The Mitzvot That We Don’t Understand

By: Sivan Rahav-Meir

We don’t like doing things just because “that’s what we were told.” We want to identify with what we do. When things are not entirely clear to us, when we do not feel connected to them, we may start thinking they are simply irrelevant.

But what happens when it comes to mitzvot? What happens when a mitzvah or halacha seems illogical, unclear, or perhaps outdated?

There are many mitzvot whose meaning we can relate to, from honoring parents to Shabbat and so much more. But in this week’s parashah, Chukat, we encounter a different kind of mitzvah. The parashah opens with the words, “This is the statute of the Torah,” and then describes a subject considered a mystery: the red heifer. This mitzvah is connected to impurity and purity, and seemingly has no clear explanation or logical reason. That is why the Torah calls it a chok, a statute: a mitzvah whose reason is not known to us.

Our Sages explain that this mitzvah symbolizes the fact that the Jewish people observe even those parts of the Torah that they do not understand at all, even when they remain a mystery to us. We know that the holy Torah is divine and that we are human, and that we will never be able to understand everything with our limited minds. So we do not belittle the parts that are less clear to us, and we do not dismiss them. We observe them too, with love.

The Rambam, one of the greatest Jewish thinkers of all time, wrote:

“A person should contemplate the laws of the holy Torah and seek to understand their ultimate meaning to the best of his ability; but something for which he does not find a reason and does not know the cause should not be treated lightly in his eyes.”

In other words, on the one hand, we must try to understand “to the best of our ability,” to learn and make every effort we can. There is a rich Jewish library built on thousands of years of study, and there is so much to learn and explore in depth. There is infinite wisdom in every detail of the Torah, and every person can connect.

But even after we learn, there will always be things we do not understand. There are things the Jewish people have been observing for thousands of years without an explanation, simply out of faith in G-d and in the Torah.

Sometimes, we declare: “This is the statute of the Torah.”

{We Write The Headlines

What is this morning’s main headline? That depends on us.

In this week’s parashah, we are told of the passing of Miriam the Prophetess. In his book, Rabbi Avigdor Nebenzahl recalls one moment from Miriam’s life: the entire nation waited for her for a full week, until she recovered from tzara’at. And here is his explanation:

“Many years earlier, when Moshe Rabbeinu was in the basket on the Nile, his sister Miriam waited for him for a short time and watched over him. In that merit, she later merited that the entire nation would wait for her for a whole week. Every minute of kindness counts, and so does every second of a good deed.

“We must understand this enormous power. We must understand who we are. Every small action of ours can change the world. We do not see it, but up Above, it is reported with excitement, every small gesture of warmth, every smile, every expression of interest in a new neighbor—it all counts. It all matters.

If we acquire for ourselves the clear, absolute, and unequivocal knowledge that every good deed we do becomes a main headline in Heaven, it will help us to truly take control of the way we live.” 

Read more by Sivan Rahav-Meir at SivanRahavMeir.com.

Sivan Rahav-Meir is the World Mizrachi Scholar-in-Residence and an Israeli journalist and lecturer. She is a member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau (Mizrachi.org/speakers).