In the second season of Netflix’s Russian Doll, Nadia, the red headed protagonist whose grandmother is a Hungarian Jew, says the following about her family of origin: “In our house, a Coney Island is the thing that would’ve made everything better, if only it had happened, or didn’t happen. My father couldn’t work. He got sick with polio and wound up in an iron lung. Now, if only he hadn’t gone to Coney Island that summer, he wouldn’t have gotten the airborne polio. But he did. It’s a fantasy. It’s an ‘if only.’”
For our ancestors, the Red Heifer described at the beginning of this week’s Torah portion is a form of “A Coney Island.” This rare and beautiful animal is the only way for a High Priest to be purified. For thousands of years, Jews have been pining for a cow of this color to appear in the Holy Land, to no avail. If only, we say to one another. If only we had the means to purify a High Priest. If only the ancient Temple rituals could be restored. If only the Messiah would finally come. Then everything would be well. War and bloodshed would be abolished from the world. We could finally be happy.
But, just as in Russian Doll, this notion is a fantasy that distracts from what we really need to do in this world. We cannot afford to pine after things we have no control over. Instead of hoping we will one day discover a Red Heifer in Israel, or go back in time to “Coney Island,” we must be content with what we have right now, treasuring the good, and warding off the bad. In this way we will bring a little piece of the Messianic world into our own, finding hope and happiness in what we already have.
This Saturday Night as we celebrate our 10th Anniversary as a community, let us feel a fullness of joy in what we have been able to build together.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex