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Mincha continues at  1.00pm at A-P GF/459 Collins, using the WhatsApp group to confirm a minyan each day.

Weekly sushi & shiur continues on Wed at 1.10pm at A-P GF/459 Collins – and via zoom. Current topic: new chapter – public hazard laws. Details here and on the WhatsApp group.

Thought of the Week with thanks to David Werdiger.

This week’s Torah reading describes the red heifer – a ritual for purifying someone who became ritually impure through contact with a corpse.

It is described as the prototypical chok – a statute that we observe purely because G-d wants it of us, and which defies reason (unlike other laws which either act as testimony or are part of a well-functioning society). But there are plenty of other laws, such as kosher, that have no logical basis. What makes the red heifer ritual special?

The red heifer is unique in that it embodies a paradox: the ash-water mixture purifies someone who is impure, yet leaves the (pure) person who sprinkles the ashes impure.

We can try to find reasons for other statutes to give ourselves some comfort around their observance, but the red heifer embodies an act of ultimate faith – doing something that we cannot explain or rationalise in any way, simply because G-d wants it of us.