Reply To: Toras Avigdor

The subject of Parah Adumah which begins this week’s Parsha is based on the concept of the Tum’ah of a dead body, which is the most severe form of spiritual uncleanliness and is called the אבי אבות הטומאה – the father of the fathers of all Tum’ah.

As we learn about the function of the פרה אדומה in removing this highest form of טומאה, it behooves us to understand the reason why a dead body should be considered so impure. And there is another Halacha that requires an explanation. We are commanded to bury the dead body as soon as possible. Why do we have to remove the corpse from before our eyes so quickly. Once we begin to understand the laws pertaining to the dead body, we will be able to use these lessons to reach greater heights in our service of Hashem.

One important explanation for the severity of טומאה and the sight of the dead body is as follows: The חובות הלבבות in שער יחוד המעשה declares that the first and most prevalent doubt of all the important Torah principles is the doubt in the truth of life after death. Of course, you’re an Orthodox Jew and you undoubtedly believe in life after death. But because it is something that you have never seen, and never experienced, it is really far away from being something you perceive as real.

Now, we can readily understand the reason for the persistence of such a doubt, in the fact of death itself. When confronted by the catastrophic phenomenon of death, it requires strength of character, and strength of intelligence to overcome the powerful impression that it causes. The dead body, which is perceived by the weak mind as the end, the final chapter of a person, seems to be a contradiction to the truth of the Afterlife. An object which is capable of defiling your mind, by impinging on the great truth of life after death, is a dangerous object and must be avoided. Death is actually the greatest falsehood in the Universe, for the fact of death causes men to weaken in their belief in this most important truth of the Universe – which is the belief in our being greeted by Hashem after we take our last breath. The sight of a dead body, appears to be so much of a cessation, so final, that it impresses upon the mind that it truly is all over. Something that can contaminate the mind, something that can defile this important principle of life after death, is labeled with the highest form of טומאה, defilement, and should be removed from our sight as quickly as possible.

And don’t tell me that it’s not so. It could be that you never think about Olam Habah. And maybe real thoughts of Gehenim barely cross your mind. The whole concept of the Next World is so very weak in your mind, so you don’t even recognize that the image of death weakens it even more.

This enormous and dangerous impression created by a dead body is especially powerful on the minds of those who are in the same tent as the deceased. If life ends so completely, with such abrupt finality, it appears to lose its value.

<ZAP>

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