Anyone who has ever cooked, knows the experience of realizing they do not have one of the key ingredients in a recipe they have already started to make. In such a situation, one can either give up, run to the store, or find a substitute. But, what if the ingredient is impossible to find, because it is simply unavailable?
That is the question we face at the outset of this week’s double Torah portion – Chukat/Balak. In one of the most important sacrificial rituals in the ancient world, the animal needed for the sacrifice no longer around. The famous Red Heffner – an untainted cow of the ginger variety – no longer exists on Israel’s side of the Mediterranean. And, while, we liberal Jews might see this as an insignificant fact, for some modern priests, AKA Cohanim and Levites, it means there is no possible means to purify themselves. For two thousand years, we have simply had to make do without it.
During the pandemic, all of us had to confront similar concerns in a variety of ways, ranging from actual cooking ingredients to harder absences like visits to family and friends. This is especially hard on a holiday weekend like this one. My family and I were originally scheduled to be at Chautauqua Institute to lead services with Jewish community there, something that has obviously gone by the
wayside. While fireworks are possible, large gatherings are still not and may not be for some time.
In times like these, perhaps we should take our cue from our ancestors who never seemed to get frustrated when such disruptions occurred, they simply found new methods to achieve the same ends – sacrifices were transformed into prayers, priests into rabbis. For better than a flawlessly executed meal, is an imperfect meal that needed ingenuity to make it to the table at all. It is meals like the latter variety, that we savor long after and share in stories that we pass on to our children. May this July 4th be such a remembrance to you and yours.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex
Last Updated on 07/26/2020 by Marc Slonim