This week’s Parasha “Chukas” talks about the Parah Aduma (the Red Heifer), a supranational commandment in which a completely red cow that has no blemish and not has any burden on it is taken by El’lazar the priest to slaughter it, sprinkle its blood seven times and burn it to ashes. These ashes would purify a person that had become spiritually impure through contact with a dead person.
Sforno notes the paradox involved in the process of this purification because the person who purified someone who was impure would himself become impure. This whole section of the Parasha deals with the concept of taking the opposite extreme in order to correct a fault.
Normally the proper way to behave is the middle path in all traits, the Torah teaches that it is considered a fault if someone is too extreme in any area.
Rabbi Simcha Zissel of Kelm noticed that one of his daughters had a big predisposition to money, so he bought her a tzedakah box and every day he would give her money to put inside. In this way he taught her to be generous with money and not money hungry.
Some excerpts taken from “Growth Through Torah” by Rabbi Zelig Pliskin
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