As Heard from Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT”L

“This is the statute of the Torah.” (19:2)

The subject of Parah Adumah (the red heifer) is based on the fact of the Tum’ah of a dead body. This is the most severe form of uncleanliness and is called “the father of the fathers of Tum’ah.” One explanation for this severity of the uncleanliness of the dead is as follows: The Chovot Halevavot (Yichud Hamaaseh 5) declares that the first and most prevalent doubt concerning the principles of Torah is the doubt in the truth of Life after death (Olam Haba).

We can readily perceive the reason for the persistence of such a doubt, in the fact of death itself. When confronted by such catastrophic phenomenon as death actually is, it requires strength of character and of intelligence to overcome the powerful impression caused by the death of a person. In order to reinforce the confidence in the Existence after death, it is imperative that we have as little contact with the dead as possible, and also that the dead be buried immediately. To encourage these principles, the extreme restrictions of Tum’ah of the dead are especially effective.

Death is the greatest falsehood in the Universe, for the fact of death causes men to weaken in their belief of the most important truth of the universe (after the belief in Hashem) which is the belief of Life after death.

“This world is but a vestibule before the World to come. Prepare yourself in the vestibule in order to enter the banquet hall” (Abot 4:16). Because of this effect of Death upon the minds of men, it is the worst form of Tum’ah.

“When a man dies.” (19:4) Death is the greatest falsehood. When Hitler murdered six million innocents, and then he saw that he was losing the war and would face retribution, he thereupon swallowed a perfumed poison and thus painlessly left the world thinking he escaped the great punishment that awaited him. Thus the phenomenon of death is an enormous deception which conceals the True fate of the evil man in the Afterlife from men’s eyes. Such enormous deception requires a very great label to identify it.

The phenomenon of death can contaminate the mind with the materialistic attitude that death is the end. If life ends so completely, it loses its value. For why strive for excellence and virtue if it all ends in the grave? And therefore Hashem declares here that no Tum’ah is as severe as the uncleanliness of death.

Quoted from “Journey Into Greatness” by Rabbi Avigdor Miller ZT”L

Shabbat Shalom

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