Hukkat

Mida k’neged mida.  It is an old Hebrew expression, which might have been borrowed by William Shakespeare, as it means “measure for measure.”  

In this week’s Sidra, Hukkat, we learn about a red cow that was offered up as a sacrifice to purify those who were tainted by impurity.  

Impurity is a word we are unaccustomed to using but when we relate it to feeling bad when we have not lived up to our expectations, that is a kind of impurity.  We have let ourselves down.  In biblical times, in some sense, it was no different.  After all, times changes but human nature remains the same.

In an unforgettable earlier episode the newly freed slaves crafted a golden calf, which they worshipped as an emblem of the god that redeemed them from Egypt.  It was wrong.  They knew it was a bad idea.  When Moses returned and found what the people had done there needed to be some recompense for the wrongdoing, or impurity, for the people.  Hence we have the mitzvah of the red cow that would remind the people of their ill-thought action and act as atonement.

Idea: When we do wrong we need to rid ourselves of the taint of that wrongdoing.  Mida k’neged mida.  When we make up for the sin we have committed we purify our conscience, our inner core and become whole again.  

We never forget the bad things we have done but we can always do our best to make up for it.