Parsha Perspectives - Chukas

What’s said in this shiur

The opening of this shiur, in Rabbi Efrem Goldberg’s own words — taken from the captions, so names and Hebrew terms may be approximate.

our precious and holy soldiers, in the merit of the return of our hostages, and gratitude to Hashem for our victory over Iran, and the heartfelt feeler for a victory over all of our enemies. We are in Parshas Chukas, page 838 in the Artscroll Stone Chumash. Vayedaber Hashem el Moshe ve'el Aharon lemor, "Hashem speaks to Moshe and Aharon and he tells them, "Zos chukas haTorah asher tziva Hashem lemor daber el benei Yisrael veyikchu eilecha parah adumah temimah asher ein bah mum asher lo alah alah alah alah ohl." This is the chuk chok. Zos chukas haTorah. This is the chuk of the whole Torah. As God commanded when he spoke and he said, "Take a pure unblemished red heifer that is not had a yoke upon it, that hasn't worked." It's unusual. They are even parah adumahs today, believe it or not. People trying to grow them and identify them and have them ready to go when, please God, we will need them. But, our parashah begins with this very enigmatic, very mysterious law. A law, in fact, that's couched as being a chuk. A chuk is the Torah's use the Torah's word for a mitzvah that doesn't have a reason. We have mitzvahs that we comprehend, mitzvahs that are rational, mitzvahs that we understand. And then there are mitzvahs that defy comprehension. They make no sense. They make no sense. So, that's why, and we've said this in the past, this is introduced as zos chukas haTorah. Even though it's only one mitzvah out of 613, it's called the chuk of the whole Torah. Why? Because the attitude that we have and that we bring to this one mitzvah reflects our attitude that we bring to the totality

Jump to a moment

1. 0:31our precious and holy soldiers, in the merit of the return of our hostages, and gratitude…
2. 6:07I know you don't understand. I know it doesn't make sense. I know it's not the…
3. 11:43inspired by Torah, then you must embrace the Zos Chukas Satorah. To be to live a…
4. 17:17Mashe'in kein l'havdil b'limud haTorah derech yechidus The only way to acquire Torah, the only way…
5. 23:00kiyemes ba'ol, ein diber Torah mekuyamim ela mishum maymes The language is Torah's only acquired by…
6. 29:12that she covers sham she's buried there. And what happens immediately afterwards? What's the next possible?…
7. 34:47can be less expected and more profoundly disorienting than even the loss of a parent. And…
8. 40:20trying to solve but they can't necessarily put in words. So, instead it's coming out as…
9. 45:53Every ampule of anti-D ever made in Australia has a piece of James Harrison's blood in…
10. 51:30we spent money on the wrong thing, we're accountable for the mistake for what we did…

Every second of this shiur plays inside Lehallel — a filtered YouTube library of Torah, music and shiurim. No ads, no comments, no autoplay.