At the beginning of this week’s Torah portion, Chukat, we learn about a red heifer, that not only had to be completely red, but also without blemish, “she ein bah mum” (Numbers 19:2).
This was essential, as the red heifer was used to purify the chief purifier in that society, the High Priest himself. And, while we can admire how midakdek, ritually scrupulous, our ancestors were regarding the food they sacrificed to God, there was a huge draw back to their approach, one that was exposed leading up to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.
The rabbis in the Talmud (Gittin 56a) tell of an invitation to a party being sent to the wrong person because of confusion between two almost identical names, Kamtza and Bar Kamtza, the former a friend, the latter an enemy.
When Bar Kamtza appeared at the party he was summarily dismissed, even after he offered to pay for half of the event. Angry he went to Emperor Nero, and complained that the Jews were rebelling. To prove it he told Nero to send an animal to be sacrificed, which Bar Kamtza then inflicted with a blemish.
The High Priest refused to make the sacrifice, thus signaling to Rome that a rebellion was indeed in the works. For the rabbis, the lesson of the story was that the Temple was destroyed because of “sinat chinam,” baseless hatred. For me, the story also demonstrates a fatal flaw in the ancient sacrificial customs: by prioritizing ritual purity over what I would call menschlikeit, ethical behavior, they are creating the seed for perversion of the law itself.
For as beautiful as the red heifer may have been, it pales in comparison to people treating one another with love and respect. That is how we create a world without blemish.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex