Say what you will about Torah (and while I hope it's not negative), a thought came to me while reading the first aliyah of Parasha Chukat, in which the so-called mysterious concept of the para adumah - red heifer - is introduced.
I get so frustrated when I hear rabbis immediately try and break down the mitzvot into categories - ah yes, these ones make sense naturally, these ones make sense because they are connected to a time, and these, these chukat, well they're totally incomprehensible and even Shlomo HaMelech couldn't figure it out. And I am nearly positive that I even heard once said that the chukat - "it's not like they have an objective impact on reality," or something like that.
First of all, yes, I'm aware that when referring to the mitzvot, the Torah does often use three words consecutively, mishpatim, eidot, and chukim (judgments, testimonies, and decrees) - i.e., based upon the classical division, ones that make sense, ones that could make sense, ones that have no logical basis. I just have a hard time diving up Holy Torah based upon such a basic understanding.
More importantly, to just sort of say that we can't understand any part of Torah, and to just accept it - perhaps to accept it as a sign of obedience - perhaps once sat with me well but no longer does.
It's funny, because the rabbi who, I thought, said that the red heifer does not have any basis in objective reality also brought down the most beautiful teaching about it, which is that this young, unblemished, never-worked, pure red cow does teshuvah for the chet ha'egel ha'zahav - the golden calf. As always, the return must be the same as the wrongdoing, or the lack of wisdom. And so this most holy of purifications is connected to the worst of choices.
This led me to an even deeper, but at the same time so very basic, understanding of Torah which is that if you read it, and decide to accept it, and place faith and trust in it, and follow it - nothing is hidden. The exact remedies are presented for the exact choices - or, perhaps, the exact consequences as well. And I'm still shocked at how clearly, concisely, and so easy to understand - even, mostly, in Hebrew, it is. There really is very little gray area, especially once the Levites come to clear that gray up for us.
A final thought which is that, unlike Torah, life is very gray. No one seems to want to make sense of it, but I think part of the goal is to take that gray and make objective (i.e., Torah- and G-d-based - the only objective measures there are) determinations out of it. Not to just say - this is gray, what can we do, it's too complicated, but to say, this is gray, let's analyze under these lenses, and let's come out with a firm determination, popular or unpopular as it might be, and speak our truth.
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