Timeless Torah

Moses is having a lousy week. (1) His sister Miriam dies. (2) ‘Someone’ upstairs shuts off the well. (3) The people complain bitterly about Moses’ leadership abilities. So, in his anger, Moses strikes the rock. (4) He is censured by G-d for distorting His command. (5) He forfeits his entrance pass into the Holy land. (6) The Edomites refuse the Jews passage thru their territory and threaten war. (7) Moses is forced to lead the Israelites on a more circuitous route. (8) His older brother Aaron dies. (9) The Clouds of Glory depart. (10) The Jews are attacked by Amalek. (11) The people continue to whine, “Why did you bring us to die in this wilderness...our souls are disgusted with the light fare of manna!” (12) Heaven responds with venomous snakes. (13) Sichon and his Emorite army give battle. (14) The fearsome giant Og gets into the ring for a one-on-one, no-holds-barred, last-man-standing wrestling match with, none other than, Moses!
Many leaders would have thrown in the towel. Not Moses! Despite the many trials, he still finds the strength, courage, and most importantly, the love for Hashem’s Chosen to lead, plead, and physically fight for their cause.

Four questions:
1. Obviously, all of the above-mentioned tragedies did not historically occur in just one week: So why do they all appear stuffed together?
2. Why do we skip forty years in one week’s reading?
3. Why were these laws dealing with impurity placed in Bamidbar and not in VaYikra?
4. Different events in one Torah reading are all inter-connected thematically. Traditionally, the theme is expressed by the Torah portion’s title (Chukas-The Statute of the parah adumah). What do all of the tragedies and wars have in common with a law which is the symbol an eternal enigma?

K'li Yakar (1550- 1619): Produce can become tum'ah only after having coming in contact with water (or certain other liquids. Why? Water is a source of purity!
Principle: all matter lies in a dormant state until it is ‘awakened’ by an opposing force. (A frozen object is rendered molecularly active by heat. A motionless object is jostled into movement by something moving.) In order for tum'ah to ‘awaken’ an object and render it impure, the object must first been in a state of purity. The Parah Adumah mixture possesses two opposites: Water (the source of all taharah) and ashes (representing death and impurity).
If the mixture touches one who has been defiled, the water is awakened and counteracts the tum'ah with its taharah. If, on the other hand, the mixture contacts someone tahor, the ashes are awakened, rendering one impure.
So what's the mystery?

Rebbe: The mystery is death. Biologically, death makes perfect sense, but a soul that is a “Spark of the Divine” must share the eternity and indestructibility of its Source.

Explanation: The Original Odd Couple: Body and Soul
The life of the body is like the weight of an object. Weight is an alien property imposed externally. Since the body’s life is borrowed, the body eventually dies. Indeed, when the soul is freed from the limits of the physical, its eternity is expressed.
Talmud: "Sleep is one sixtieth of death." If sleep is a form of death, then death is a form of sleep. Sleep is not a termination of life - it is a time when body and soul recoup their energies. Death serves the same purpose. Death is a night that lies between two days.

Can’t the body live forever?
Both Adam and Israel at Sinai enjoyed “freedom from the Angel of Death.” After the ‘Resurrection’ we will live forever. Why not now?
The calf of gold re-introduced death. This Midrash explains: A maid's child once dirtied the royal palace. Said the king, “Let his mother come and clean up her child's filth.”
That a person should die was not in the original plan. Hence it is not part of the natural/rational universe. The antidote is an unnatural/irrational command; Parah Adumah.