The section of Torah dealing with the ritual of the red heffer, from the portion of Hukat, opens with the words zot hukat hatorah aser-tzivah Hashem… which means “this is a hok of the Torah which the Lord commands.” The word hok is often translated as a statute but, just as English contains several words close in meaning: statute, ordinance, regulation, so too, Hebrew contains many such words with subtle shades of difference: hok, mishpat, din. What precisely is a hok & what does it mean in our modern times?
The word hukat appears 21 times throughout the Bible, 20 times in Torah alone. These are the same hukim we mention every Friday night when we chant, “torah umitzvot, hukim umishpatim” &, with few exceptions, each instance of a hok involves the assignment of a ritual law, not the sort of ethical stuff that is so easy to embrace like loving one’s neighbor or not stealing. These hukim seem to be the regulations governing the holy days such as Pesach or Yom Kippur or cultic matters such as sacrifices & dietary laws. The use of the term “hukat,” in reference to the red heffer, is a tip off that the motivations & principles of what is to follow may not be entirely transparent. Thus, the ritual of the parah adumah, the red heifer, is described best as a hok.
Rashi, the 12th century French commentator, observes that it is important, in this case, to specify that the ritual of the red heifer is a hok of the Torah, the revealed word of God, as the other nations of the world might taunt Israel & say, “What is this law; what is the reason for it?” Sadly, in our own time, we hear congregants & fellow Jews ask the same sort of questions. By connecting this commandment to revelation, Rashi asserts that Israel need not supply any rationale or logic to the ritual. Rashi maintains that, like other hukim, the only motivation for performing the ritual of the red heifer is that God requested that it be done. With regard to a hok, it is ludicrous to rationalize or seek a meaning; the ritual is performed simply to please God. Thus, Rashi cautions, one should not seek the motivations for a hok.
This sort of logic is difficult for many of our generation to grasp. Our culture teaches us to question & to reason. Customs or ideas which lack a firm rationale are often discarded as outmoded or useless. We do not retain that which, as a rule, does not serve our immediate needs &, those things that do are sacred. For example, a sporting event is viewed as a contest which must produce a win or a loss. Most American sports accommodate this mania for conclusion by providing some sort of tie-breaker. Though a draw is possible in most sports, the lack of resolution is unsettling even when such an occurrence is readily explained by the equality of the two sides. Since the logic of accepting a stalemate is unacceptable, a tie is discarded & the game continues.
While some of the hukei hatorah, notably the ritual of the red heifer, are not observed today, many of them are the cardinal points which separate the various streams of Judaism. The best example, perhaps, is kashrut. While Reform Judaism preaches individual freedom in deciding ritual, hence kashrut, Orthodoxy is just as dogmatic in its adherence to ritual but only when interpreted their way. Reform Jews are willing to dispense with hukei hatorah while the Orthodox elevate all customs & rituals to the status of an unquestioned hok. These, of course, are the extremes: always question & never question.
Our ancient rabbis of blessed memory, though, preached a middle ground. Quoting a verse (19:18) from Exodus: “And Mount Sinai was altogether in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire,” our sages teach that the Torah is fire, was given in the midst of fire, & is compared to fire. And fire is such that when one is too close, one is burned. Yet when one withdraws from it too far, one is chilled. The only thing to do, council the sages, is to walk at a respectable distance & warm one’s self in the light.
Such is the lesson of the unfathomable ritual of the red heifer. Just as a parent will demand that a child should do a chore in a particular way for what appears to the child as no apparent reason, so too God imposes obligations on the people of Israel, some of which are hukim, & appear to have no obvious reasons or justifications. Just as the child often performs the chore in the prescribed manner because he or she loves the parent, so too Jews ought to consider observing the rites & rituals of Judaism, even those with illusive justifications or no justification at all.
Ultimately, then, it is ludicrous to ask why we wear tefillin when we pray, why we buy kosher meat, why we circumcise our children, why we refrain from eating humetz on Passover, & why we pray the way we do. Rashi would have us believe, as would I, that you either love to please God or not. And, in regard to keeping God’s commandments, Alan Lerner & Frederic Lowe summed it up best in their song lyric: “Sing me no song, read me no rhyme, don’t waste my time, show me!”
Shalom uverakha (peace and blessing),
Rabbi Ronald B. Kopelman