Efrat, Israel - One of the profoundest mysteries of the Torah is the law of the red heifer, in which an individual who has become ritually defiled by contact with a corpse is purified by a Kohen-priest, who sprinkles him with a mixture of burnt ashes of a red heifer with water, into which must be thrust a piece of cedar wood, branches of hyssop and a scarlet thread of wool (Numbers 19:1-6).

The strangest aspect of this ritual is the fact that while the impure person upon whom the mixture is sprinkled emerges purified, the Kohen-priests involved in the purification all become defiled. How can the very same heifer simultaneously be a purifying agent and a defiling instrument? It is no wonder that our Talmudic Sages applied the words of King Solomon, wisest of all mortals, to the mystery of the red heifer. “I attempted to be wise, but it only moved further away from my understanding” (Kohelet 7:23).

 Further, why does the Torah record this particular ritual here, at the conclusion of the desert sojourn of the Israelites? Rav Abraham Ibn Ezra explains that these laws were also given at Sinai, but were included in this context because the ritual must be prepared and performed by the Kohen-priests. But the rules of the Kohen-priests belong much more to the books of Exodus and Leviticus than the book of Numbers. Why is the ritual of the red heifer sandwiched between the sins of the scouts and of Korah in the two previous portions and the transgression of Moses striking the rock in the segment immediately following?

Rav Joseph B. Soloveitchik suggested that the ritual of the red heifer may be compared to a hapless individual who is drowning in thick mud. Certainly, he must be rescued, but the rescuer who lifts the victim from the quagmire, will be soiled in the process. Likewise, those who prepare the mixture of purification are themselves defiled by it!
My revered teacher went one step further. "Is it fair," he asked, "that those who attempt to purify, themselves become impure in this fashion?" He explained that if we understand that it is the religious leadership who are responsible for purifying society, then had the priest-kohanim uplifted humanity to higher spiritual and ethical attainments, people would not have become contaminated by impurity in the first place. Therefore, it is only right that this same religious leadership take the risk of becoming defiled; when the nation as a whole is alienated from Torah and sanctity. The leaders must leave the ivory tower of the Bet-Midrash (Study Hall) and reach out to the masses of Jews wherever and in whatever state they may be. As G-d tells Moses, spiritually ensconced in the ethereal realms of the heavens receiving the Oral Law, “Go down, descend from your supernal heights, because your nation is acting perversely with the golden calf; if your nation is sinning, what do I need you for?!” (B.T. Berakhot 32a).
Religious leadership must assume responsibility for the defection of the masses of Jews. The heifer or cow, usually a symbol of maternal concern, commitment and nourishment, is changed from the purity of white to the sinfulness of blood red in the detail of this ritual. Death in the pristine and primordial period of the Garden of Eden, is the result of transgression, a punishment for straying beyond the proper boundaries of conduct set by G-d. The materialistic and hedonistic worship of the golden calf, the lazy and apathetic sin of the scouts in the desert, are all acts of impurity which lead - at the very least - to spiritual death. And this is the destiny of the desert generation.
Why did these freed and empowered slaves who refused to conquer the Promised Land, opt to remain in the desert? First and foremost, because they did not wish to assume responsibility. Their lives in the desert were virtually free of responsibility; food in the form of manna descended from heaven, divine rays of splendor provided them with shelter, and a “cloud by day, pillar of fire by night’ told them when to journey and where to settle. They lived free of worries and obligations.
Conquering Israel meant growing up, taking risks and assuming responsibility for our national destiny and mission to the world. Some thought they were on too high a spiritual level to get their feet dirty in the trenches (symbolized by the tall cedar tree); others thought they were incapable of acting with such courage and strength in the face of the unknown (symbolized by the lowly hyssop). Both groups are guilty of sin symbolized by the scarlet wool. Moses who had courageously struck a threatening Egyptian task-master at the beginning of his career is now reduced to striking an inanimate rock in displaced anger against his complaining and rebelling nation. The timeless message of the red-heifer to every Jewish leader in every generation is that you must learn to assume the risks of responsibility!
The Luubaviche Rebbe took responsibility for Jews all over the world He inspired hundreds, if not thousands of his disciples to become his emissaries in communities throughout the world, each one assuming a small share of the enormously heavy burden carried with such grace and faith by their revered Rebbe.
The Rebbe provided a magnificent addendum to Rav Soloveitchik's interpretation of the ritual of the Red Heifer. Yes, those who prepare the mixture of purification become defiled in purifying those who are impure. However, the one who actually sprinkles the mixture upon the defiled individual and thereby effectuates the actual purification, himself remains pure. Hence the Rebbe made a promise to each of his shlichim (emissaries) all over the world - to those individuals who did the actual purifying themselves, the junior partners of the Rebbe who took responsibility to perform G-d’s work of purification that they and their families were guaranteed to remain pure, no matter how isolated they may be. It is through these emissaries that the Rebbe’s legacy lives on.