Parshas Chukas: Parah Adumah and Ignoring the Nachash

AI summary (may contain mistakes)

Why is the parah adumah, a chok we do not understand, the kapara for the cheit ha'egel? Hashem made man yashar, and the nachash brought clever cheshbonos, from Adam HaRishon through Esav to the egel. The kapara is doing a mitzvah only because Hashem commanded it, and looking at the snake on the pole while looking past it to Hashem.

Key points

• Rashi brings from Rav Moshe HaDarshan that the parah adumah is a kapara for the cheit ha'egel.
• The nachash was arum, clever for aveira, the opposite of the yashar way Hashem made man.
• The Mishnah keeps a person in Shemoneh Esrei even with a snake wound around his heel.
• The cheit ha'egel was a cheshbon, wanting an intermediary in place of Moshe Rabbeinu.
• Looking at the snake on the pole while ignoring it, looking up to Hashem, is the kapara.

In this shiur

1. 0:00Choosing a topic in Chukas
2. 2:14Man created yashar, the nachash's cheshbonos
3. 5:29Yaakov Avinu as an ish tam
4. 6:42Esav as the nachash again
5. 11:19Tefillah with a snake at the heel
6. 12:51Cheit HaEgel and zos chukas haTorah
7. 16:02Edom refuses passage
8. 17:48The snakes and the snake on the pole

Topics

• Parshas Chukas
• Cheit HaEgel
• Nachash