R' Akiva Miller asked to have the following completed:
> "If every ritual in Judaism was designed to teach us some sort of
> lesson," then there would be no need for chukim and the mystery of
> many of the mitzvos would be eliminated.
> ri

Perhaps Hashem wants to be sure that at least a few mitzvot train us
to follow "naaseh v'nishmah", do the mitzvah just because it's
commanded, to train us in obedience pure and simple.

But even with the chukim, people try to find rationales. For example,
in Bamidbar Rabbah on Chukat, there is a Midrash of Rabbi Yochanan
where an idolater asks what the parah adumah is, and he says it is a
magic spell. To his students, he says that the dead do not defile and
the heifer does not purify; it is all a chok from Hashem.

Now, one may interpret "chok" here to mean the mitzvah has no
rationale. But to do so, one must ignore the next clause of the
midrash: Rabbi Abuia (or something like that) says that the parah
adumah symbolizes the golden calf.

So we see, a "chok" here does NOT mean it has no rationale. Rather, it
means that the mitzvah is ein elah NOTHING BUT a symbolic rationale!
Tumah and the parah adumah have no intrinsic spiritual or physical
reality in the world; they are nothing but a symbolic teaching, pure
and simple. Rav Hirsch on the end of Tazria-Metzora has an explanation
of tumah that fits with what I have just said. It also fits with his
entire philosophy of mitzvot in 19 Letters and Horeb.

If I want into the beit hamikdash with tumah, nothing intrinsic has
just happened. Hashem could just as well have told me not to walk into
the beit hamikdash with a blue shirt or untied shoes. It is a
symbolism and a teaching, not an intrinsic reality.

Mikha'el Makovi