for Parshat Chukat
i
God tells Moses:
Take a pure, red cow
that has never borne a yoke.
Slaughter it,
burn it to ash,
set the ash in water.
When a man touches a corpse
or a grave,
the priest should sprinkle the man with the ash-water,
making him pure again.
ii
This ceremony is unlike sacrifices,
Which are pleasing aromas to God,
smoke rising upward.
Here is a ceremony of ash,
char on the earth.
*
And what of the color red?
The color of blood,
that is the soul—
life coursing in the body;
the color of the hair
of Esau the hunter,
the man of strength.
*
Cattle are creatures of strength,
meant to bear the yoke.
A cow yet to bear the yoke
is strength- in- waiting.
Cows,
mothers of cattle,
are strength-in-waiting.
*
So this is a ceremony of the strength of life.
That is the ceremony we bring to death.
iii
A man who encounters death
could become consumed by it.
We touch him with this ash-water,
we tell him: come back to this world,
to the strength of the living earth,
to the strength of this red cow.
____
Shabbat shalom,
Abe
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