Parshas Matos: Rejuvenation

“Elazar the Kohen said to the men of the army who came to battle, “This is the decree of the Torah, which H-shem commanded Moses: Only the gold and the silver, the copper, the iron, the tin, and the lead – everything that comes into fire – you shall pass through fire and it will be purified; but it must be purified with the waters of sprinkling; and everything that does not come into fire, you shall pass through waters.” –Numbers 21:21-23

ONLY THE GOLD ETC: is stated to say that one must remove a vessel’s rust before purging it. That is implied by the term “only” to exclude the rust, and to mandate that the metal should be in its pure state. –Rashi ibid

The Torah outlines the obligation to purge utensils of their non-kosher defilement. How is this accomplished? First, one must remove any grime that has gathered on the utensil. Once the utensil is completely clean, an assessment of the utensils defilement must be taken. If the non-kosher food made its way into the utensils walls via a hot water medium , then that same medium of scalding hot water must be used to purge the utensil. However if the utensil became non-kosher through the medium of direct fire, then fire is needed to purge the utensil.

On a base level, we all understand the notion of reciprocation. Purely based on the technical rules of chemistry, this is the manner needed to completely purge an item of its non-kosher elements. On a deeper level, this contains a very important message for all of us:

This week ushers in the beginning of a cycle of twelve haftorah’s that are determined entirely by the time of year and the corresponding historical events, as opposed to the weekly parsha. The first three haftorahs talk about the need for the Jewish People to repent and the repercussions that result if repentance is not carried out. The next seven console the Jewish People, and the final two stress the need for our repentance. These twelve haftorah’s take us through the end of the year. We have officially begun the process leading up to Yom Kippur. The High Holidays are around the corner. The time for repentance is now. As the old line goes, beat the High Holidays rush and repent now!

The Chafetz Chaim explains that we have much to learn about repentance from the process of making our utensils kosher. Our soul is our utensil. The first process of removing the negative energy that has crusted upon our souls is to scrub it away through the medium of teshuva/repentance. That includes regretting the past, enumerating the sins, (similar to Alchoholics Anonymous step five) and committing to a positive course of action for the future. Once we have reached that level we must ensure that no remnant remains in our soul. The purging process must be directly correlated to the manner in which the sin was committed. A sin that was perpetrated with great fanfare will necessitate a purging through performance of a mitzvah with the same fervor and intensity. The Chafetz Chaim points out that the main cleansing possible for misdeeds is the study of Torah. That is the purifier for gossip and for much else. Even though teshuva was undertaken, a complete purging is still required. That must be accomplished through the study of Torah.

May we all merit to prepare for Yom Kippur through the process of cleaning our soul via Torah study!