Rabbi's Week in Review Blog

Two thoughts on this fourth of July week, one from the Torah portion and one from a friend. In our Torah portion, Parashat Chukat, we read of the very strange ceremony of the Parah Adumah - the Red Heiffer (spoiler alert, this is a favorite piece of Torah for me). If a Kohein (Priest) becomes ritually impure, returning the Kohein to a state of purity requires that a perfectly unblemished red heifer is sacrificed and its ashes used to effectuate purification.  

I, or even we, do not profess to understand this strange ceremony - it just seems like something G-d needs from us. The lesson here is that sometimes the ones we love ask us to do something we don’t understand, yet we do it anyway. We do it just because they seem to need it. Being in that position of doing for the people we love is a great gift, a gift that comes with feeling needed and giving back in our most important relationships.

The thought acquired from a friend is how most of us need and welcome change. Change recognizes our ability to use newly acquired knowledge, to always be curious and to seek out new challenges. It is the satisfaction in overcoming the fear of experiencing something new, a fear that keeps us stuck in a bad status quo.

This plays out in our interpersonal relationships, and, it is playing out in our country. There are forces that seem to draw on some glorified past; a past that never really existed. There is a fear of change in our country, a fear of connecting with people not like us.  Diversity is not a threat, rather it strengthens all of us.  

As we celebrate this Fourth of July let us embrace diversity and difference, let us not give up on a future that embraces change and growth. A happy and safe fourth of July to all.