<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>Simon Montagu asks a very good question:</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div>I was going to say that in all these cases we read the pesukim themselves<br>from the Sefer Torah during the annual cycle.<br><br>But this prompts the inverse question: why do we need Parshat Zachor? We<br>read the same pesukim every year in Parashat Ki Tetze, why aren't we yotzei<br>from that?<div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>IMHO chazal have extrapolated through majority interpretation that certain </div><div>pesukim require reinforcement, so to speak. We're back to eilu v'eilu. Just </div><div>because we don't understand certain takanot does not mean that it doesn't </div><div>make sense. Remember, too, that there still is a machlokes amongst the Poskim </div><div>whether the reading of Parshas Parah <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: -1; ">is a Torah obligation. So we're not the</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: -1;">only ones with these same questions and concerns.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: -1;"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: -1;">To give a more scholarly answer: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 17px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0C0C0C">When the Beis Hamikdosh stood in Yerushalayim, every Jew had to be in a state of tahora </font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 17px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0C0C0C">in time for the bringing of the KP. Today, though, since we're unable to fulfill the Temple-related </font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 17px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0C0C0C">rituals in practice, we fulfill them spiritually by studying their dinim in the Torah. </font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 17px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0C0C0C">Thus, we study and read the section of Parah in preparation for the upcoming </font></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 17px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 1px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 1px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0C0C0C">festival of Pesach. This is probably why Parah was legislated a special Shabbos.</font></span></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I remember as a kid I could never understand how when everyone</div><div>smoked on Yom Tov, someone would go over to someone else who was already </div><div>smoking (after shul) and take his cigarette and light it from the already lit cigarette.</div><div>This person couldn't care less if the first person was m'chalel yom tov by having </div><div>struck a match first. Even though this seemed hyprocritical, it was halachically </div><div>o.k. </div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>I realize this is not relevant to the question at hand, but free association took over.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>Shabbat shalom. Don't forget: Pashas Para tomorrow.</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div>ri</div></body></html>