The Lubavitcher Rebbe once encouraged a rabbi to take a position in a community whose standards of Jewish observance were not on par with the rabbi’s.
The rabbi was resistant to this idea, worrying that his family would be adversely influenced by the community’s values. But, the Rebbe insisted.
‘How can I raise my children in such a community?’ he countered. ‘What will protect them from negative influences?’
The Rebbe pointed to this week’s parsha, Chukat, for a persuasive lesson. One of the strangest laws of the Torah is the mitzvah of ritual purity. According to the Torah, a person may become ritually unclean by, for example, coming in contact with a dead body. In order to become ritually clean, he or she must undergo a unique procedure including the sprinkling of the ashes of a completely red heifer. This mitzvah is so bizarre that it is referred to in our parsha as the quintessential “chok” (supra-rational law) of the Torah.
Not only is the ritual itself beyond reason, the laws surrounding it are just as perplexing. For example, while the ashes of the red heifer render pure an impure person – they do just the opposite to those that prepare the mixture. These selfless individuals are rendered impure by their interaction with the ashes of the red heifer! No matter how you look at it, exclaim the commentaries, this mitzvah is full of paradoxes.
But, the Rebbe points out, a simple analogy can seemingly explain this last detail.
Imagine if someone falls into a mud pit and you jump into the pit to save that person. Wouldn’t you dirty yourself in the process? Of course, it would be worth it because you would be saving and cleaning the other person. This, in essence, is a logical explanation to why those that prepared the ashes would become impure, but those that received the ashes become pure.
However, there is an amazing exception to this rule.
Although the individuals that prepared the mixture became impure, the person who actually administered the sprinkling of the ashes remained pure. How could it be that the one in closest contact with the mixture and the impure recipient would remain pure?! Imagine that several people prepare a rope to help save someone from a mud pit and they are dirtied by it, but the person that actually jumps in to save her remains unsullied?! It doesn’t make sense!
Indeed, it remains one of the great mysteries of the Torah.
This, the Rebbe taught, is the great paradox of the red heifer. And this, the Rebbe insisted, is the great lesson for all of us.
If you are involved in assisting someone else, to elevate, to purify others – you will not be adversely affected by them. Others, who are less attached, may be affected. But, G-d protects those who are in the trenches offering assistance and guidance.