The Cup of Life is Overflowing | Rabbi Haggai Lundin | Beit Midrash

Torah Portion and Tanach
Chukat

קטגוריה משנית

Perhaps more than any other time in life, these months have brought us all to encounter bereavement; days of transition from funeral to funeral, from shiva visit to shiva visit. The entire Torah portion Chukat deals with death – the impurity of the dead (the commandment of the red heifer); the death of Mariam; the sin of the waters of dispute; the death of Aaron; the plague of the fiery snakes. In life we encounter "chok", law – the limitations of reality; a head-on collision with a seemingly impregnable wall: tragedies, human evil, sins and passions, afflictions, chief among them death.

The commandment of the red heifer is to take the total life force that a "big cow", full of redness, upon which "a yoke was not placed" – and to sprinkle its ashes on one who came in contact with a dead person. In other words: to add living flesh and blood in this world; by adding life to conquer death. Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook has a wonderful parable that likens death to water that is overflowing the edges of the vessel that can no longer contain it. There is a situation in which the body can no longer contain the soul, the cup of life overflows, and the soul "overflows" and connects to eternal life.

In a world where terrorists in the form of "fiery snakes" give the feeling that reality is managed in the form of a random "guess" that "burns" us from within – we raise our eyes to God. We will continue the lives of our holy fighters by adding life; by winning; having more children; building more and more settlements.

The bad will pass
The good will prevail
With God's help.

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Shiur (Hebrew) on Parashat Chukat --> https://youtu.be/HZRvMUCJYM0